LONDON — Crusing fanatics in Falmouth and Dartmouth, off England’s southwestern coast, may have had a visible — and nostalgic — deal with this week, within the type of a brand new basic yacht regatta that’s operating throughout the English Channel to France.

The inaugural Richard Mille Cup, which started Sunday and runs by way of June 25, options 11 yachts relationship from the late Nineteenth century to the late Thirties.

Impressed by crusing regattas that had been held earlier than World Warfare II, the race “is a human journey but additionally an aesthetic and emotional one,” Mr. Mille, the watch firm’s founder, stated at a information convention in Paris final month.

The race began within the port of Falmouth, England, and ends at Le Havre in France, with stops at 4 landmarks: the Royal Cornwall Yacht Membership, the Royal Dart Yacht Membership, the Royal Yacht Squadron and, lastly, on the Société des Régates du Havre.

The boats compete in two classes: schooner and cutter. To be eligible, the yachts will need to have been constructed earlier than 1939 or be devoted replicas.

The race combines offshore passage races and inshore day races. “We hope this makes it a various problem and appeals to extra boats,” the organizer of the Richard Mille Cup, William Collier, stated on the information convention.

Members within the invitation-only occasion will compete not for prize cash however for a meter-tall trophy created by the storied British jeweler Garrard, which made the primary America’s Cup crusing trophy within the mid-Nineteenth century in addition to the sapphire engagement ring as soon as worn by Diana, Princess of Wales and now worn by Catherine, Princess of Wales.

The selection of the English Channel, and its notably difficult atmosphere, was a deliberate alternative for the occasion’s location. The concept, Mr. Mille stated, was to maneuver away from the “glamorous cocktail evenings” which can be sometimes related to crusing regattas within the Mediterranean.

“We’re in search of tough circumstances, genuine circumstances,” he stated. “For us, it was essential to get again to the unique context of basic crusing.”

The Swiss watchmaker is a longtime accomplice of assorted basic automobile occasions, however this is without doubt one of the model’s first ventures into basic crusing. (Final yr, the corporate turned an official sponsor of the Monaco Yacht Present, and for greater than a decade it has hosted a contemporary crusing regatta in St. Barthélemy.)

The Richard Mille Cup received’t be totally caught prior to now, nevertheless.

The watchmaker has a presence within the race through Workforce Fife, which encompasses a fleet of three classic yachts together with Moonbeam IV, which is owned by Mr. Mille. Inbuilt 1914, the Moonbeam IV received the celebrated British King’s Cup in 1920 and 1923, and it’s now being skippered by a lady, Marianne Lebleu, with a primarily feminine crew.

In the meantime, a smaller Moonbeam vessel (not owned by Mr. Mille) encompasses a crew of sailors underneath 30.

“Often the skippers are fairly previous, however we determined we needed to vary that — and didn’t need to see grey hair throughout,” Benoit Couturier, Workforce Fife’s supervisor, advised reporters. “It adjustments the entire dynamic of the undertaking.”