Wild Rose aims for double

This year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will field a fleet of a 111 yachts, including 25 internationals. Among them is Wild Rose, the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner, hoping to make it two in a row.

International entries are at an all-time high, bolstered by the 12 British-based Clipper round-the-world yachts which last sailed the race in 2013. Mainland China is fielding two entries for its first foray into the race with Ark323 and Fei Li, while Eric De Turckheim’s Teasing Machine is representing landlocked Switzerland.

KLC Bengal returns from Japan having finished the 2012 race in 12th place overall and Italy’s Giovani Soldini will race the V70,

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The USA is hanging its hopes on Jim Clark and Kristy HinzeClark’s super-maxi Comanche. Germany will be backing the Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt’s Haspa Hamburg, while Gijs Van Liebergen’s King’s Legend is coming from the Netherlands.

Australia’s fate rests with eight-time line honours champion Wild Oats XI, Black Jack and Chinese Whisper at the larger end of the scale. In the middle of the fleet are the TP52S Balance (Paul Clitheroe), Cougar II (Anthony Lyall) and Celestial (Sam Haynes).

All competitors have to carry a new, compulsory navigation device this year – the Automatic Identification System – to allow commercial ships to easily spot yachts.

The Race starts on Boxing Day, December 26 at 1pm AEDT.