For two weeks in mid-June it looked as if those evocative black and white photographs taken by Beken of Cowes had come alive and the past was racing again. But this time the scene was in glorious colour, as the Richard Mille Cup brought a magnificent collection of classic yachts to the English south coast.
It was just like the days when King George V sailed his beloved Britannia: young, 20-strong crews hauling ropes on swept teak decks; towering spreads of washed-out buff sails; varnished spars glinting in the sun; and polished brass binnacles and ship’s bells.
Some things on these classic leviathans simply haven’t changed: the bronze oxidising to a deep venerable brown green, the teak weathering to a pleasant pale grey. The hulls often painted a broken white, with a cove line
