Rudy Bailey predicts this year’s Comet International Championship Regatta will be one of the fiercest in recent memory.

The West End Sail Boat Club helmsman is among a star-studded racing fleet featuring several past winners, including fellow Bermudian Stevie Dickinson and defending champion Jack Swikart, who will do battle for honours across seven races in the Great Sound from today to Saturday.

“In all honesty, I think this is probably going to be one of the tightest Comet International Championships,” Bailey told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s going to be a battle and I don’t know who is going to come out on top of this one because the field is heavily stacked with multiple champions. There are a lot of heavy hitters in this and everybody is hungry.

“I don’t think anyone is going to run away with it and it is probably going to go right down to the final race on the final day.”

Expectations will again be high for Bailey, who has won the Comet Class Yacht Racing Association-sanctioned regatta a record ten times.

The experienced sailor finished runner up to Swikart at last year’s championship in Oceanport, New Jersey, and is keen to go one better this time around in an attempt to claim a maiden title on home waters alongside his grandson Corey Bean.

“This will be my second attempt winning it here and I am going to do my best,” Bailey added. “My grandson is all in and he is also going to do his best.“

Bailey finished runner-up to Swikart in the Edward Cross Long Distance Comet Race, which took place from the Great Sound to St George’s Harbour on Monday.

“I hadn’t sailed since August of last year at the Comet Internationals and Jack beat me there,” he said. “In my last two outings he has beaten me, so he’s got me two for two.”

Bailey led the race before being passed by Swikart towards the end of the long reach down the North Shore.

“The boat was going very well and everything was fine until the rain shower,” he added.

“Now I am looking forward to the next hurdle, which will be the Comet International, and hoping that we get a good seven races in.”

Swikart is only the second overseas helmsman to lift the prestigious Edward Cross Cup behind compatriot Mark Hess, who achieved the historic feat in 1996 and, like Bailey, the 30-year-old also predicts competition for honours will be fierce as he bids to defend his title.

“I think this is going to be one of the most competitive Comet Internationals in over a decade, and so I am really excited,” he said.

“I would always rather lose a really competitive event than win easy. Last year’s Comet International was very competitive with a lot of great sailors in New Jersey, including Rudy Bailey from Bermuda.

“He’s very fast and got the better of me in my first Comet International seven years ago. I wanted to get him back and had the opportunity last year.

“I am grateful to have the opportunity to compete against guys like Rudy or Stevie on their home waters and I am just glad to have a chance to compete in a fun event in a great boat at a great venue.”

The Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club helmsman is looking forward to defending his title with sister crew Kate, who is making her debut in the event.

“Kate and I sailed three years ago in our club championship and in a couple of individual regattas since, but this will be our first sailing Comet Internationals,” Swikart said.

Hess won the Comet International Championship Regatta when Bermuda hosted the event for the only other time in 1992.