She's the last of the international boats to arrive for this year's Sydney To Hobart, but new 80-foot yacht Beau Geste could be the best of all the foreign challengers.
Owned by Hong Kong's Karl Kwok, who took overall honours in his only prior crack at the race in an earlier Beau Geste back in 1997, the new boat bearing that name has everyone conferring upon its dark horse status.
It contains a star-studded crew and is considered a chance of handicap honours and perhaps even challenging the bigger supermaxis for line honours.
The boat only arrived in Sydney Harbour from New Zealand on Saturday night, having left Auckland on Tuesday.
Any suggestion it wouldn't be prepared for the Boxing Day start was quickly quashed by her sailing master, Gavin Brady.
A titanic figure in the sport with five America's Cup campaigns and 10 previous Sydney Hobarts plus Round the World races in his impressive portfolio, Brady said the new Beau Geste was ready to perform.
"We didn't deliver the boat to Sydney for the race. We raced the 1400 nautical miles here," Brady said.
"That's (the distance) of two-and-a-half Hobarts.
"We are probably the most prepared yacht entered in the race.
"We tested everything; our watch systems, sail changes, we put reefs in the main, shook them out.
"We did everything we would normally do racing a boat, down to getting the milk right in people's tea.
"Quite frankly, we're ready and we're confident.
"We got halfway here and in the Tasman the wind died, then it picked up, so we did windward leewards.
"One minute we were pointing at New Caledonia, the next at Hobart.
"It was the perfect practice. It was open-ocean and no wind shifts.
"It doesn't get any better than that."
The 2013 Sydney to Hobart fleet includes the greatest percentage of overseas boats since the race started in 1945.
Among them is the 100-foot supermaxi Zefiro.
The fleet includes 12 boats from several countries also contesting the Clipper RoUnd the World Yacht race.
