As of October 5, the J/24 class has a new world champion!

Travis Odenbach and his Honeybadger team from Rochester Yacht Club came out on top at the 2024 Seattle J/24 World Championship presented by Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. Honeybadger won the last race by what looked like a mile, after having led the 56-boat fleet since mid-regatta.  Regardless of their finishing order, sailors young and old who came to Seattle for the event were rewarded with nine races over five days in the full range of conditions and daily after parties onshore.

Reflecting on his World Championship title, Odenbach recognized the great contributions of his teammates. When asked how he won, Odenbach said: “Obviously with this team. They are the best team I have sailed with, and they are best friends. Dave Hughes, Monica Morgan, Jeff Sullivan, and Jay Miles… I am thrilled to have this team.”

J/24 sailors came to Shilshole Bay from 11 countries to compete in this championship that has been hosted every year since 1981 in iconic racing venues from Sydney, Australia to Lake Garda, Italy. The J/24 may have been the very first J/Boat ever designed, but it is still the largest one design keelboat class in the world and to emphasize how the class is still attracting new members: 10 of the 56 teams were under 25-years-old or all female.  

Winning the J/24 worlds is no small endeavor as Mike Ingham will tell you. This year he took home the second-place trophy for the third time. Mike led the regatta after the second day but could not answer the back-to-back first place finishes recorded by Honeybadger on day three.

Going into the final day, with eight races completed, the first and second places were established, but Nobukuki Imai and his team on Siesta were sitting in third place with only four points separating them from their home country rival, Kohei Ichikawa on Gekko Diana.  

When the starting gun sounded for the start of the ninth and final race, the new Vakaros RaceSense GPS starting system flagged Siesta over early.  Even though this new system communicated “OCS” and “Clear” immediately, taking away the usual uncertainty when a boat jumps the gun, it was still a big setback for the Siesta team. 

Siesta worked back from OCS to 18th, but Gekko Diana scored a second place in the race and took third place overall. The fateful early start almost shot Siesta out of the top five, but they held onto fourth place by just one point ahead of a tie for fifth, which Jakob Lichtenberg’s Hair of the Dog won by tiebreaker. 

The competition on the water was heated with plenty of vocal, elbows out, aggression on the starting line, but there were no general recalls, thanks to the expert work by Principal Race Officer, Mark Foster, who shared the credit with his new technological tools when he said: “We used a lot of technology in this regatta. The Vakaros RaceSense starts the races for us. I call the line but I rely on them to give me the actual numbers. The Mark [Set] Bots were amazing because I was able to use one for the pin and square the gates so they were never out of whack.”

This new race management technology is rapidly being adopted around the world. Growing almost as fast as the J/24 did after Rod Johnstone narrowly extracted Ragtime, the prototype J/24 from his 24 foot long garage in 1977. During that first year, over 500 boats were delivered, and 200 more were pre ordered.  

This was my third J/24 World Championship experience, after Kingston, Ontario in 1989, and Annapolis, Maryland in 1992. Back then, in my twenties, I underappreciated how the new friends I was making would be the old friends I have now. Nothing could tell that story better than our crew on Self Abuse.

The age of a J/24 is given away by its sail number. Presumably Ragtime was clad in sail number 01. Seattle’s Harry Dursch bought sail number 2845 in 1981, christened her Self Abuse, and has been racing her ever since. At 43 years old, Harry’s Self Abuse is the longest continually owned and raced J/24 in Seattle, and maybe the world. 

Harry said: “Buying Self Abuse back in 1981 led to lifelong friendships and travel to spectacular regatta venues I would never have visited otherwise. Our team for the 2024 Worlds was a great combination of old friends and new friends. Our team came together and focused on doing as well as we could. Now I’m looking forward to the next 43 years!”

Our team on Self Abuse could also have the highest combined age of any team at 279 years—including 18-year-old Esther Goodell. While it seems like it must be a typo, I asked Ryan Milne, skipper of one of the under 25 teams, for their combined age and he said 97. And if you think the additional 182 years we were hauling around the course gave us an advantage, just listen to the respect Ryan had for his team when he said: “The personalities on the boat all gelled together really easily. This summer was the most fun I’ve ever had with a team. One thing’s for sure, I’d sail with any of them any time.”

In addition to the new old friends she was making on Self Abuse, Esther was starting new young friendships that could go anywhere. 

“One of my favorite parts was walking up and down the docks every morning. Each day the number of people I knew increased and so did the time it took me to walk to the bathroom. I ended the week with quite a few friends and plans to see each other again. I enjoyed getting to know the crew on my own boat, Self Abuse, and after racing I spent the evenings with the youth teams, stirring up trouble with kids from Colorado, Germany, New York, Portland, and Japan. I now have plans to snowboard with new friends in Colorado and see some Germans in Australia,” Esther said.

Over 5,600 J/24s have been built and are actively raced in 150 fleets in over 40 countries worldwide, making it easy to get a boat and join the fun. Six years ago, Kurt Dammeier, CEO of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, had never raced a sailboat when he looked out at the dozens of boats racing on Lake Washington on Tuesday nights. “I bought a J/24 online, with absolutely no idea what I was doing…worked really hard for six years and now here we are! We are proud to have the Seattle area show so well, and to have Beecher’s at the top of that, it warms my heart,” Kurt said.

Seattle sailors have traveled the world making friends and winning world championships. One such traveler, Denny Vaughan, wanted to have the World Championships in Seattle. Regatta Chair Jon Anderson remembers how Denny got the idea started, “This was a great opportunity that Denny Vaughan, who is Vice President of the Class and local sailor on Easy Street, said let’s bring the worlds to Seattle. It’s our turn to show the world what racing in Seattle is like and how Corinthian Yacht Club is such a great host club.”

Two-time world champion Keith Whittemore was critical to the success of the event. Keith and his team had competed in 10 world championships around the globe and had made many friends along the way. “We have made a ton of very close friends in the J/24 community from all over the world. Being able to host them and entertain them in our lovely Seattle was a wonderful experience. We knew every boat that participated,” Keith said.

Brian Thomas, a member of Keith’s two winning worlds teams, captured the spirit of friendship he has experienced in the J/24 class when he said, “I’ve always appreciated being able to race all around the world. What’s been the most surprising is the quality and duration of so many friendships created on and off the racecourse. Our hosting the J/24 Worlds here in Seattle was an opportunity to welcome everyone and connect once again. While our team did not compete, we were all here. Some racing, and some like Keith and me, observing, hosting, cheering, and smiling. Racing J/24s is the gift that keeps on giving.”

J/24s are easy to find, economical to race, and the fleets are full of welcoming new fiends. You can get one and travel the world racing in beautiful places. Winning the World Championships may take a few tries however, because the competition is formidable.  

The next J/24 World Championship will be held from September 6 to 14, 2025 in Plymouth, England. www.j24worlds2025.com.

To get involved in J/24 sailing in Seattle:  https://www.cycseattle.org/J/24

For full results, news articles, and video links about the regatta:  https://www.j24worldsseattle.org