There are yachts that acquire a new name and leave their earlier lives quietly astern, while others carry every chapter with them, their carbon hulls becoming floating archives of triumph, disappointment, reinvention and survival. Christian Beck’s 100-foot supermaxi belongs firmly in the second group, having raced as Speedboat, Rambler 100, Perpetual LOYAL, InfoTrack and LawConnect during an extraordinary career extending across some of the world’s most demanding offshore races. The familiar InfoTrack name has now returned ahead of the 2026 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, where Beck and his 21-strong crew will chase another victory across 628 nautical miles of frequently unforgiving water between Sydney Harbour and the River Derwent.
InfoTrack enters the Boxing Day race carrying two consecutive line honours victories achieved under the LawConnect name in 2023 and 2024, followed by second place behind Master Lock Comanche in the punishing 2025 edition. The yacht’s wider history includes another Sydney Hobart line honours success as Perpetual LOYAL in 2016, giving the Juan Kouyoumdjian design three first-to-finish victories across three distinct periods of its Australian career. Beck’s campaign therefore returns under an earlier identity without beginning again, since the boat already knows the Tasman Sea, Bass Strait and final approach to Hobart better than many yachts half its age.
The yacht was launched in New Zealand in 2008 as Speedboat, a 100-foot design created by Juan Kouyoumdjian and built by Cookson Boats for American owner Alex Jackson. Conceived during an era when designers were exploring the outer limits of canting-keel monohulls, the boat combined enormous sail-carrying power with the lightweight construction and long waterline required to maintain extraordinary offshore speeds. It quickly demonstrated its potential by taking line honours in the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race, completing the 635-mile course in 64 hours, 42 minutes and 56 seconds.
George David later campaigned the yacht as Rambler 100, building an international programme around a machine capable of producing spectacular speed in open water. The boat’s reputation was forever changed during the 2011 Fastnet Race when its keel failed after rounding Fastnet Rock, causing the yacht to capsize in the Celtic Sea. Every crew member survived, although the incident became one of the most serious and closely examined structural failures in modern offshore racing.
Recovery and rebuilding gave the yacht another life, while its eventual arrival in Australia under Anthony Bell opened a new chapter as Perpetual LOYAL. Bell initially endured difficult Sydney Hobarts, including retirements in 2014 and 2015, before everything came together during the 2016 race. Perpetual LOYAL took line honours and established a race record of 1 day, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 20 seconds, proving that a design launched eight years earlier could still defeat younger rivals when preparation, weather and crew work aligned.
Christian Beck purchased the boat from Bell in 2017 and renamed it InfoTrack, placing his legal technology business across its immense hull and sails. The early results showed how difficult the Sydney Hobart can remain even aboard a 100-footer, with fourth across the line in 2017 followed by a penalty for failing to lodge a mandatory declaration. InfoTrack finished second behind Comanche in 2019 after a five-boat supermaxi contest, while further second places followed as the yacht continued challenging newer designs without quite securing Beck’s first line honours victory.
The name changed to LawConnect as another of Beck’s technology businesses took over the campaign, although the essential character remained familiar. Beck continued combining professional offshore sailors with company employees experiencing the race for the first time, creating a programme that was highly competitive without losing its unconventional personality. That approach finally delivered one of the great Sydney Hobart finishes in 2023, when LawConnect caught Andoo Comanche during the final miles and crossed the line only 51 seconds ahead after more than 600 nautical miles of racing.
That finish became the second closest line honours result in Sydney Hobart history, decided on the River Derwent after Comanche had appeared capable of protecting its lead. LawConnect maintained pressure through the final approach, found the necessary speed in the light and uncertain conditions and completed a victory that rewarded years of near misses. The 2024 race produced another line honours win, this time in 1 day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds, confirming that the 2008 design remained capable of winning against more recent opposition.
The return of the InfoTrack name marks another stage in Beck’s ownership, accompanied by the Sailing for a Purpose campaign supporting Starlight Children’s Foundation. The charity works with seriously ill children and their families, bringing moments of happiness into circumstances often dominated by hospitals, treatment and uncertainty. Beck wants the campaign to connect the enormous Sydney Hobart audience with Starlight, using onboard technology and live coverage to involve viewers while encouraging donations throughout the sailing season and race.
Australian media personality and 2026 Australian Father of the Year Matty J, also known as Matthew Johnson, has joined the programme as its official ambassador and will sail aboard InfoTrack as part of the crew. Johnson has supported Starlight since 2024 and arrives aboard the supermaxi with limited sailing experience, having made learning to sail one of his New Year resolutions. His presence will offer a very different view of the race from that provided by the professional sailors, because the first night outside Sydney Heads aboard a fully powered 100-footer can be startling even for someone accustomed to offshore boats.
InfoTrack plans to use an extensive onboard camera system to carry that experience ashore, including live coverage during the hours of darkness when much of the decisive sailing takes place beyond public view. Technology cannot reproduce the physical violence, noise and exhaustion aboard a supermaxi, although it can reveal the speed of sail changes, the pressure of tactical decisions and the concentration required when more than twenty crew members must move across a loaded deck in darkness.
