Lining up amid a fleet of supermaxi yachts, Phillip Neil and his crew will be jostling to Constitution Dock in Hobart on board a 12-year-old luxury cruising boat.
However, while Drumfire may look pristine on the outside, Neil has taken out all her comforts to turn the cruiser into a ready racer for the Sydney to Hobart bluewater classic.
Where cosy couches once sat alongside vases of flowers, now thin mattresses and safety gear take pride of place.
Drumfire's bespoke interior fitting has been covered up with tape, foam and floorboards, and the only thing that remains is a full bookshelf.
"Yeah, I'll be doing some light reading on the way," Neil jokingly told AAP.
"It was definitely built as a cruising yacht, as a world cruiser. It takes us about eight weeks to get the boat into what you see now basically.
"The first year, we had to do extra plumbing to put bilge pumps in where we didn't have them."
It will be Neil's fourth stint at the Sydney-Hobart, but in his first crack on board Drumfire he almost didn't get too far.
Halfway between Wollongong and Eden on the south coast, a fire erupted in the engine room.
"It wasn't a flame fire, but all of our electronics were melting down and the boat was full of smoke," Neil said.
"We actually turned the boat around and we were heading back towards Sydney after about two or three hours of trying to sort it out.
"As we were making our way back, we probably sailed the opposite direction for about two or three hours.
"Then we figured out how we can actually get around it, so we turned the boat back around and started heading down to Hobart again."
While Drumfire's operations may seem bare bones, it falls short of seasoned sailor David Griffith's 62-foot Whisper.
Griffith and his crew have removed anything that brings unnecessary weight, from floorboards to mattresses.
Even water bottles and frozen food are ignored in favour of a water filter and packets of instant food to make sure Whisper stays as light as possible.
"If you've grown up sailing in little boats, this is just a bigger version," Griffith told AAP.
"So little boats, you're always worried about weight. There's no luxury.
"If you enjoy the thrill of racing then you want to be going with the best equipment that you've got.
"That's why we're here. This boat has no other use than racing."
