Black Jack skipper Mark Bradford has welcomed the return of two of the greatest supermaxis in Sydney-Hobart history and is ready to throw his "A Team" at them as he aims for successive line honours.
Black Jack and InfoTrack, the first two boats across the line last year, will be challenged in 2022 by the return of the race's two most dominant super maxis of recent times.
Record nine-time line honours winner Hamilton Island Wild Oats - formerly known as Wild Oats XI - will contest the race for the first time since 2019.
Also returning to the fleet after a three-year absence is triple line-honours champion Comanche, now known as Andoo Comanche.
"There's not a lot of point doing it if we're the only 100-footer and you win by a bunch," Bradford told AAP.
"We welcome the competition. We've got a huge amount of respect for the other teams, we know what's in their arsenal and their DNA."
Bradford said the level of the 2022 race would be way higher than last year, when border closures affected preparations and restricted access to Australia for crew members.
"Last year we had to pull some resources from some of the boats that weren't sailing, so we had a couple of Wild Oats guys and a couple who are now on Comanche," Bradford said.
'This year, with the borders opening, our international guys are back and it's great to get what we would call our 'A team' back."
Andoo Comanche, Black Jack and Hamilton Island Wild Oats have contested two offshore races this year with the boats finishing in that order both times.
The fleet currently stands at 118, with eight overseas-registered boats and yachts from every state and territory of Australia.
John Winning Jr has chartered Andoo Comanche from her Singapore owner for the next two years and revealed the boat had an eventful passage from Antigua back to Sydney.
"We got stuck in the Panama Canal," he told AAP.
"We had visa challenges with some of the blokes, trying to get them into the country. One of them couldn't get off the boat in Tahiti."
One of the race's most successful sailors of recent times, Matt Allen, whose Botin 52 Ichi Ban has won overall honours in three of the last four years, has announced he will not be competing this year, though he has left the door open for someone else to use the boat.
"It's time for me to do some other things," he said.
"To some degree I feel we've achieved what we set out to do with the boat, I'm conscious we've equalled the record of Freya and Love & War (in winning overall three times)."
