Skandia Life Cowes Week has provided the biggest pay packet of the year to the Isle of Wight which is worth millions to the yachting mecca.

All this week, skippers, crews and spectators have fired the starting gun which sets the cash registers ringing up and down the High Street, around the marinas and along the waterfront.

Around 100,000 visitors, nearly eight times the normal resident population, are expected to flock to Cowes for the world-famous regatta by the end of today. The regatta, with its international profile backed by the Southampton-based investment and pensions giant, Skandia Life, has done much to boost confidence in Cowes since 1995 when it took over as the title sponsor of the event.

Bill West, the company's marketing director and keen yachtsman, said: "With our help and support the regatta has developed enormously during the seven years we have been title sponsor. Of course, this success is not down to us alone. The event now attracts many hundreds of entries and it is these competitors and the organising clubs who provide the unique flavour of this wonderful festival of sailing.''

Sailing is a huge earner for Cowes with yacht crews alone spending an estimated £18m every year and, with the pubs and bars almost bursting at the seams, it is not surprising that £8m of this total is spent on food and drink.

On top of this, the local tourist authority reckons that sailing attracts 710,000 visitors to the Island, with holidaymakers in Cowes spending £26m a year. The yachting industry also accounts for 1,850 Island jobs.