The Shark was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the top honours in Shark racing stays with Niagara-on-the-Lake crews.
The 56th Shark World Championship was held at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Sailing Club over the course of five days last week, with 48 boats entered with crews from as far away as Germany and Austria.
But it was the local crews who took home the trophies.
Josh Wiwcharyk, Alex Letchford and Chris Clarke sailed Crunch to a first place win.
“It was a great crazy day,” said Wiwcharyk. “We were up by a couple points, but it didn't really matter. We couldn't get off the line very well. We were well behind and we made some decisions that we wouldn't have made otherwise. It was a gruelling, stressful race.”
Wiwcharyk explained that they didn’t have fun “until we hit the dock. It wasn't until the dust settled and the scorers did their thing that we knew that we won by one point. We actually thought that we had lost on a tiebreaker.”
Wiwcharyk and his crew sailed to a second place finish when the Worlds were at the NOTL sailing club in 2009.
The Harper brothers placed second. Jacob, Levi and Malcolm are the third generation to sail Rampant Lion. “As each boy turned three years old, they earned a spot to sail on this boat with their grandparents or aunt and uncle,” explained mom, Roberta Harper.
Roberta and her husband Bruce run the regular Wednesday night races with up to 15 boats, “which is kind of like a mini regatta for us,” said Jacob.
Malcolm admitted that it was a tough week of sailing. “It took a lot of clear headspace to keep it together and focus,” he said. “It's definitely tough to do a week-long race like this.”
Levi said he was proud of the trio “for staying mentally tough, but it was hard sailing. We were probably the most consistent as far as being in the top 10 most of the week, and we were able to battle back.”
As for three siblings working so closely in a stressful situation, confined to the small shell of a boat, Jacob said, “it's definitely a bonding experience where we just battle each other out on the race course, but we leave it out on the race course, right?” he asked as he looked at his brothers. “When we come in, we figure out what we need to do for tomorrow, and then we grow on that.”
Richard Hinterhoeller, principal race officer, was responsible for running the races. “I surround myself with a bunch of very experienced and talented people,” Hinterhoeller said. I let them do their job, and we go out there and between the group of us, if we have some nice wind, we end up with some nice races.”
Hinterhoeller's father, George, created the Shark in NOTL in 1959. Richard spoke to the lasting love of the Shark.
“It's the brilliance of the design,” said Hinterhoeller. “What you've got is people like the Harpers and you've got the next group a half generation below them, and they're buying these Sharks and they're putting some time and effort into it, putting some new sails on it and then sailing faster than old guys like me.”
Hinterhoeller, who races on the regular Wednesday nights, has a son who lives in Campbell River who races, and a daughter who has been doing race committee work with him for 20 years.
As Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa, a sailing club member and Shark racer, started up the barbecue to feed the racers last Friday evening, he told The Local that it is amazing that there is a picture of George mounted in the clubhouse. In it, he is sitting on a shark prototype with the lighthouse behind him in 1959, and this week 48 boats were sailing back and forth in front of it.
Another sailing club crew won the long-distance race and the Bill Metzger Trophy for top hours in the practice race, the long-distance race and the last race. Amicus was sailed by Mark Schantz, Dave Schantz and Ken Greer.
The George Hinterhoeller Award was presented to Jinnie Gordon, of the Niagara-on-the-Lake
Sailing Club, for her commitment to promoting women’s sailing and her dedication to the Shark class.
Race organizers followed the Sailor for the Sea Clean Regatta protocols and achieved the Gold Standard. Only two bags of garbage were created over seven days. with four meals being served to 200 people. Everything was reusable, compostable, or recyclable. Cutlery was made from recycled fully compostable coffee grounds. The Niagara Region provided a water wagon, refillable water bottles, and extra green bins for composting.
