The Extreme Sailing series is some of the fastest and most furious sailing you'll ever watch, and this year you can watch it live with a stop in Australia next December!

Think of an Americas Cup with smaller boats, more competitors and more stops around the world, and you have the Extreme Sailing Series. It's a spectator based sailing series that's run on short courses in stadium style arenas, with professional crews and now hydrofoiling catamarans. Sound exciting? It is!

Now in its 10th year, the Extreme Sailing Series started out with their own class of catamaran, the Extreme 40, designed by Tornadosport and designer Yves Loday back in 2005. The boat continued in the series though 2015, providing spectacular viewing for the crowds, but now somewhat outdated technology. This year, they'll be racing CG32's…

Event Director Andy Tourell is excited about the new boats used in the series, explaining, "2016 marks the tenth year of competition for the Extreme Sailing Series and it is going to be a milestone year for us in more ways than one, not least the change of racing platform to the GC32 which brings with it a whole new dimension to the racing and public experience."

Never heard of a GC32? You will after this series, the 32 foot racing catamaran was designed to be a smaller, more fun version of the Extreme 40. Quickly after release, the designers made it fully foiling on J foils, and the rest is history. Claiming a recorded top speed of 38 knots, the little cat that quite literally flies has begun a new era of high profile racing in the Extreme Sailing Series for 2016.

The season opens for real in March, sailing off Muscat in Oman then travelling around the world to China, the UK, Germany, Turkey, Portugal and finishing up in Australia in December. Actual locations aren't yet published for the Australian stop, but we'll bring them to you in the Events page right here on Seabreeze as soon as they are!

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