Entries have closed for the 81st Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 107 yachts confirmed for the Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour.
Four 100-foot maxis will headline the sprint for Line Honours: Christian Beck's LawConnect, Anthony Bell's Loyal, Mark Richards's Palm Beach XI and Grant Wharington's Wild Thing 100. All four will chase the Illingworth Challenge Cup, awarded to the first boat home in Hobart, and three of the four have won it before.
Before any of that, the big boats get a form guide. The 2026 Australian Maxi Championship runs from 4 to 8 December, giving the maxi fleet one last tune-up before turning south for Boxing Day.
Overall honours, though, are where the real story sits.
Jiang Lin returns to defend the Tattersall Cup aboard a new boat, the JPK 10.50 Min River, sailing again with co-skipper Alexis Loison. Last year Lin became the first woman, and the first double-handed sailor, to win the Tattersall Cup outright.
"I never set out to win the Tattersall Cup. For us, it's about doing our best, enjoying the race and having as much fun as possible. Just because we won last year doesn't mean we'll win it again, it's a new race and anything can happen," Lin said.
"Alexis and I had such a great time sailing together last year, and we made some wonderful memories together. That's the feeling I want to recreate this year."
She added that the chance to buy the JPK 10.50 came up while she was in France. "I couldn't resist the temptation. This will be my sixth Rolex Sydney Hobart and having been a CYCA Member for almost ten years, this race means a lot to me."
The double-handed division keeps growing. There are 18 two-person entries this year, including Min River, Rupert Henry's Mistral and Jules Hall's Disko Trooper.
Elsewhere in the fleet, Matt Allen is back aboard Ichi Ban, the Volvo 70 formerly raced as Willow and, before that, as Celestial V70, which won overall honours in 2024. Alive, the Tasmanian R/P66 skippered by Duncan Hines with navigator Adrienne Cahalan on board, returns as a two-time overall winner chasing a third. Love & War, a three-time overall champion and a fixture of Sydney Hobart history, is back again after finishing third outright last year.
Five TP52s are entered, among them Sebastian Bohm's Smuggler and David Doherty's Islero, formerly known as Caro. Thirteen women own or skipper boats in this year's fleet, including Elizabeth Tucker's First Light, which will race two-handed. Eight international entries have made the trip for this edition.
CYCA Commodore David Jacobs framed the race as something bigger than the results sheet.
"The Rolex Sydney Hobart is an iconic event that showcases the very best of offshore sailing and the unique spirit of our sport. From the spectacle of the Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour to the extraordinary scenes at Constitution Dock in Hobart, the race captures the imagination of people across Australia and around the world."
"What makes this race so special is the connection between the competitors and the communities that support them. Thousands of spectators line the harbour to farewell the fleet, and in Hobart, sailors are welcomed like heroes after taking on one of the world's great ocean racing challenges."
The Boxing Day start will be broadcast live on Channel Nine in Australia, with global streaming via the race website and CYCA's YouTube channel, CYCATV.
