Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron takes its third SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific title
by Harry Fisher 31 Mar 18:23 NZDT
21-23 March 2025
SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific title © Down Under Sail
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron has reinforced its reputation of its sailors after taking out its third SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific - Final last weekend at Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club as a part of the Sailfest Regatta.
Led by Zac West, the team of two male and two female out sailed the five other clubs who had made it to the Finals. Leading after the 21 race Qualifying Series with an impressive 13 bullets and then progressed through the Final Four Series taking the trophy with a win in the first race.
This year's event saw six clubs from across Australian and the Pacific Islands compete in the finals, being; Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Cercle Nautique Calédonien, Woollahra Sailing Club, Royal Perth Yacht Club, Vanuatu Cruising Yacht Club and host club Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club. The format of the event is League Sailing, where clubs are represented by two male and two females competing in multiple short, umpired fleet races to take the title of "Top Club" and to then go onto battle clubs from across the worlds at the SCL Finals in Europe later this year.
Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, hosted this years final as a part of their annual Sailfest program, with the TP52 racing offshore and the SCL:AP sailing the Elliott 6M's right in town off Honeysuckle Wharf. The regatta consisted of three days, half a day of practice on the Friday followed by the Qualification Series until 1pm Sunday, with then the top four teams racing off in a Final Four Series, with the winning team the first to win two races with the winner of the Qualifying Series carrying through one first place into this final. Despite the often challenging weather NCYC got through 21 Qualifying Series races, in mainly light and sometime wet conditions.
The qualification series was fierce throughout with some highly competitive racing seeing many clubs in the hunt. At the end of the 21 qualifying races, it was the teams from Cercle Nautique Caledonien, Woollahra Sailing Club and Royal Perth Yacht Club who joined RSYS in the Final on Sunday afternoon.
The Final started at 1pm, in the steadiest wind of the day and the experience of the RSYS team was on show. Only needing to win one more race Zac and his team held their nerve to takeout the first race of the finals, thus deservedly winning the entire event. The minor places went to CNC in second, WSC third and RPYC taking fourth. This was a very fair result as it matches the rankings after the Qualifying Series.
In the Youth Division (U23) Ethan Lozevski led the Woollahra Sailing Club team to the win as well as third place overall.
As a result of their performances in Newcastle the top teams will now be invited to take on the best clubs from around the world at the applicable SCL World Finals being:
- SCL World Final (Open): Kiel, Germany. Jul 11 - Jul 13
- SCL World Final (Women): Berlin, Germany. Aug 29 - Aug 31
- SCL World Final (Youth): Altea, Spain. Nov 07 - Nov 09
For more information about SAILING Champions League - Asia Pacific, and for full results, head to
sailing-championsleague.asia.