The Flying Fifteen class is one of the fastest small keelboats racing at Cowes Week, where competitors were honing their skills ahead of the European Championship, with 65 entries, that will be hosted by Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club later this month.

The Solent delivered a week of action-packed racing in a range of challenging winds, warm sunshine, all accompanied by the infamous Solent tides.

On the second day of competition, the warm weather, combined with winds gusting above 25 knots, provided lashings of excitement, thrills, spills and adrenaline for competitors. Long downwind legs ensured competitors came ashore with big grins.

"It was an exhilarating day," says Rupert Mander of Men Behaving Badly, "especially our first reach, which was a super-quick blast.

The last day of Cowes Week featured short, action-packed races in a solid north-westerly gradient wind, culminating in a spectacularly busy finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron.

A risk of the wind dying in advance of an afternoon sea breeze prompted a change to the race schedule, with three committee boats used, in addition to the Royal Yacht Squadron line, to compress the start sequence for all 32 classes to just 40 minutes.

Rupert Mander's Flying 15 ‘Men Behaving Badly’ won his race by almost two and a half minutes and in doing so achieved the distinction of becoming the sole boat at the Regatta to post an unbroken run of race wins. In addition to his class win, he was also crowned overall winner of the White Group dayboat classes.

"I don't think I've ever achieved seven first places in a row, and it was great to have seven days of racing with good winds and sun," says Mander, who was racing with old crew mate Gareth Edwards from almost three decades ago.

Photo © Paul Wyeth / CWL

Rupert Mander and Gareth Edwards' Men Behaving Badly won White Group overall - Cowes Week 2022