An electric yacht will race in this year's Sydney to Hobart for the first time — making history as cannons fire at the starting line.
Non-profit conservation group Ocean Crusaders will launch 'J-Bird' in the 77th edition of the world-famous race.
Massive diesel engines power household names like Wild Oats and Black Jack, but Ocean Crusaders co-founder, and J-Bird co-skipper, Ian Thomson, wants to show that isn't necessary.
"We just want to prove that we don't need fossil fuels to go sailing," he said.
"There is a cleaner way to go out there and enjoy our waterways and especially in a race when all you're using your diesel engine for is charging batteries.
"We don't need that, we've got solar panels, wind generators, hydro generators, we can use the elements to recharge our power so that we can actually communicate and do all the safety stuff."
J-Bird is powered by six 22-kilogram batteries, situated at the centre of the vessel, making it the heaviest part of the yacht outside of the keel.
J-Bird is no stranger to the Sydney to Hobart race.
It has competed twice before, using a diesel engine, but failed to finish both times.
Ocean Crusaders co-founder, and J-Bird co-skipper, Annika Thomson said just entering the race this year was an achievement.
"It is a big deal and we are nervous, very nervous," Ms Thomson said.
"We are on board a yacht that we spent three years building ourselves.
"Just getting to the start line is a win for us, we are very, very excited."
A touch of Hollywood on board
J-Bird was destined for landfill, rotting on a mooring in Pittwater when the Thomson's bought it in February 2020.
New additions include a convection oven, fridge and a new deck with a new core made from recycled PET bottles and bio-resins.
It also has a couch, made by the designer team who worked on Baz Luhrmann's epic Elvis biopic.
There's one thing the Thomsons haven't changed though — and that's the name on the boat.
"There's a bit of a superstition that you should never change a boat's name unless you change it properly," Mr Thomson said.
"This boat has always had its original name J-Bird written on it and the superstition is you're meant to remove all of the names."
In the 2012 Sydney to Hobart, Mr Thomson said the vessel competed (with a diesel engine) as "Free Fire 52" with Sam Chan from Hong Kong and it didn't finish the race.
The year after, it competed as "Dodo", but also didn't finish.
"So, let's hope it's the third time lucky," Mr Thomson said.
As for whether J-Bird will be competing with the likes of Comanche and Wild Oats, he remains humble.
"I'm sure those guys will be sailing over the horizon on us," he said.
"At the end of the day, to be on the same straight line as these guys, I mean they're multi-million-dollar campaigns and ours is certainly not that, running a charity.
"We don't have bucket loads of cash. If anyone wants to jump on board as a sponsor, we'd certainly talk to you."
Mammoth effort clearing tonnes of trash
J-Bird has been the Thomson's passion project in between charity work.
They've been cleaning rubbish from waterways for over 12 years and believe there will be a lot more work to do in the face of another big wet season.
"[It] is going to create a lot more rubbish and debris in the waterways," he said.
In the past few years, they've removed 595 tonnes of rubbish from waterways, from Tasmania to the Whitsundays.
This year alone, they did 272 tonnes in the aftermath of the Queensland floods.
Ms Thomson said the pair were sailing on the back of that work and like-minded individual's support.
"We pick up trash in our water and we have made that our life because our life is on the water," Ms Thomson said.
"We work on it. We play on it.
"We have had an amazing community of volunteers supporting us all around and I want to thank all of them because, without our volunteers, we would not stand here today."
The annual Sydney to Hobart race starts on Boxing Day and runs through to New Year's Eve.
