The Australia Sail Grand Prix has become the ninth event in the global championship’s Season 2 schedule, event organisers have announced.

SailGP is set to return to the iconic Sydney Harbour on December 17 and 18 after the European stage of Season 2 which — after a stop in Italy — continues on to England, Denmark, France and Spain.

The Australia Sail Grand Prix forms part of the league’s expanded second-season roster that features events in iconic harbours around the world, with SailGP’s eight teams competing in identical 50-foot flying catamarans which produces incredibly close racing.

Australia SailGP Team, led by Olympic gold medal-winner Tom Slingsby, are the reigning series champions who will go head-to-head in Sydney against the remaining seven national teams from Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United States.

After Sydney, SailGP will head to New Zealand in January 2022, followed by San Francisco, which will host the Grand Final on March 26 and 27, when the champion of Season 2 will be determined in a single $1 million winner-takes-all final.

Bermuda hosted the delayed Season 2 opening Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess in the Great Sound in April.

Sir Ben Ainslie, the most decorated Olympic sailor, and his Great Britain SailGP Team colleagues won the inaugural regatta while setting a F50 speed record of 94.8km/h (59.9mph) in the process.

Sydney hosted the original SailGP Season 2 in February 2020 before the season was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.