West Highland Yachting Week

30th July to 6th August 2010

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How Did We Get Here?

West Highland Yachting Week’s history reaches as far back as 1882 when the newly formed Royal Highland Yacht Club held its first regatta in Oban. Picture the difference then with only two classes – one for yachts under forty tons and the other for those over forty tons!

Joint Regatta Committee
In 1947 Royal Highland Yacht Club joined forces with the area’s other local clubs, Oban Sailing Club and Western Isles Yacht Club, to bring their separate regattas together and hold one major event. Each club contributed two days of organisation to provide a six day regatta. In due course it was agreed to hand over the management of the event to a Joint Regatta Committee (JRC) comprising five representatives from each club with additional co-opted expertise, and this is how it is run today.

Partnership
In 1980 West Highland Yachting Week entered into one of the longest-running sporting partnerships with Tennent Caledonian Breweries. For 30 years the committee worked alongside Tennents striving to achieve an attractive combination of round the buoys and passage racing supported by an excellent social programme. Sadly their support came to an end in 2009, but that partnership had enabled the event to blossom into the leading international yachting event we know today. Now we have entered a new era and welcome several fresh sponsors coming together to help grow the event.

Tradition
This popular mix of the serious and the not so serious continues the tradition begun at the very first Regatta in 1882 when, in addition to yacht racing, the event included rowing races and ended with a ‘Duck Hunt’ - which seems to have been some sort of pursuit race!

In the evening yacht owners and their guests attended a huge Highland Ball that mirrors our own final prize giving dance. This is perhaps not quite the dazzling event of those early years, with the guests in their full finery, but it is not so easy to carry full Highland Dress aboard today's somewhat smaller yachts.

Of course, in those days it would only have been the owners attending the ball - the crews (paid, naturally!) would have been expected to entertain themselves at the local public house! The pub tradition still continues - now for owners and crew alike - with the added entertainment of a wide ranging social programme to accompany the ‘craic’ and camaraderie that is so much part of West Highland Week.

Memorable
The Regatta has celebrated a Golden and Diamond Jubilee with over 200 yachts competing in these memorable events – many would say every West Highland Week is memorable. 2009 concluded 30 years of partnership with Tennents - a success story that will be remembered by several generations – a fitting tribute to an event adding year on year to its auspicious history.