Get ready for some seriously fun, great one design racing on iconic Sydney Harbour!

Manly Yacht Club is proud to host the J24 Youth Challenge on Sunday, 22nd June 2025 — and this is your team’s chance to shine.

Five races. One epic day. Unlimited fun.
Bring your youth team (all sailors under 25) — and we’ll provide the J24. You just bring the passion, teamwork, and competitive edge.

Limited boats are available – don’t miss out! Enter NOW to lock in your spot.

👉 ENTER HERE (https://app.sailsys.com.au/club/23/entry/series/4629/pricing)

This is the perfect warm-up for those aiming at the 2026 J24 Worlds at Sandringham Yacht Club — and a great way to sharpen your skills against the best young crews around.

View the official 2025 NOR J24 Youth Challenge

Challenge your mates. Challenge your rivals. Challenge yourself.
Earn bragging rights, take home prizes, and gain serious respect.

Come and race, connect, and become part of the legendary J24 one design sailing family.

📞 For more info, contact David West on 0413 051 266 or email david.west@sourcedenergy.com.au

We have a number of overseas competitors contemplating bringing a hot boat to the Worlds in Sandringham in 2026. At least two of these owners have contacted me and are willing to bring a boat out to Australia if they can sell it to someone here.
This does mean you would only get the boat after the worlds, but you would be getting a very good ‘5 series’ boat from the current offerings. If you are even slightly interested in this please contact me with an expression of interest and I can put you in touch with one of the US or European owners we already know about.
Simon 0413 870 046

Two recent mast breakages have meant there is an immediate demand for replacement masts. This happens from time to time.
There are two options available, new or used.
With the 2026 Worlds coming up there are number of owners contemplating putting new masts on their boats, this means there maybe very good used masts available that would suit older boats wanting a replacement for an even older mast – new and good used masts do make a difference !
If you are contemplating upgrading an older mast to a new or good used mast, please give me a call and we may be able to help put you in touch with the right person.
Call Simon on 0413 870 046

The 2026 J24 World Championship is being held at the iconic Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne from the 4 – 11th November.
The Organising Committee is excited and proud to announce the confirmation of our Title Sponsor, Peerless Industrial Systems.
They are an Australian company with an international client base involved in the manufacture of Industrial Epoxy Resin Systems under the brand name EPIGEN.
Peerless Industrial Systems have been an industry leader since 1970 in the development and provision of resin-based technology, they are dedicated professionals with technical expertise in the Mining, Water and Power, Oil and Gas, Mineral Processing, Refining, Pipeline, Material Handling and storage industries.
Their resin systems are also used in boat building industries throughout Australia and overseas.
To see more about the company, go to their website https://epigen.com.au
Nick Subotsch from Peerless is excited to come on board with us, “The opportunity to work with an international event like this is the sort of excitement we love being involved with, giving back to active and forward-thinking people is what our company is all about and it is a perfect match for us”.
Now is the time to be thinking about coming ‘down under’ in 2026.

For more information please regularly go to syc.com.au/j24-worlds or get in touch at j24@syc.com.au

Sean Kirkjian’s winning ‘Vice Versa’ crew

Last week the undisputed king of J24s in Australia picked up his 7^th Nationals title.

Sean Kirkjian and crew dominated the racing, finishing 10 races with five firsts to finish on 20pts, 10 clear of second place Brendan Lee.

With the regatta backed by J24 Victoria’s long time Sponsor ‘Hodges Sandringham’ the regatta must rank as one of the most competitive and successful Nationals of recent history. With a perfect week of sunny warm weather ranging from 20+ knots to light drifting conditions the racing was fierce, with the first four finishers all taking race wins.

Very Popular Warren Slater takes out Day 1 Winner

Day one was taken out by Warren Slater sailing ‘Jab’ from Sandringham, a very popular day winner, Warren and crew showed what they are made of with a 1, 3, 4, setting an immediate benchmark and a warning shot across the fleet on the high level of competition to come.

Perfect conditions were the week’s feature

Day winners for days 2, 3, and 4 all have the same name against them, ‘Vice Versa’ (purchased through the regatta from John Neville), with Skipper Sean Kirkjian, from Sydney, and crew of Shane Guanaria, Tony Reynolds (AJ), Oliver Guanaria, and Margot van der Poel, taking each day’s chocolates.

