The affable Drummoyne local admits he's still mentally scarred from last year's near miss to Paul Clitheroe's Balance, where an untimely change in the weather turned a four-and-a-half hour overall win into a third-placed finish.

But with the same crew and an improved 34-foot yacht, the second-shortest vessel in this year's fleet, Kearns sounded more like a heavyweight boxer than a sailor when claiming he's "got it in the bag" this year.

Twelve months ago Komatsu Azzurro was flying down the coast of Tasmania, spurred on by a gusty north-easterly that had Kearns and his crew on track for a dominant overall win.

As they turned right into Storm Bay they were confronted by a wall of yachts, stuck in limbo, which had been there for hours waiting for some wind to heave them over the last 40 miles of the race.

Hours evaporated, and took with them any chance Kearns had of beating Balance.

"They were predicting a midnight finish for us which would've beaten Paul by four-and-a-half hours," Kearns said.

"We got around the corner and there was a dozen boats parked there and they'd been there for hours while we had the north easter screaming down the coast.

"That was about 7pm. From 7pm until about 3am, it took us all that time, the whole group of us to get that 29 miles across to Iron Pot."

Next came the Derwent and more hours of frustration. They needed to finish by 7.30am to wrap up second spot, but didn't clock home until 7.36am – more than 12 hours after turning into Storm Bay just 40 miles back.

"Someone sent me a photo and they said this is you at 5am, and 6am, and 7am, and there was the finish line and there was us," Kearns said.

"There was a lot of tensions on board, no one said a word because there was nothing you could say that you weren't going to strangle that person."

By that stage Clitheroe's crew had already flown home having figured Komatsu Azzurro would beat them easily, and had to board flights back to Hobart for the race presentation.

Meanwhile, Kearns was met by the French team at the dock in Hobart who had ended up with second spot. He was greeted by the skipper and introduced to the crew as "Skipper d'Azzurro, le loser".

Worse was to come in the months that followed at home in Drummoyne.

"All the shopkeepers, over the next month they're all 'Ahh you almost won'," Kearns said.

"My doctor was going to give me anti-loser pills. My wife she said every morning 'I'm going to work again', because apparently she bet a lot of money.

"My daughter was the classic one. On every rent ad and everything she'd cross out and say 'Dad lost my deposit'.

"Until we start this year I won't have got rid of that baggage."