Four Australians have the chance to become part of sporting history when they compete in the Sydney to Hobart with no prior sailing experience.
Wenee Yap, Ellen Howard, Yehan Gunaratne and Paul Kimber work for legal technology company LEAP by day.
But in a few short weeks the quartet will go along for the ride in Australia's most storied race on water, each with their own duties to a crew of rusted-on sailors.
The best part is the bluewater greenhorns are a good chance of being on the fastest boat across the line.
Their boss Christian Beck is also the owner and skipper of LawConnect, one of four 100ft supermaxis challenging for line honours in this year's Hobart.
In the last three editions of the race, LawConnect was the second-fastest boat to finish the 628 nautical mile journey, having been the fastest in 2016 under previous owner Anthony Bell.
An accountant to the stars, Bell made a tradition of bringing celebrities with him to Hobart with TV personality Erin Molan and boxer Danny Green among previous crews.
When Beck bought the boat in 2017 he wanted to do things a little different, organising for the names of budding sailors in his office to be drawn from a hat.
"It's great, we've done it five times with about four each year so about 20 people have done it," Beck told AAP.
"For most of them it's life-changing."
This year's rookie class has undergone crash courses in sailing and water safety, and will need to pass practical and written exams before setting off.
If any of them are keen on extra practice, LEAP runs an after-work sailing club in Sydney Harbour.
They will continue to train with the LawConnect team, some of whom are professional sailors, for the next three weeks leading up to Boxing Day.
Once the starting gun is fired all four will help with simple tasks like moving sails, taking photographs, cooking and making coffee for tired sailors.
Yehan Gunaratne works in cyber security and will look after the on-board live-stream for LawConnect, the only member of this year's fleet with such a feature.
"I consider this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Gunaratne told AAP.
"There can be many experienced sailors who are not able to do a Sydney to Hobart race.
"We don't have any experience but we're doing Sydney To Hobart, that's pretty cool."
Is having four uncapped sailors on board a gimmick?
Mitchell White, a veteran of 21 Hobarts, doesn't think so.
"They end up being quite an asset on the boat," LawConnect's crew boss told AAP.
"There's a lot of roles that they free us up to do.
"It takes 22 people to sail that boat. They're not on there as guests, they're actually on there as part of the team."