The line honours contest will contain four 100-foot maxis, each carrying a history substantial enough to fill its own book. InfoTrack will face Anthony Bell’s Tribeca LOYAL, Grant Wharington’s Wild Thing 100 and Mark Richards’s Palm Beach XI, creating a contest between yachts built, modified and campaigned according to markedly different philosophies. Weather will ultimately decide which characteristics matter most, because the fastest boat in a following breeze may not remain the best machine when punching into the short, steep seas frequently found along the New South Wales coast.
Tribeca LOYAL is the former Comanche, one of the most powerful monohulls ever built and the holder of the Sydney Hobart race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds. Its immense beam, wide stern and formidable reaching power make it especially dangerous when the wind moves aft, while five line honours victories have established the design as one of the most successful maxis in race history. The yacht won again in 2025 before joining Bell’s revived LOYAL programme, giving the 2026 fleet a defending line honours winner carrying a new name and an experienced crew.
Bell’s return adds another layer to the rivalry because he previously owned the same yacht now racing as InfoTrack. His Perpetual LOYAL programme delivered line honours and a race record in 2016, while Bell also won aboard Investec LOYAL in 2011. Tribeca LOYAL will be sailed by a distinguished team led by sailing master Tom Slingsby, whose Olympic, America’s Cup and SailGP experience will be supported by navigator Andy Green and several sailors from the boat’s successful 2025 campaign.
Palm Beach XI carries an even longer Sydney Hobart record, having previously raced as Wild Oats XI and accumulated nine line honours victories under the late Bob Oatley’s ownership. Mark Richards skippered those campaigns and now owns the yacht, which has undergone substantial modifications including a deeper keel fin, a new bulb and advanced daggerboards. The narrow Reichel/Pugh design differs markedly from the broad and powerful Tribeca LOYAL, while its ability to move efficiently through difficult seas has been demonstrated across two decades of offshore racing.
Wild Thing 100 provides the fourth element of the contest under the experienced direction of Grant Wharington and Adrian Seiffert. The yacht began life as an 80-footer before being extended to 100 feet, creating a lighter and more unusual platform than its purpose-built rivals. A taller rig and updated sail wardrobe have increased its power, although the boat’s performance remains particularly sensitive to sea state. Flat water and reaching conditions can release impressive speed, while steep head seas can punish its lighter structure and make reliability as important as outright pace.
The tactical contest begins inside Sydney Harbour, where four immense boats must find clear air while avoiding slower yachts and the disturbed wind created by the surrounding shoreline. Once outside the Heads, navigators must decide whether to remain offshore in stronger current and cleaner breeze or move closer to the coast in search of favourable wind angles. The East Australian Current can provide valuable southbound assistance, although its eddies and boundaries may create sharp differences between boats separated by relatively small distances.
Bass Strait introduces another weather system and another sea state, while the Tasmanian coast offers no guarantee of a straightforward finish. Strong northerly winds could turn the race into a high-speed reaching contest favouring the most powerful boats, while a southerly change would create a punishing upwind battle where structural reliability, sail selection and crew endurance become decisive. Light conditions near Tasman Island or inside Storm Bay can erase an apparently secure lead, while the River Derwent has frequently reduced powerful maxis to drifting giants waiting for a final breath of wind.
The Sydney Hobart began in 1945 when Captain John Illingworth suggested turning a planned cruise to Tasmania into a race. Nine yachts started, while Illingworth’s 35-foot Rani reached Hobart in 6 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes to win both line and overall honours. The event developed into one of the world’s most respected offshore races, gaining a reputation through powerful weather, remarkable seamanship and the contrast between professional maxis and family or Corinthian yachts competing across the same stretch of ocean.
Line honours is recognised through the Illingworth Challenge Cup, named after the skipper whose suggestion created the race, while the Tattersall Cup remains the coveted prize for the overall winner on corrected time. The distinction matters because the first yacht into Hobart gains the immediate attention, while a smaller boat may later emerge as the finest performer once its handicap has been applied.
The 2026 fleet contains 107 confirmed starters, ranging from the four 100-foot line honours contenders to proven handicap performers and much smaller offshore yachts. Previous overall winners Alive and Love & War return with histories of their own, while TP52s, Volvo 70s, double-handed crews and determined private campaigns will pursue the Tattersall Cup long after the supermaxis disappear beyond the southern horizon.
InfoTrack will start from Sydney Harbour at 13:00 AEDT on Saturday, 26 December, carrying the experience of a yacht that has already lived several competitive lifetimes. The name may have returned, although neither the boat nor Beck’s campaign is attempting to recreate an earlier era. Live technology, the Starlight partnership and a mixture of professional sailors, employees and a high-profile newcomer give the campaign a fresh identity, while the ambition at its centre remains reassuringly traditional.
Three formidable 100-foot rivals stand between InfoTrack and another line honours victory, each capable of winning if the weather matches its strengths and the crew avoids the mistakes that become costly at supermaxi speeds. The result may be settled by an ocean current, a sail change, a mechanical failure or the final patch of wind on the Derwent, which is precisely why the old yacht keeps returning. InfoTrack has changed names, owners and expectations across eighteen years, yet the next race still begins with the same promise that has carried it through every reinvention: Hobart is waiting, and another victory remains possible.
