While Cowes Week boss Laurence Mead announced his departure as the prestigious sailing regatta's director, Cowes Week 2023 finished on a welcome day of racing, after a week punctuated by high winds and weather warnings.
Friday brought plenty of inter-class rivalry, with results going down to the wire, and the Black and White Groups, and the overall Cowes Week winner to be decided.
As a final showdown, all classes, except for the XODs, were set a Royal Yacht Squadron-line finish.
Friday's racing followed action on Thursday, which itself came as a relief after two days of racing were lost due to high winds.
The week's conditions had forced competitors to count all races sailed, rather than discarding their worst score so, on the penultimate day, just a couple of points separated positions.
The Royal Yacht Squadron outer start line hosted three of the biggest classes, among them, in IRC 0 Ian Atkins' GP42 Dark n Stormy with a four-point advantage over Tony Langley's TP52 Gladiator.
In the end, while Thursday was Gladiator's day, leaving Dark n Stormy fifth and putting them on equal points going into Friday's racing, the final day saw Isle of Wight-based Dark N Stormy come out on top.
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Also on the final day, Mark Downer and family sailing the Redwing Enigma won White Group and were also deemed overall winners of Cowes Week 2023.
Mark has been racing at Cowes Week for 24 years.
He said: "We have never even won our class.
"It feels as though we have been the bridesmaid for so long and now, we finally get to wear white! It feels absolutely amazing."
In Black Group, Jo Richards and his seasoned team, including David Rickard, Duncan De Boltz and Sophie Warren, took the top spot on Woof - a 1972-built modified H-Boat - deemed the overall winners by a narrow margin from Per Roman's JPK 1180 - Garm.
Jo said: "We are absolutely delighted to win Black Group again. It was, however, a tough week and exceptionally tiring with the big winds throughout.
"We were actually rather grateful for the odd day off this week."
Other winners included Island sailing stars, triplets Charlie, Thomas and Harry White who, sailing their Squib Kestrel, won the Montgomery Estate Planning Under 25 Trophy for the second year running.
Kai Hockley won the Musto Young Skipper's Trophy for his performance helming Palava an Etchells.
The best female helm award for the Ariel Trophy went to Grace Cecil-Wright.
- Read more: Isle of Wight Cowes Week 2023 LIVE BLOG
Cowes Week Director, Laurence Mead summed up the week: "Although it is my last day as regatta director, I'm happy that we made the most of the week and I hope the competitors enjoyed it.
"There's nothing you can do in my position when it's 35 gusting 40kts, but we got people out racing even in some pretty heavy air conditions at the start of the week and made the most of Thursday and Friday in unstable north-westerly winds.
"I think everybody had a classic week of Cowes Week regatta racing.
"It is not a world championship, it is nearly 500 boats enjoying a great week of competitive boat racing on the Solent, racing against respected competitors in a ferocious, but friendly way!
"I will miss being part of the regatta team. My huge thanks to everybody who is part of that team. It couldn't happen without a mass of volunteers and lots of knowledgeable, passionate supporters."
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