A 12-year-old boy will be among those competing in this year's Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race. Entries for the 54th staging of the 630-nautical mile race on Australia's east coast closed on Tuesday, with a total of 116 yachts registered for the race which starts on December 26th.

Travis Foley, from Mudgee, in the Australian State of New South Wales, will sail on Aspect Computing, a yacht which will be crewed by sailors with disabilities. organisers said. Race spokesman Peter Campbell said Foley, who has dyslexia, is not the youngest person to sail in the event. He said the four-year-old daughter of Australian yachtsman Rolly Tasker was aboard maxi yacht Siska in the mid-1970s.