Seagull race officials make a second attempt to stage their ninth annual event.

The race was initially scheduled for Saturday, August 19 but the high seas forced its postponement until this Saturday, weather permitting. If the wind gusts are over 18 knots the race will again be postponed.

The 42-mile course takes the competitors around the entire Island in an anti-clockwise direction, beginning at 8 a.m. off Long Island in the Great Sound and finishing that same location between 4 and 5 p.m. Daniels Head and Gurnett Rock will be the only two pieces of land to starboard.

The boats will depart depending on boat speed with the slower boats leaving first. The race continues to attract more competitors each year and upwards of 50 entries are expected this year, establishing a new record from last year.

This makes the Seagull race the largest boating event on the Bermuda maritime calendar after the demise of the Beefeater Race on the Thursday of Cup Match.

The record of three hours, 19 minutes for the fastest rounding is under serious threat as several new craft have been constructed for this purpose, with the boats of Bruce Lorhan and Allan Powell using dual engine 5R Seagull engines in their bids to beat the record time.

The current record holder is race chairman Richard Amos in Nastiupset . Hans Hershi and Brian Lightbourne are among those joining Lorhan and Powell in trying to shatter the record. The boat to beat, however, is still John Edmunds' Screaming Flea which won every race it entered this year.

The transfer of the Seagull franchise to PW's under the direction of perennial entrant Will Cox has ensured a dramatic rise in the marketing and sale of these engineering wonders which are British made. Many new engines have been sold for the race and among the rookie entrants this year are sailor Willie White and Wendell Hollis.