Rudy Bailey has confirmed he will miss the Long Distance Comet Race on Monday because repair work on his boat Temptation will not be completed in time.

It will be the fourth straight year that Bailey has missed the race because of boat problems.

“No, I won’t be sailing this year because I didn’t get the boat repairs done on time and I don’t wish to sail in a borrowed boat,” Bailey said.

The race starts in St George’s Harbour at 11am and finishes off the West End Sailboat Club, with Stevie Dickinson in Kitty Hawk aiming for a fourth straight title.

Bailey, an eleven-times winner himself, would have been Dickinson’s main competitor in another battle of the East and West End sailors.

“He told me if he finishes his boat there is a good chance he’ll be in,” said Gladwin Lambert, president of the Comet class, of Bailey earlier in the week.

“He said ‘Glad’, there is a good percentage that I could be in the race this year’. Last year he came up to the club, signed up but never made the starting line.”

Bailey last raced in 2012 when he led the fleet from St George’s to Dockyard. In his absence Dickinson has extended his record to 18 victories. He had Sarah Lane Adderley as his crew last year.

Dickinson and Gladwin Lambert, who received a sports citation at the Government Sports Awards, this year for 56 years of involvement with the Comet fleet, could be the two most experienced sailors in a race in which Dickinson has been competing for more than 40 years.

He and crew Pat Young will try to hold off some talented teenagers like Benn Smith and Tre Maxwell, who will be skippering for the first time with his brother Taj as his crew.

Another sailor aiming to build on last year’s performance is Maxwell Curtis Jr who, along with crew Stefan Furbert of the East End Mini Yacht Club, crossed the line in third place.

Scott Fox and crew Wesley Tucker, a former long-time crew for Dickinson, could also be in the mix.