Bringing cash to Cowes

It's late afternoon in the hospitality suite and Mike Slade is in jolly mood. His new boat, a 92ft beauty that took three years to design and build, is the star of Cowes Week. With Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie at the helm she has swept all before her and Slade reckons she's worth every penny of the £4 million she cost him. Outside a showery front has blown through and the Solent sparkles. There is a scent of sunblock, the tang of sea air and a powerful whiff of very serious money.

Mr Slade is one of the new breed of yacht owners to be found at Cowes. He is the chief executive and major shareholder of Helical Bar, a London-based property company valued at around £250 million. Cowes has always attracted rich men, but unlike the tycoons, ex-naval aristos and occasional royal seen here, Mr Slade runs his boat as a business.

She's called Skandia Leopard, in recognition of a promotional deal he's done with insurance and investment group Skandia Life, which sponsors Cowes Week. She's also for hire. This winter the boat and its permanent crew head for the Caribbean to provide a holiday home for anyone who can afford the £27,000-a-week charter fee.

Many of the big boats racing here are owned or backed by business concerns. Others have been chartered and an entire fleet of 40 holiday yachts has been hired by various companies. Cowes, the once-sleepy regatta that never really shook off its Victorian origins, has gone corporate.

"It's all about networking," said Mr Slade. "You can take people to Ascot, Wimbledon, a football match, but you can't really talk to them. On a boat you get to know someone. And people love it. My clients and my staff have a lot of fun. There's a terrific buzz, it's like nothing else you can do."

Evidence of the growing grip of business is everywhere. Names like Sea Spray and Waterwitch have given way to Innovex, Nicorette and Chernikeeff 2. Like many of the new names, Chernikeeff 2 comes from the computer business. The boat's owner, Peter Harrison, a vice president of Chelsea football club, built Chernikeeff into the largest privately-held networking and internet company in Britain, then sold it in two deals which brought him £300 million. He is putting together a British challenge for the Americas Cup, a project likely to swallow a large chunk of that fortune.

No one knows this better than Alan Bond, who is back in Cowes after a long absence. He became a figure of legend when his boat, Australia II, broke the US's 131-year hold on the cup in 1982. In those days Bondy, as he is still known here, was creating a £4 billion beer, minerals and property empire. A much-loved Cowes story tells how he asked a girl to dance at a regatta ball and on the way to the floor she remarked that she thought he was taller. "I am when I stand on my wallet," Bondy replied.

The wallet is a lot thinner these days. He was released from prison in Perth last year after serving three and a half years for fraud. The empire has gone, but the legend thrives, not least because his old boat Australia II is back on the water.

Australia II was brought to Cowes from dry berth at the Western Australian Museum and has been racing for the first time since the heady days of her Americas Cup victory. She is something of an ambassador for Australia and has attracted enormous attention. There is a poignancy about this. It seems Bondy is keeping a low profile at Cowes in case his recent history embarrasses his old boat and crew.

Corporate money has changed Cowes, but it's a change welcomed by locals. Sailing is currently worth £20 million a year to the Isle of Wight's economy, reviving a languishing property market and enabling much-needed redevelopment. And it seems to suit the amateur sailors: the regatta's raised profile has encouraged a record entry of 1,005 boats this year. This delights Bill West, marketing director of Skandia.