Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards says he wants his supermaxi's performance to do the talking when it clashes with Comanche this weekend, for the first time since last year's controversial outcome to the Sydney to Hobart race.
The Oatley family's boat was first across the line but was demoted to second behind Comanche after an international race jury upheld the latter's protest.
Wild Oats XI was penalised one hour after the jury ruled it didn't complete a two-turn penalty following an incident early in the race, where the two supermaxis almost collided.
On Saturday, the boats will line up in the Sydney Gold Coast race, which reunites the four supermaxis from the 2017 Sydney to Hobart.
"We're looking forward to sailing against those guys (Comanche) and InfoTrack and Black Jack," Richards told AAP.
"We love the sport, we love our sailing and that's what we go in it for, so the past is the past.
"Just been out over the last week tweaking a few sails and getting the boat back to speed again and we're pretty excited. It's going to be fantastic with the four big boats in the race.
"This year for us is all about focusing on sailing the boat well.
'No modification and just basically try and let the boat do the talking."
The Gold Coast race features the first four boats to get to Hobart last year, though fourth-placed InfoTrack was subsequently dropped 20 spots after a declarations infringement.
"I won't forget that one again, the first time I even knew about that race declaration was when they told me I lost 20 places," InfoTrack's owner Christian Beck told AAP.
He's looking for a better performance this weekend and has handed over the skipper's role to experienced New Zealand sailor Tony Mutter.
"The performance was nowhere as near as good as it should have been," Beck said.
Despite an unprecedented number of big boats contesting the event the race record is expected to survive, if the weather forecast proves accurate.
"This time of year it's always very tricky weather conditions," Richards said.
The RP 63 Voodoo and a clutch of quality TP52 boats are expected to be the leading contenders for handicap honours.
