A German sailor who goes back to the Alan Bond era is about to undertake his first Sydney Hobart at the age of 55 on a boat he's never raced.
Christopher Opielok, a two-time Admiral's Cup winner has dreamt of contesting the iconic Australian ocean race for more than 30 years.
While he's a mature age Sydney Hobart rookie Opielok has got the approval of his family to do the race on his recently acquired TP52.
"They know that I'm mad so the time was right to do it now and they pushed me to do it," Opielok,told AAP.
Opielok has sailed against yachting legends like Dennis Connor and Jim Bertrand and had expected to make his Sydney Hobart debut long before this year.
"I worked as a boat captain at the Admiral's Cup for many years and they promised 'look guys, we're doing this (the Sydney Hobart), but first we win the (America's) Cup'," Opielok said.
"We met Alan Bond and his crew and all these famous Aussies and they were telling us about Bass Strait and the Sydney to Hobart, so we got excited and next year ... nothing."
Opielok then took it upon himself to do the race in 2010 on his own boat.
"It got here late by cargo shipment, it got delayed, so we missed that one." he said.
Opielok lived in Perth from 2009-12 and will have seven Australians in the multi-national crew of his boat, the latest of three he's owned that he's called Rockhall.
"We're a brand new crew, we've never sailed together," Opielok said.
"You need a lot of luck to move forward and compete against the Aussies."
