End Sailboat Club's Long Distance Comet Race on three successive years -- 1986-88 -- will on Monday make a return to the waters after a five-year absence to help the skipper of Temptation in his quest for a fifth title.

The race will start just off the West End Sailboat Club near Watford Bridge at 11 a.m. and finish in St. George's harbour.

Until he took up residency in the United States in the late 1980s, Fred Bulford had made regular appearances in the race with Bailey -- now the pair are teaming up once again in hope that their winning ways can be restored.

However, while Bailey relishes the thought of having his key crew back, he is well aware of the fact that it is going to take a lot of skill and effort to prevent reigning champion Stevie Dickinson from taking honours a ninth time.

Bailey, whose fourth conquest in the series came in 1991 with Sinclair Simons as crew, is excited about their prospects this time around and aims to make amends for his lowly seventh-place finish last year.

"With Fred back I am hopeful of doing well this year, especially with the race going into St. George's, which I prefer,'' said Bailey.

He favours racing to the east because of the open body of space that exists at the starting line, compared to starting at St. George's where there is limited space and which calls for the boats having to squeeze out of the St. George's cut.

"Things are just too crammed up when we leave St. George's, it's more of an open race when it is started at the opposite end of the island,'' said Bailey.

The former champion was decisively beaten a year ago and gave Dickinson credit for his brilliant manoeuvres after sticking closely to the North Shore shoreline while Bailey went offshore in search of smoother waters.

Bailey does not feel that he made a mistake by going offshore, recalling that it was just unfortunate that the wind shifted at the time and left him somewhat stranded.

"I headed for smoother water out there and was moving quite fast for a while until the wind shifted in the opposite direction and slowed me down,'' he recalled.

Going into St. George's this year Bailey so far has no plan to follow either the shoreline or sail offshore, indicating that he has no real preference.

"All I can say is that it depends on the conditions during the race, most times the boats go inside and outside of the shoreline, depending on the wind,'' he said.

Although Gladwin Lambert and Malcolm Smith will be absent, their boats, Melody and Fourth Scrapper , may be used by other sailors.

Dickinson in Kitty Hawk will head a competitive field, which will include such regulars as Bailey, Howard Lee ( Hi Yella ), Byron McCallan ( Shogun ), Odwin Berkeley ( Shaka Zulu ), Shannon Simmons ( Maxi ) and Howard Simmons ( My New Mary ).