Newport-Bermuda race today -- but the breeze will all but die out as the boats near Bermuda, according to weather forecasters.

Nearly 400 people packed into the ballroom of the Newport Harbor and Marina Hotel for the pre-race skippers' meeting yesterday evening and heard experts predict south-westerly winds of around 15 knots when the first starting gun sounds at 12.50 p.m.

By early evening, said meteorologist Michael Carr, the wind could have picked up to 20 to 25 knots.

But later an area of high pressure stretching north of Bermuda is expected to literally take the wind out of their sails.

Two to three days out, the fleet is expected to encounter 10-knot winds and days four and five could see breezes drop as low as five knots, provoking memories of the 1998 race when around a third of the boats dropped out of the race having been stranded by light weather.

However, the likelihood of a fast start today left veteran Bermudian skipper Warren Brown predicting that some of the larger vessels could reach the Island before the weekend is out.

"I think some of the big boats will be down in Bermuda very quickly,'' said Brown after the skippers' meeting. "Some of the maxi-yachts could be in by Monday, possibly even Sunday night.'' Brown will skipper the biggest of the seven Bermuda boats in the race, War Baby , a 61-foot sloop. He felt the early strong winds would favour his 37-tonne, 28-year-old boat.

"I think we will do well for the first two or three days,'' said Brown.

"After that it will depend on how much the wind slows up. If we run into very light air, we will slow right up.

"But when you're looking two or three days ahead, forecasts are not 100 percent accurate, so you never know what we might get.'' Among the entries expected to do well is Boomerang an 80-foot Frers maxi which four years ago won the Lighthouse Trophy, awarded to the skipper of the boat with the fastest corrected time.

Again it will be skippered by George Coumantaros, of New York, who in 1996 set the race record for the fastest passage of 57 hours, 31 minutes and 50 seconds.

Another strongly fancied boat is the 66-foot Kodiak , skippered by Lloyd Ecclestone, who won the Lighthouse Trophy in the last Newport race in 1998.

Any assault on the record will depend on the crews' clever use of currents -- and particularly warm and cold eddies circulating around the borders of the Gulf Stream.

Boats catching the wrong side of a revolving eddy can lose valuable time, as opposed to those who catch the right side and can get a speed boost.

Dr. Frank Bolan last night briefed skippers on where heat-sensitive satellite images place such eddies and high-tech GPS -- satellite navigation equipment -- will help skippers try to hit them just right.

Apart from War Baby , the other Bermuda boats starting will be Les Crane's Monterey , Stephen Sherwin's Borderlaw , Richard Spurling's Petites Cayes , Paul Hubbard's Bermuda Oyster , Colin Couper's Babe and Buddy Rego's chartered boat Hinano .

And Bermudian Kirk Cooper will be co-skipper, with Richard Sculman, of New York-based boat Temptress .

Hubbard said success for him and his Oyster 435 would be a middle placing in the fleet. "This boat is built for comfort rather than speed -- it's twice as heavy as it should be,' said Hubbard. "Obviously, we hope to do well, but if we finish somewhere in the middle, I'll be happy.''