1,500 yachts - Round the island race 2026

Some mornings are worth the early alarm. On 11 July we made the long, bumpy trip across from Poole to the mouth of the Needles on the Isle of Wight, arriving around 9:30am to watch the start of what the organisers reckon is the largest yacht race in the world. Close to 1,500 yachts, all setting off to circumnavigate the Isle of Wight in the annual Round the Island Race. It's mad to think something on this scale happens right on our doorstep.

What a spectacle.

THE yacht CHASE

There's a moment, as the fleet shapes its way around the Needles and hardens up onto the wind, when 1,500 boats seem to move as one. Every crew working each gust, trimming, calling, reading the water, all of it in pursuit of the same stretch of sea ahead. You can feel the chase from the shore.

One boat in particular caught my eye. A friend's father was at the helm, his brother working the foredeck, and watching them go about their business was teamwork at its best. That's the part of sailing I love most, not the winning, but the way a good crew becomes a single moving thing.

OUT OF ACTION

I'll be honest, there was a pang watching it too. The yacht I crew on, Amethyst, has been out of action for weeks now, and much as I've wanted to be out there racing, I've had to settle for watching from the sidelines. Not cool.

But that's not really how I came away feeling. If anything, being in the thick of a race this size, even from the wrong side of the rail, was a good reminder of how much fun this all is, and why I keep coming back to it.

WHY IT MATTERS TO LOOP

There's a reason I make a point of keeping myself close to races like this. The water, the crews, the retired sails that eventually find their way to me, it's all the same world, and it's the world Loop lives in. Every recycled watch strap we make starts life as a sail on a boat not unlike the ones I watched round the Needles that morning. Staying in the thick of it isn't a distraction from the work, it is the work. It's where the inspiration comes from.

So I'll be back. Same headland, same early alarm, only 364 days to wait.