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Steve Proud, skipper of Swish writes, 'The largest one design keelboat class recognised by World Sailing held it’s 2025 Australian Championship at Sandringham Yacht Club from 15th to 18th January.

For those unfamiliar with the J/70, it's a 7 metre keelboat that behaves somewhat like a small yacht upwind and more like a skiff downwind. Downwind, the J/70 has several modes, depending on wind conditions and tactical requirements. These range from displacement sailing in lighter air, to wing on wing when the breeze is between 10 and 15 knots, and full planing when boat speed exceeds 12 knots in winds of 16 knots or more.

These boats are loads of fun to sail and are the most affordable planing keel boat class going around. Nearly 2,000 boats have been built with large fleet in USA, South America and many European countries. The fleet in Australia is growing too.

At Sandringham, the 21 competitors got everything from light to moderate airs and two days of full noise of 18 to 25kts. The breeze was accompanied by the renowned Port Phillip Bay chop whenever the breeze got up.

Competitors included four RSYS entries; Swish, Anemology, Jabiru and Jabberwocky. Sandringham entries included the six J/70s owned by the Club, sailed by members of its youth training program.

Racing at the top of the fleet was tight. After the full program of 11 races was a completed Chris Dare’s Ambition from Sandringham came out on top, David Dougherty’s Matador (CYCA) was second and Steve Proud’s Swish (RSYS) was third.

The regatta was sponsored by Ensign Yachts, the Australian J/Boat agent and North Sails who generously contributed a J/70 jib as an encouragement award. The Jabiru team won the mixed-plus division and received the Jib from North Sails for their efforts. 



Left to right - Andrew Lee, Danielle Gerace, Massimo Henderson (RSYS youth captain), Billy Sykes (Norths), Rhian Hughes, Olivia Lee, Aaron Cole (Norths)

The regatta was also the first of four events to be held this year that will determine selection of the two Australian nominees for the J/70 World Championship 2026 in Cascais, Portugal. J/70 World Championships are hotly contested, with approximately 100 competitors on the start line each year.'

See the full results