Michael Spies, the skipper of last year's Sydney to Hobart overall winner, believes the field for this year is a lot more open with the bigger boats coming more into contention.

His 40-footer First National Real Estate was the last overall winner to come from the IMS division with race organisers deciding the victor for 2004 would come from the IRC class.

The move will enable all the big maxis to vie for overall honours as some of them last year were not eligible for the IMS division.

However, the IRC division has a faster speed limit than the IMS restriction which means the fancied line honours contenders like super maxis Skandia, Konica Minolta and Nicorette now all have a genuine chance of doing the overall-line honours double.

"If it is a big boat race, the first big boat on IRC will no doubt be the overall winner," Spies said.

"I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing for the race, I think the rule makers have made their decision and you've got to try to optimise and exploit those rules the best way you see fit."

Spies said the switch wouldn't necessarily make it harder for a smaller boat to win the race, but would increase the amount of potential contenders.

"You still need a little bit of a break with the weather. You can do everything perfectly, but if you don't get the last bit of the race right from the Tasman to the Derwent, you're shot," Spies said.

"It probably hasn't made it any harder (for the smaller boats to win overall), it's probably just made the field a lot more open this year."

Spies was aboard Nokia in 1999 when it won line honours and set the existing race record, but had to wait until his 27th attempt last year to score an overall win.

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