Gus Miller will make history when he sets sail from the Great Sound to St George’s Harbour in this year’s Long Distance Comet Race.

The Olympic sailor and Finn Hall of Fame inductee, who is in eighties, is the oldest sailor to compete in the iconic offshore dinghy race in the one design, double-handed Comet.

“He [Gus] has paid his entry fee and secured a boat to race in and the class is excited and glad to have him race,” Gladwin Lambert, the Comet Class president, said.

Rockal Evans, who also sails in the Finn dinghy, is not taking Miller’s challenge lightly.

“I think he will give a bunch of the Comet sailors a run for their money if the conditions are right,” he said. “Having Gus race will be great exposure for the Comet Class in Bermuda and might attract other overseas sailors to come and compete in the race.”

Miller, who hails from the United States, is not the first overseas skipper to compete in the race as his compatriot Mark Hess won the prestigious Edward Cross Cup in the 1990s.

Miller is well known on the Island having launched the Bermuda Schools Waterwise curriculum in 2000 and previously coached here.

Miller, who is also a renowned coach, is always keen to share his wealth of experience and is passionate about the Finn dinghy and those that sail it.

The Long Distance Comet Race, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, is sanctioned by the West End Sail Boat Club.

Stevie Dickinson is the defending champion.

The East End Mini Yacht Club stalwart is gunning for a third successive win this year and eighteenth overall.

Others expected to be thick in the hunt are former winners Rudy Bailey, Heath Foggo, Lambert and Evans.

This year’s fleet also consists of some of the Island’s most promising sailors, including Cecilia Wollman who will represent Bermuda at next month’s Pan Am Games in Toronto in the Laser Radial.

Monday’s race starts at 11am.