Four Canadian Sharks in Top 5 at Worlds in Austria
October 5, 2022
Jeff Mitchell from Quinte YC in Belleville ON placed fifth / Photos: Gert Schmidleitner
Shark designer George Hinterholler was in Canada in 1959 when he built the first boat of the popular class, but the Shark has many fans in his country of birth, Austria, and in several other European countries, particularly Germany. In mid-September, seven Canadian teams and 21 sailors from Ontario participated in the 2022 Shark Worlds in Bregenz, Austria at the Yacht Club Bregenz. The participating crews represented NOLSC, KYC, BQYC, RCYC, WYC and NYC. Four of the boats finished in the top five in a fleet of 42.
We sailed in very challenging condition from no wind to 38 knots squalls. It was evident from the first race that it was a battle between top two boats as they had a different gear from the rest of us. It left the rest of us battling for 3rd.
Left: 42 Sharks, mostly from Europe on the line
Right: Kingston YC’s Peter Van Rossem brought back second place / Photo: Edgar Jenny
After seven races, the home sider Binder Christian’s Austrian boat took the gold but Canadians Peter Van Rossem, Matt Fair, and Stan Wallace, CAN 176 from Kingston Yacht Club placed second; John Brunt, Rod Gardner, and David Deboy of National Yacht Club placed third; Whitby Yacht Club’s Cameron Smith, Chris Russell, and Rob Vanderperk took fourth with Jeff Mitchell, Nancy Harvey and Peter Aker capturing fifth.
