An old titan of the Sydney to Hobart is back in the race a record 46 years after taking line honours, with Kialoa II continuing her latest owners' campaign to visit the scenes of her former glories.
It's the longest gap in the event's history for a former line honours champion's return to the race.
Built in 1964, the 73-foot yacht Kialoa II took line honours in 1971 and recorded high placings in most of the world's other great ocean races.
This year, new owners Paddy and Keith Broughton have already taken the boat back to the famed Fastnet race, in which it finished second across the line in 1969.
"The overall plan is to do the old ocean classics that Jim Kilroy did," Paddy Broughton told AAP.
"He raced her in the Sydney Hobart race in 1971, he did a couple of Fastnet Races, he also did a number of Transpac races, and a number of Newport Bermudas, so our objective is to do all of those four classics."
The boat sailed the vast crossing to Australia following the Fastnet, in which she finished 134th overall out of more than 300.
Kilroy donated Kialoa II to the United States coastguard service and the boat passed through three other owners before being bought by the Broughtons.
"She probably hasn't raced since the 1980s and you could tell really because she was very much in cruising mode," Broughton said.
"Not a vast amount had been changed, but the sailing systems and the running rigging was all pretty ordinary, let's say.
"You are trying to get old photographs and talk to old crew members about how the old girl was put together, but then add to that more modern thinking in terms of lines and blocks and winches.
"Because a lot of the modern stuff is perhaps inappropriate for a boat like Kialoa, but then again there's a lot of stuff that's safer and better designed.
"I know Jim Kilroy would have used that, so we feel that we should too."
It will carry a huge moustache decal on both sides of the boom as part of her partnership and fundraising campaign for Movember.
Among the current crew is famed navigator Lindsay May, who in 2016 achieved a record tally of sailing the race 44 straight years.
