Australian Sailing has entered a six-year partnership with Southern Pacific Boats, naming the Australasian manufacturer the official RIB supplier of Australian Sailing and the Australian Sailing Team through the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games. The agreement will put Southern Pacific support boats alongside athletes and coaches through the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympic cycles.
Southern Pacific will supply PerformR and SeekR RIBs to the Australian Sailing Team coaching fleet. These boats are not the racing craft themselves, but they play an essential role in coaching, safety, race support and the day-to-day work required to run high-performance sailing programmes on the water.
RIBs join the national coaching fleet
Coach boats need to operate reliably across long training days while carrying people, equipment and communications gear close to racing yachts and dinghies. The partnership gives Australian Sailing a defined RIB supplier for that work rather than treating support craft as an incidental part of the programme.
Australian Sailing says the PerformR and SeekR ranges will work alongside athletes as preparation builds toward both Olympic campaigns. That should also give the manufacturer sustained exposure to demanding use cases where ride, stability, layout and durability matter more than showroom presentation alone.
Affiliated clubs get access to partnership pricing
The agreement extends beyond the elite team, with Australian Sailing affiliated clubs being offered exclusive pricing on Southern Pacific RIBs. The stated aim is to help clubs invest in boats for race management, coaching, safety and other forms of on-water support.
That club element makes the partnership more relevant to the wider leisure-boating market because RIBs are a common working platform at sailing schools, regattas and yacht clubs. A boat that spends its life supporting training sessions and events can accumulate intensive engine hours and repeated beach, pontoon and trailer handling.
Six-year deal runs through Brisbane 2032
The length of the agreement gives both organisations time to develop the relationship beyond a single campaign or event. Australian Sailing describes it as a global partnership running through the home Olympic Games in Brisbane, providing continuity across two complete Olympic cycles.
For Southern Pacific Boats, the programme provides a high-visibility reference fleet in an environment closely watched by sailing clubs and coaches. Leisure Boat Guide will track the specific PerformR and SeekR configurations supplied to the team as more technical detail becomes publicly available.