Para-athletes will have the opportunity to participate in two events throughout the event which is taking place for the fifth year running.

Although established for sailors across the globe, Australian Paralympic champion Liesl Tesch, who will compete in the SKUD 18 class, described the event as "really just a local regatta for us, even though it's a World Cup event."

She added: "International rivals show up more often as the Paralympics come closer because it's so expensive to get a boat to the other side of the world.

"Being back on the racetrack in Australia with Australian competitors is going to be really exciting,"

Tesch, and new partner Duncan McGregor, will face five other teams in the SKUD 18 class, four from Australia and one from Singapore.

Liesl Tesch took gold with partner Dan Fitzgibbon in the SKUD 18 class at the London 2012 Paralympic Games ©Getty Images



Tesch is looking to build on last year's success, when she won London 2012 gold in the event and was also the 2012 ISAF World Cup winner.

"It's quite exciting because Dan [Fitzgibbon] and I have worked to get such efficient communication and you take it for granted how good we are at it," Tesch said.

"And so getting on a boat with someone else, it takes a while to get new communication worked out between you, so that's going to be a challenge.

"Who knows, we may end up hating each other at the end of the week."

The other event for para-athletes featured on the World Cup circuit is that of the 2.4 metre one-person keelboat.

This race will see seven competitor battle it out for first place, six of which coming from Australia and the last from New Zealand.

World Number nine Mathew Bugg is the favourite to come out on top of this event.

The second leg of the World Cup series follows on from the event held in Qingdao, China, last month with the following event due to be held in Miami at the end of January next year.

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