One year after almost walking away from racing in the Sydney to Hobart, Celestial V70 skipper Sam Haynes is eying off the rare chance to be a back-to-back overall winner.
Sydney-Hobart officials confirmed on Friday there are 140 entrants for this year's 80th edition of the race, well up on the 104 starters who began last year's event.
None of them, though, will perform the same juggling act as Haynes over the next two months.
Now into his second year as commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Haynes is effectively in charge of the organising body for the race, as well as trying to win it.
He did exactly that last year, when he became the first person in 54 years and only the third overall to achieve the feat.
"Traditionally the commodore was expected to race, but it's not like that now," Haynes said.
"Early on Boxing Day morning there's a lot of demands, so it does take up a fair bit of time.
"So when I get to the boat, I've actually already kind of spent a fair bit of energy."
Haynes did initially plan to quit the race after taking up the commodore role last July, before being coaxed into a return.
"The previous boat that I won on (was) in 2022, and I thought, well, that's fine," he said.
"I'm happy to be the commodore, go and do the race, in the sense representing the club and not actually on the water.
"But then the opportunity to charter (the Celestial V70) came up, and gradually that was put in front of me by a few different parties.
"I think I was babied along into making the decision to go and charter it. And before I knew it, the commodore was going racing. That went from there."
Celestial V70's nine-hour winning margin in the overall handicap race marked the biggest since the inaugural Sydney-Hobart in 1945.
It came despite the yacht suffering a ripped spinnaker at the start, and other sail damage holding them back.
Further history could await this year, with Ichi Ban the only yacht to claim back-to-back overall victories since Freya between 1963 and 1965.
Haynes has come close to claiming such a feat before, defeated by Ichi Ban in 2021 following a post-race protest, before claiming the overall title in 2022.
"It is hard," Haynes said.
"A lot of the reason that brings a win together is actually the conditions you're sailing in, and Hobart's got very variable conditions, so it's not common to have identical conditions year in, year out."
This year's Sydney-Hobart will have increased safety measures, after the tragic deaths of two people in last year's race.
A man-overboard detection system is now mandatory, while there are increased requirements for crew experience.
But Haynes conceded last year's deaths could not have been prevented by the measures.
