Sailing Weather Service

Sailing Weather Service has grown with a mission to provide customized weather solutions to some of the world’s leading competitive sailing teams and events. The unique skills and experience developed in this work has been recognized as highly valued to a number of clients outside tradition sailing activities as well. Chris Bedford’s weather forecasting and consulting experience is broad, diverse and successful.

 

• A veteran of 10 America's Cup cycles (1987 through 2021), Chris has been with more America's Cup teams than any other meteorologist. He is currently working with the New York Yacht Club Challenger, American Magic, for the 37th America's Cup - his 11th America's Cup cycle.  

• Working with 5 Volvo Ocean Race/Whitbread teams, he provided close support to the winning teams in 2001/02 (illbruck), 2008/09 (Ericsson), 2014/15 (Abu Dhabi) and 2023 (11th Hour Racing). 

• His advice has been valued through 5 US Sailing Team campaigns – Barcelona, Savannah, Sydney, Athens and Rio de Janerio; teams that accumulated a total of 17 medals. Most recently, the Australian Institute of Sport selected Bedford as their meteorological consultant across a wide range of weather-impacted sports (including athletics, cycling, rowing, equestrian) for the 2021 Tokyo Games.

• Bedford was recently selected as lead meteorologist for all of SailGP Season 4.  In this roll, he will provide real-time forecasting and severe weather monitoring at each event as well as consult on event safety protocols and long range plans for Seasons 5 and 6.

• Chris has provided key meteorological advice for many successful Ultim Trimaran campaigns/races, including:

  • Trans-Atlantic sailing speed record set by Banque Populaire (3 days 15 hours 25 minutes).

  • 2019 victory in the Brest Atlantique Race by Edmond de Rothschild of Team Gitana.

  • Ultim class victory in the 2021 Transat Jacques Varbre by Edmond de Rothschild of Team Gitana.

  • First to finish, Race Record, and Ultim class victory in the 2022 Route du Rhum by Edmond de Rothschild of Team Gitana.

  • Winner, 2024 Akea Ultim Around the World Challenge by Edmond de Rothschild of Team Gitana (50 days 19 hours 7 minutes)

• In addition to direct team support, Bedford is sought out for his weather advice and guidance in assessing weather impacts related to critical events and operational decisions at Fortune 100 companies such as Apple, Home Depot, SC Johnson, and Oracle, as well as several US Government activities. ​

• Over the years, Chris has provided thousands of hours of weather instruction to a wide range of audiences from beginning sailors to world champions. He is sought out for his straight-forward, honest, and practical approach to using weather knowledge as a competitive advantage. In 2020, he co-founded Marine Weather University, an online weather school providing over 40 hours of content geared to sailing and marine weather enthusiasts. Marine Weather University currently has over 6000 registered students.

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Bedford is a motivated advocate for the application of new techniques and technology to sailing:

• He pioneered the application of ensemble modeling techniques to the problem of Optimal Routing in yacht racing. During the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race, illbruck Challenge used Bedford's pioneering techniques to help win the race. These methods continue to evolve with the advancement of modeling and routing software.

• In 2012, he was part of a team awarded a patent for "Using Remotely detected Wind Velocities to Enhance Understanding of an Impending or Occurring Event". The patent employs state-of-the-art forward looking doppler LIDAR to predict changes in the wind from seconds to 10s of minutes in advance.

• Most recently, Bedford is developing UAV-based Marine Boundary Layer profiling techniques to advance understanding and prediction of the near-surface vertical wind speed and direction profile for sail design, trim, and optimal route calculations.

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Chris has been recognized for his outstanding work and dedication to sailing and his profession:

• In 2004, Chris received the US Sailing President’s Award specifically for his work with the US Sailing Team at the Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

• In 2009, he was awarded the University of Michigan College of Engineering Alumni Society Merit Award.

• Chris was awarded status as a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) by the American Meteorological Society in 1994. At that time, he was the youngest person to ever receive the CCM designation.  Currently, there are approximately 400 active CCMs nationwide.

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He has served as President of the National Council of Industrial Meteorologists and on a number of professional boards and committees with the American Meteorological Society, Air and Waste Management Association, and the former Commercial Weather Services Association. Over the years, Bedford has written and presented numerous technical papers at conferences and for refereed scientific journals, and has been an invited speaker and instructor. He has also provided subject matter expert review of papers submitted for publication in professional scientific journals as well as serving as meteorological editor for the American Heritage Dictionary.

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Aside from forecasting the weather, Bedford remains active in and out of sailing:​

• A licensed airplane pilot since 1994;

• Board Chair Person for the Little Tuscany Neighborhood Organization in Palm Springs, CA, and;

• A bodybuilder using "old school" heavy compound movement weight training supplemented with high intensity interval training and a strict, clean diet.