Brendan Lee sailing Great White, and twice national champ in the last few years, fought a continuing battle with Sean and took the overall lead after day two, however Sean crushed this temporary setback with 3 wins and a 2^nd over the next two days.

While the racing was close the rest of the fleet clearly has some work to do.

National President Steve Wright sailing ‘Tinto’ and national champ in 2022 took out third with a runaway win in the last race to take Warren Slater off the podium. With the wind dying in this race only Tinto, Vice Versa and Great White managed to finish, the rest of the fleet chewing boiled lollies when the time limit expired.

There was pain back in the fleet too, with previous national champions, struggling to convert effort into places.  The oldest skipper Dave McKay (Australian Sailor of the year 1969 – and still celebrating !) in the regatta and a wily old fox sailing ‘Stamped Urgent’ came in 6^th behind Simon Grain in ‘Convicts Revenge’.

Close racing from start to finish

A recent record six entries from NSW and two from South Australia built the fleet out to 19 boats, Scott Hagan in the ‘eBay auction’ boat had respectable placings considering he hadn’t sailed a J before the regatta. He was foiled mid-regatta with some mast issues and went through 3 masts in a day, however he is as keen as can be and with only 4 months in Australia from Ireland, is the new SA class rep, new boat owner and fired up in ‘Hey J’. Also from SA was familiar face Sophie Davidson, and her all-female crew on Hi who keep coming back for the regattas and friendly atmosphere. Catherine Thornton-Rofe was the skipper of the other all-female crew sailing Arthur Crother’s ‘Kaotic’ from NSW, also keen, coming in at 14^th. This year the organising committee also introduced a new trophy for the first female helm, award to Janette Syme on Jet who came in 13^th place.

The new ‘Foredeck’ is a perfect after-racing venue

Day winners were celebrated after racing in the SYC new Foredeck extension to the club and provided a welcoming and friendly after race atmosphere, with welcoming free beers for those thirsty palates. A strong social theme ran through the regatta with a number of functions including Daily Recaps, a well attended NSW crew dinner, Thursday night twilight racing (some took the option of viewing from the foredeck cheering Scott Hagan on), a Mexican night and all culminating in the sit down dinner presentation evening. In addition to the hotly contested “J of the Day” was the equally prestigious “pic of the day” and “volunteer of the day” awards which brought a few laughs and celebrated the community spirit that is so intrinsic to the J24 class in Australia. Sean Kirkjian, overall OD winner, brought thunderous applause all round after re-awarding the PHS win to Chris Ravesi in ‘Panarea’ being the next in line after the first three PHS places turned out to be the same as OD.

The 3 Amigos at the Mexican Night getting into the ‘spirits’ of it

Steve Aulich was the RO for the regatta doing a very professional job setting great courses and turning races around fast – thirsty work Steve ! SYC put on a great regatta and the many volunteers helping run the regatta did an excellent job with very little fuss. Our thanks go Sponsor ‘Hodges Sandringham’ again and to the whole Sandringham Yacht Club team for a very successful regatta. With this regatta and next year’s worlds being run up and qualifying regattas for the 2026 Worlds to be held at Sandringham in November, it was excellent practice for competitors and race management alike.

The very professional race management team headed by RO Steve Aulich

Preparations for the Worlds continue and the organising committee will shortly be sharing some exciting sponsorship news to help make these worlds a fantastic ‘Australian flavour’ regatta that both the locals and the visiting overseas competitors will remember for a long time.

Simon.

The Nationals have been done and won.

Sean Kirkjian and team have taken out the chocolates on his new boat ‘Vice Versa’ purchased from John Neville during the regatta. Brendan Lee is second on ‘Great White’ and third is Steve Wright on ‘Tinto’.  Chris Ravesi on ‘Panarea’ is awarded the PHS prize.

For full results go here.

PHS results go here

A full story will come in the next few days.

The 2025 (and 2026) Nationals are being held st Sandringham YC in Melbourne. This is in part as preparation for the 2026 World Championships to be held at Sandringham in November 2026.

More details please go to the Regatta Information page

Read the full story of the worlds with many pictures. Includes reports from Australia, Hungary, Canada, Greece, the Technical Committee and more.

Download the newsletter here:  International Pulse Fall2024-Final-J24