KEY POINTS:
"There is always anxiety and nerves worrying that you have done everything," says Maximus skipper Charles St Clair Brown.
"It is bit like preparing for your wedding."
This year's Sydney to Hobart will be Brown's fifth but the first time down the aisle for his slick silver bullet Maximus - the major overseas contender in this year's race.
New Zealand's sole entry, Maximus is regarded as the biggest rival to fellow 30m maxis and local favourites Wild Oats XI and Skandia.
Maximus, a name originating from the design brief which stated maximum power to weight ratio, arrived in Sydney last Thursday.
It had been based overseas where it won last year's Rolex Trans Atlantic Challenge on corrected time, completed the line and handicap double in the IRC Super 0 division of the Fastnet race and broke the Round Isle of Wight world speed record.
At this stage, soft conditions are not expected when the fleet charge over the startline on Boxing Day. Instead, competitors have been warned about the possibility of gale force southerlies.
In the 2004 race, strong winds and big seas resulted in almost half the fleet withdrawing.
Konica Minolta's cabin top buckled, and from Skandia came the chilling words: "Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Skandia, Skandia, Skandia ... we are preparing to depart the vessel."
A hydraulic ram had failed, causing the canting keel to swing uncontrollably, thrusting the boat from side to side. A few minutes after the mayday call, Skandia capsized.
Brown was confident Maximus could handle whatever conditions it faced. He said the yacht had completed more than 20,000 sea miles and had experienced all types of weather but "these are technical boats. There are lots of mechanical things that can fail".
"The thing with these boats are that they are very, very fast and they take a hammering when they are flying out of waves.
"What happens in these kind of weather conditions is you often get very steep seas. It is predicted there will be at least four metre sea waves. The reason for that is you have a prevailing southerly current. The current is running south and yet the wind is coming from the south - you have wind against sea.
"We will be on the wind crashing through four metre seas. That is very hard on boats that are doing 12-13 knots up wind."
Brown, who has a predominantly Kiwi crew, sees last year's winner, Wild Oats XI, and Skandia as their main rivals in the 82-strong fleet.
He said Wild Oats was well campaigned and well prepared while Skandia, which had been reconfigured with a new mast, keel and lengthened to the maximum waterline, "looks like she is going very fast".
But Brown has plenty of faith in his own team.
"We have won the majors, we'd like to cross the Sydney to Hobart off as well."
MAXIMUS
Owners: Bill Buckley and Charles St Clair Brown
Designers: Greg Elliot and Clay Oliver
Length: 30m
Cost: $6 million to $10 million
Features: Light displacement carbon fibre construction, rotating wing mast, retractable canting keel, 500m2 upwind sail area, 800m2 downwind sail area.
Skipper: Charles Brown
Crew: Bill Buckley, Max Brown, David Petersen, Ryan Houston, Gavin McPherson, Stu Molloy, James Carrol, Rob Croft, George Hendy, Richard Bouzaid, Jeff Scott, Matt Humphries, Ian Treleavan, Phil Airey, Jeremy Smith, Alec Rhys, Frano Tregaskis, Dave Munday, Justin Sutherland, Martin Hannon, Glenn Attrill
Main rivals: Wild Oats XI and Skandia
