Chris Tibbs, official weather forecaster for Skandia Cowes Week, can lay claim to being the man with the most grey hairs

By the time the competitors demand their daily forecasts Chris had already been up for several hours studying the computer generated weather models, firstly the whole of Europe and then refining down to the general wind pattern over the Solent and Isle of Wight.

However, despite looking at all the factors including humidity, how hot it’s going to get, the chance of sea breeze, Chris says “It’s still a bit like gambling, you look at everything and decide it’s probably a 70% chance of this or 80% chance of that and you go with the best odds”

Chris will spend the rest of his day on the Royal Yacht Squadron platform advising the race officers on course setting and impending weather changes.

He predicts the weather today as a developing south westerly 3-8 knots sea breeze by late morning increasing to 10-15 knots by mid afternoon and maintaining that breeze until early evening.