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The Australian Sail Grand Prix will return to Sydney Harbour in December with Olympic champion Tom Slingsby skippering Team Australia.

The Australia Sail Grand Prix will return to Sydney Harbour in December with Olympic champion Tom Slingsby leading the local attack.

The SailGP event will be staged on December 17 and 18 after the European leg, which is staged over five countries.

The Australian leg forms part of the league's expanded second-season roster that features nine events in iconic harbours around the world.

Each of SailGP's eight teams race in identical 50-foot flying catamarans, with Australia the season one champions, taking home the $1 million winner-take-all purse.

With a crew of five, skipper Slingsby will go head-to-head in Sydney against seven national teams from Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the USA.

"Having eight F50's lined up and racing on Sydney Harbour is going to be a pretty spectacular sight for fans and with the calibre of sailors we have on these boats thisyear, we can expect action-packed racing," Slingsby said.

"We lost to Ben Ainslie's British team at last year's Sydney event so we are focused on getting revenge and winning the event for Australia in front of a home crowd."

The 2020 Sydney event was held in February and was the only leg that took place before the season was postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two events in season two have been held so far this year with Great Britain winning the first in Bermuda, ahead of Australia.

Japan won the second, held in Italy, with Team Australia placing eighth.