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A potent combination of speed, durability and significant modifications have Wild Oats XI primed to deepen her already powerful imprint on the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
The 100-foot supermaxi is the only boat to have taken line honours on four successive occasions before Alfa Romeo interrupted that streak in 2009.
With owner Neville Crichton selling Alfa to a Russian shortly after the triumph, Oats will be up against 86 other boats, none of which have beaten her to Hobart.
Significant changes to her sails and rigging have Oats primed to perform better than ever upwind.
That should stand Bob Oatley’s magnificent boat in good stead with reasonably strong southerlies predicted for most of the first two days following the Boxing Day start.
“I’m very confident in the boat’s speed, there’s no question there at all,” Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards told AAP.
“It just comes down to your luck and Mother Nature.”
Oats tactician Ian Murray said the key to a fifth line honours triumph was to keep the boat in one piece.
Oats has a proven record of durability in testing conditions, handling 45-knot breezes in the Hobart and even stronger winds in the Mediterranean.
“We’ve got to look after the boat, not thrash the sails, break the sails,” Murray said.
“The boat has a good track record and it wants for nothing. It’s got a good crew on board and all the ingredients are correct.”
Investec LOYAL (Investec LOYAL), the other 100-foot boat in the race, is considered the only major threat to Oats.
Skipper Sean Langman is wary of pushing too hard into the strong southerlies but believes the forecast give his yacht a good chance of toppling Oats.
Oatley believes only complacency from within can stop his boat from reaching Hobart first.
However a tactical blunder or damage to equipment can swiftly cripple the quickest of boats.
“When it goes to 20 to 25 knots, a very small mistake can turn into a very big catastrophe,” said Ludde Ingvall the skipper of YuuZoo, which took line honours in 2004 as Nicorette.
As usual, the struggle for overall victory will involve many more boats than the handful who aspire to line honours.
Almost three-quarters of the fleet are in the IRC division, from which the handicap winner will emerge.
United Kingdom entrant RAN was an early pre-race handicap favourite along with Australian sister ships Limit and Loki.
All those boats are between and 62 and 72 feet, but many smaller yachts will come into contention should the weather conditions turn in their favour after the southerlies are expected to die on Tuesday.
“Day three is when the race will be won or lost,” said Ed Psaltis, who won the fateful 1998 race on handicap.
The new 35-foot L’Altra Donna has attracted plenty of interest with her crew having taken divisional honours in previous Hobarts, while several small- to mid-sized Victorian boats also have their supporters.
RAN heads the overseas challenge which also includes boats from the United States, France, Italy, New Zealand and two partially Russian-crewed yachts.
The fleet will start from two separate lines on Sydney Harbour.