About 20 years ago, it was a two-handed race that brought Joe de Kock to Newcastle.
Now the former South African, the owner of Midcoast Boatyard and Marine at Wickham, will sail out of Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club as part of a two-handed crew to compete for the first time on his own boat in the Sydney to Hobart.
De Kock, a veteran of the race on larger crews and boats, and Richard Hooper, a regular on the successful She's The Culprit, will race KD4 in the bluewater classic from Boxing Day.
It will be a change of tack for both and comes as two-handed crews join the race this year for overall handicap honours after debuting as their own category only last year.
For de Kock, the two-handed attempt is a return to the moment his move to Newcastle was cemented.
"The irony is we founded that business doing a two-handed race," de Kock said.
"Many years ago they had a two-handed race from Sydney to Newcastle.
"I did it with Sean Langman, who owned a boatyard in Sydney. I used to work for him.
"When we arrived at Honeysuckle, there was nothing there except the initial, small part of the marina that had maybe 20 boats in it.
"They were building the boatyard so we went in and checked it out. There was a fellow there called George Keegan, who put the thing together. He said we're building this and we're not quite sure what to do with it.
"Sean said I'll have it, and they said great.
"I was happy to move to Newcastle because my wife is a Novocastrian and so I said I'll run it, and I bought it from him later on.
"That's how we came to run the business and be in Newcastle, from a two-handed race."
De Kock has sailed since he was a child and did it professionally in his 20s.
At 54, he said the move to two-handed racing was actually an attempt to step back in intensity after competing in the Sydney to Hobart aboard elite boats owned by Syd Fischer and Langman.
"I've been doing the Sydney to Hobart for the last 13 times and I've always done it at a pretty high level on quite impressive boats, but to be honest, I'm getting a bit old to be doing it at that level," he said.
"With the two-handed thing, it sounds like more pressure but the pressure is off really because you cannot sail it at the same intensity as the TP52s and those boats that are likely to win the race. It takes the edge off it a bit.
"The last Hobart race I did was on Moneypenny and I really felt it was time for something different. It's quite exhausting, and with an old back and body, it doesn't really keep up with it."
De Kock's KD4, a Dehler 44, is a boat he bought and restored.
He and Hooper, who have raced together regularly over the past five years, debuted on KD4 in the Sydney Gold Coast race, where they claimed the two-handed ORCi handicap and second in the division on IRC.
"It was kind of exciting because we hadn't done a two-handed race before," he said.
"And the boat is more of a cruiser racer, it wasn't really intended for this.
"I got the boat a couple of years ago in a state of disrepair and over time we've repaired it in the business and we got it back in the water in February this year.
"I did a regatta, a low-level cruiser regatta at Port Stephens, and I really enjoyed it. It made me realise it was maybe time to race this boat at a different level.
"This two-handed thing really interests me, and I thought this was a boat I could do that relatively easy with."
Despite the immediate success with KD4, de Kock did not have high expectations for the Sydney to Hobart.
"I don't think we'll set the world on fire," he said.
"We were fortunate with that first race we won but maybe the weather conditions really suited this boat.
"The Cabbage Tree Island race we did, we didn't do well in it at all. It was a respectable result but nothing spectacular. The conditions didn't suit the boat."
He said KD4 would need wind on the nose to do well but he would prefer an easy, downwind race.
NCYC father-and-son team Andrew and Harry Miller are also attempting the race as a two-handed crew, on Uprising Brightside Marine, a Jeanneau 36.
Also out of NCYC is Mako, a Sydney 40. The other Hunter boat competing is Hasta la Vista, a Sydney 38 out of Lake Macquarie Yacht Club.
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