gets underway in St George's Harbour on Monday.

Andreas Lewin, who skippered the boat to five consecutive Coronation Cup successes, is relinquishing control, although he is expectd to crew at times throughout the summer.

Martin Mello gets his first experience as skipper of a crew with excellent Island sailing pedigree. Mello is the son of Roger Mello, whose connection with Contest spans a couple of decades.

Other new conscripts are Court Crane, son of Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Rear Commodore Les, Somers Kempe, Lars Simmons, son of Penny, an International One Design world champion, and Burroughs Blind.

Mello is an instructor on the junior sailing programme.

Five of the six boats involved in last year's series are expected to compete again, the one unknown being Echo , formerly skippered by one of the Contest new boys, Kempe.

The schedule is made up of 21 races, with points from each counting towards the Coronation Cup. Each individual race carries its own trophy, with three up for grabs on Monday alone -- the Heritage trophy, the Anniversary Cup and the Master's.

The first race starts at 11.00 a.m.