planning to travel to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club to compete the prestigious Omega Gold Cup next month.

Scheduled to run from October 18-25, the match racing tournament offers a total prize purse of $80,000 with the winning skipper taking home $30,000 and an 18-karat solid gold Omega watch.

The first-place prize money is the largest amount awarded on the regular-season Omega Grand Prix circuit.

This is Omega's third year as title sponsor of the event, which begins its 53rd year of competition in Hamilton Harbour, the oldest match race event in International One Design yachts in the world. The distinguished watchmaker also recently announced it signed a three-year contract as title sponsor of the tournament.

Recently voted among the top two favourite racing venues in the world by members of the International Sailors' Association, Bermuda attracts the best sailors in the world because of the ideal sailing conditions and the hospitable atmosphere of the Island.

Among the sailing elite who will make up the 24 teams this year are recent America's Cup and Olympic competitors, the current and former match racing world champions, the defending Omega Gold Cup champion, the currently ranked number one match racer, and the only woman who has sailed in a modern-era America's Cup final match.

Returning to defend his title, Great Britain's Eddie Warden-Owen had the good fortune to win last year's event at a time when it offered the most lucrative prize money in its history.

Soon after his victory last year, Warden-Owen was named coach of the New Zealand America's Cup challenge, and he returned to the match racing circuit only last August for the Mazda World Championship of Match Race Sailing where he finished seventh.

Gunning for the Briton and this year's title will be two New Zealanders who have recently dominated match race sailing. Returning to the event are Chris Dickson and Russell Coutts. Dickson, who skippered Japan's challenger in this year's America's Cup, finished fourth in last year's Omega Gold Cup. And less than two weeks after that event, Dickson won the world championship on the same waters of Hamilton Harbour.

Dickson lost that title in August to his fellow countryman Coutts, although Dickson remains atop the rankings list. Coutts, who was the alternate helmsman for New Zealand in this year's America's Cup, finished third in last year's Gold Cup and was the champion in 1990. He is currently ranked third in the world, only 200 points behind Dickson.

Two other sailors ranked in the top 10 heading for Bermuda are Paul Cayard and Ed Baird. Cayard, an American, this year received a great deal of international notice as the helmsman of Italy's Il Moro di Venezia, runner-up in the 1992 America's Cup. He is ranked sixth in the world, three places above fellow-American Baird.

Dawn Riley, a resident of Clemens, Michigan, fresh from America's Cup winner Americ 3 , will represent a team sailed by a majority of women.

"This year's entrants make up what may be the most competitive field ever to race for the Gold Cup, or for that matter, any event in the world,'' said RBYC commodore John Thompson. "We're looking forward to a very exciting tournament, which should offer Bermuda residents and tourists great action.'' Last year's event attracted a record number of Press representatives and private spectators.

Bermudians will once again have the opportunity to cheer local heroes as the Bank of Bermuda will sponsor two Bermuda sailors. Those sailors will be determined in a pre-Omega Gold Cup event to be held on October 3, the only way Bermudian entries can qualify.

The Bank of Bermuda Cup will be open to all Bermuda residents and will be conducted under a round-robin format. At the end of the competition, the two sailors with the most wins will advance into the Omega Gold Cup, with their entry fee underwritten by the bank.

EDDIE WARDEN-OWEN -- Defending Gold Cup champion.