Yachting: Top contenders for the annual blue water classic

The world's biggest and best assembly of maxi-yachts in recent times will contest this year's Sydney-Hobart race. Seven of them will be on the start line, and five have a real chance of leading the fleet of 100 entries into Hobart in the 65th running of the Australian 628-nautical-mile, ocean-racing classic.

Wild Oats XI

Race record-holder Wild Oats XI, chasing her fifth successive line honours win, is the boat to beat this year - providing hurried keel repairs begun yesterday do the trick.

An underwater inspection of the supermaxi's hull on Tuesday revealed the keel was damaged when it hooked onto a buoy and line attached to a fish trap off Sydney Heads on Monday.

While the damage was not structural, the keel's leading edge was serrated, a problem serious enough to cause speed-sapping turbulence.

In her Sydney-Hobart debut the yacht took line honours in record time. No other entrant has won the race four successive times.

This year Wild Oats XI has undergone extensive modifications to increase her overall length to 100ft. Despite that, the crew has dropped from 24 to 18, which includes Volvo winner and ISAF Rolex World Sailor Mike Sanderson, Robbie Naismith, Ian Murray, Adrienne Cahalan, and Ian Burns.

Alfa Romeo

With 143 line honours wins to her name, and recently a race record win in the 2009 Transpac, Alfa Romeo is one of the most successful yachts in the sport. Skippered by Kiwi ex-pat and 2002 Sydney Hobart winner Neville Crichton, Alfa Romeo will prove a formidable opponent to this year's many line honours challengers. One of five 100-footers in the starting line-up following a rule change by race organisers which extended the maximum length overall, Alfa Romeo, combined with the considerable talents of its international crew, is a line honours favourite.

ICAP Leopard

Fresh from taking his second line honours win in a row in the Rolex Fastnet Race record, British sailor Mike Slade and his international crew, including Team New Zealand's Ray Davies and Rob Waddell, are another of five 100ft maxis competing in this year's Sydney Hobart.

ICAP Leopard finished second across the line behind Wild Oats XI in the 2007 Sydney-Hobart. In a decent blow, the heavier-built ICAP Leopard could potentially beat the Reichel Pughs to the Hobart finish line.

Investec Loyal

Sean Langman has returned to big boat racing this year, chartering the New Zealand-designed and built yacht, Loyal, formerly Maximus. Following its arrival from Auckland, the boat underwent an extensive modification programme, including lengthening from 98 to 100 feet, new 6.2m keel and new lighter-weight and taller conventional mast to replace the wing mast. Joining the experienced crew aboard Loyal, and raising money for the LOYAL Foundation, will be boxer Danny Green, Olympic swimming sensation Grant Hackett, Waratahs captain Phil Waugh, former Wallabies skipper Phil Kearns, and television personality Larry Emdur. With two seconds and a third from 18 Sydney-Hobarts, Langman's hungry for his first line honours victory.

Etihad Stadium

Grant Wharington's Etihad Stadium, the Don Jones design that formerly raced as Skandia Wild Thing, also has line honours ambitions. Last year, Wild Thing finished second to Wild Oats XI and is again expected to be pushing for line honours. But the odds lengthened considerably last week after Etihad Stadium's mast broke on the delivery trip from Melbourne to Sydney.

Wharington is desperately trying to have a replacement mast - Alfa Romeo's spare, which he had air-freighted from France - fitted in time.