Toyota Dockside in Bermuda: The real weather gods of the America's Cup

Emirates Team New Zealand meteorologist Roger "Clouds" Badham. Photosport

This America's Cup has brought about a shift in the traditional role of the humble meteorologist.

The role of the weather guy in the past was pretty straight forward - they supplied the crew, and in particular the afterguard, the forecast focusing mainly on the wind direction and strength on an hourly basis. Based on that information, the crew would make their tactical decisions.

Now what we're seeing is the team meteorologists have become integral to the team's performance, because their forecasting heavily influences not only are those tactical decisions going to come into play, but also the equipment selection.

The configuration of the boat in terms of which daggerboards, rudders, elevators and wingsail teams select will hinge on the advice of guys like Team New Zealand's veteran weather man, Roger Badham - or "Clouds" as he is known as to the team.

It is high pressure stuff. The decision of how teams set their boat up could be the winning or losing of the race.

While that decision ultimately lies in the hands of the senior crew members and head of design, there is a heavy emphasis on what information they have been given by their weather team.

If the meteorologist gets the forecast even a little bit wrong it might mean the boat goes out on the course in the wrong configuration.

Because the boats are in some elements one-design, the pieces of equipment that aren't one-design, like the daggerboards and centerboards become even more important. They could be a winning combination or a losing combination on a given day.

It's a massive responsibility resting on the shoulders of the weather boffins, given how finely these boats are tuned. The crossovers for the different foil configurations are so narrow - possibly as slim as one or two knots - so accurate weather data is an absolute must.

Adding to that pressure, the teams have to make a call on their race configuration early on in the day. While racing begins at 2pm local time, the teams are required to submit their paperwork to the measurement committee by 9am, so they can be issued with a measurement certificate for that configuration.

Oracle Team USA have certainly been talking up their weather programme, and no doubt they have some clever people working behind the scenes in their organisation. But I think given the experience of Badham, Team NZ are also in a pretty good place with their weather modelling.

Some have suggested Team NZ's late arrival in Bermuda puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the venue, but so much of weather forecasting is based on models - you can get the same real time data coming off the water whether you are in Hamilton, Bermuda or Hamilton, New Zealand.

In the end it comes down to the ability of the weather team to assess that data and use their own experience and tools to make succinct assessments. The devil is in the detail.