KEY POINTS:
Unlike their rivals, two newcomers to this year's Sydney to Hobart race will be praying for rough seas to upset the dominant maxi yachts.
Among the 87 entrants in the Boxing Day bluewater classic for the first time will be two Volvo 70 class boats, including Australian-owned and skippered Ichi Ban.
If conditions remain light clear favourites will be the three 30m yachts, defending handicap and line honours winner and race record holder Wild Oats, Charles St Clair Brown and Bill Buckley's New Zealand maxi Maximus and Grant Wharington's modified 2003 line honours winner Skandia.
But if conditions become rugged Ichi Ban and ABN Amro One, 21m monohull canting-keel yachts developed for the Volvo Ocean Race, will come into their own.
The race starts in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.
