Friday the 13th might be serving nightmare on high street weather but as the low becomes a trough to sling robust conditions across Channel waters many Skandia Cowes Week competitors will be rubbing their salt-caked hands.

The low that has held the focus of all of those interested in British Isles weather this week has further filled to 1003mb and is currently centred over Ireland. But just to show a spirit of European unity it has twinned with systems of similar pressure to the east to form a trough and that in turn will move away slowly to the east.

The result? A moderate to strong predominantly westerly wind can be expected for today’s racing. There’s been a good 20 knots or so of wind in the earlier part of last night and although Bramble Bank is currently (0700) showing 9-10 knots out of the west there could be as much as 25 knots towards lunchtime or early afternoon. Some heavy or even thundery showers are not out of the question.

Satellite imagery shows there’s still plenty of cloud about although forecasters are predicting a reasonable sky for the fireworks tonight.

So what about tomorrow? It’s hard to call at present. If you take the current 24h synoptic too literally it looks like a light airs day but there might yet be a bit more wind than that, albeit certainly less than today.

One thing you can be sure of – like the rest of Skandia Cowes Week 2004 it will throw up the umpteenth set of challenges for those left racing on the last day.