COAL Point sailor Kyle Langford is tipping the English boat to trouble Australia at the 2020 SailGP Championship on Sydney Harbour later this month.
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The championship features the best sailors on the planet piloting the fastest, most technologically advanced catamarans around spectator-friendly courses.
It's been dubbed the Formula One of sailing.
And like the motor racing class, it has a global audience.
Langford was part of the Australian team that won the inaugural SailGP Championship and the $US1-million prize in 2019.
The team was skippered by the Central Coast's Olympic champion and America's Cup winner Tom Slingsby.
Australia's most successful ironman and America's Cup winner Ky Hurst was grinder alongside Sydney to Hobart winners Sam Newton (grinder) and Langford (wing trimmer), with Olympic silver medalist Jason Waterhouse rounding out the team as flight controller.
Australia has named the same team to race in 2020, and Langford said the world was coming to get the Aussies.
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"The competition this year has stepped up a lot," Langford said.
"We had an advantage last season in that our team had sailed a lot together, and had sailed similar boats before.
"This year it's going to be harder for us because everyone has a season under their belt."
There's also an extra two teams competing in 2020.
Denmark and Spain will join the inaugural nations - Australia, France, Great Britain, Japan and the United States - at the start line.
"The big thing is the new team, the Ineos Team UK," Langford said.
"They've got Ben Ainslie who is the most successful sailor in history. He's driving their boat. He's won two Olympic gold medals and he's got a very, very talented team with him."
Langford said the Brits also had the "unlimited resources" of an America's Cup team behind them.
"So they're going to be hard to beat."
Langford said he was rapt to see so many spectators on Sydney Harbour to watch the racing in last year's SailGP Championship.
He's expecting an even bigger turn-out for this year's event on February 28 and 29, because "people now know what it's about".
The Japanese team will again feature the Lake Macquarie duo of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.
