C&C Shark 24 - a westcoast boat?

[jc12]

Hey all - I have my first opportunity to purchase a sailboat! I have been an avid powerboater for my entire life and have a very close family friend who is selling their shark 24. They have owned the boat for 30+ years and have kept it in pristine condition. Vancouver being vancouver... the current wait for moorage is 3+ years however if i purchase the boat i can sublet the moorage from him! Ideally i was looking for a slightly larger/beamier boat for overnighters. What are your thoughts on this boat as a west coast boat? It will spend its time sailing the inner harbour and crossing the Georgia Strait to the gulf islands - i would say half the time i will be sailing alone. Thanks for any input!

[AiniA]

I think a Shark in good shape would be a good choice for the kind of sailing you will be doing. I assume it will have a larger genoa for light wind conditions.

[mottseng]

Great boat, fast and stable. Plenty of them in the great lakes used primarily for club racing.

Enjoy

[jstevens]

My first sailboat was a Hinterhoeller 25 (http://www.svsarah.com/Sailing/SailingHR25.htm), same basic boat, just a little larger cockpit. It was a very stiff sailor and a forgiving boat for a 1st time owner. Also easy to maintain. Winter maintenance was mostly hauling the outboard home.

IMO, a good choice.

John

[hamburking]

Many sharks around here (Kingston ON), and I have sailed some myself.

Its a very small boat. Narrow beam. Almost no space below. Its built for reaching with big winds, planing...very exciting in a blow. But altogether, not a great sailing boat, tender, and not fast on the wind.

I would have to recommend against it. There are other boats in that catagory that would give you a lot more. Tanzer 22. Or my favorite, the C&C25. One more foot LOA, but triple the boat...points high, sails well and fast. Go sit on a shark, then visit a C&C25, and you will understand immediately.

Just my $0.02.

[wannacat]

Definitely a tuff little boat in a blow. Not the fastest in light air, the C&C 25 would be better for that. However, as you mentioned, the slip and boat offer is for a Shark, so if you want to sail and have a slip there, then you have no choice and the Shark is a good choice for single handing. Fractional rig spinnaker that one person can handle easily. Get a "Class legal" I think 180% genoa and that will help you in the light winds and you'll still be able to crank it in by yourself. Enjoy, great starter boat!

[wolfesmy]

Awesome starter boat. I've owned 2, hull number 39 and hull number 195.
I owned the first on for 12 years and sailed club racing, and cruising. For cruising we would sail lake Winnipeg doing around 200 miles up the lake for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. The Shark is a tough boat that loves big wind.. They were designed to sail the Great Lakes. PHRF 240 so not the fastest but very responsive and accelerates quickly when you get it dialled in.
I just sold my hull number 195 last weekend. I've been using her as a training boat for the past 8 years and my students love the ease of handling and responsiveness of the boat..

As a first boat it's an excellent choice..

[adlib2]

Found

Originally Posted by jc12

Hey all - I have my first opportunity to purchase a sailboat! I have been an avid powerboater for my entire life and have a very close family friend who is selling their shark 24. They have owned the boat for 30+ years and have kept it in pristine condition. Vancouver being vancouver... the current wait for moorage is 3+ years however if i purchase the boat i can sublet the moorage from him! Ideally i was looking for a slightly larger/beamier boat for overnighters. What are your thoughts on this boat as a west coast boat? It will spend its time sailing the inner harbour and crossing the Georgia Strait to the gulf islands - i would say half the time i will be sailing alone. Thanks for any input!

There were thousands of Sharks made since the early 60's and first models were wood. When FRP became popular Sharks were built having structural members sizes in FRP as in wood, no one had experience in the new wonder material. Boats up to early 70's were constructed in EPOXY RESIN and sharks were built like tanks. After the energy crunch polyesters and vinyl-esters at 25% of cost were introduced with resulting osmosis problems.
I owned a shark N0.154 for many years, sailing 1000's miles and was very happy with her. Originally built in Niagara on the Lake by Hinterholler, and then by others under license in the US and Europe. First time it was raced by the designer, 24hr race across Lake Ontario it came first beating 40ft plus vessels at an average speed of 10.4kts.
Met a family in Australia, mum, dad, 2 kids from Vancouver that had sailed her down. Also husband and wife in England that sailed across and living on the boat during winter. Found many in the Bahamas from Canada.
Easy to single hand and very forgiving. Some say she is under canvassed but that makes her safe for a family. At our club Sharks were more likely to go out than others in stormy conditions. GO FOR IT AND ENJOY.

International Shark Class Association - ISCA | Shark 24 One Design ...

www.shark24.org/


International Shark Class Association - ISCA | Shark 24 One Design Keelboat ... from Day 1 action and interviews from the 2016 Shark Worlds on Lake Traunsee, Austria. ... in Canadian Yachting featuring new Sharks at the Dusseldorf boat show. ... 2017 World Championships ... Note new Sunday-Wednesday racing format.

[kristjan]

I owned #262, did a 500 mile trip through great lakes with it. Awesome boat, had to sell it when I moved for work.

[Jim Cate]

Sounds like an ideal boat for the OP... good for singlehanding, a good learning boat, a guaranteed berth in a difficult market, and considering the active one design fleet, likely easy to sell onward when the time comes.

But...

24hr race across Lake Ontario it came first beating 40ft plus vessels at an average speed of 10.4kts.

With all respect, it is pretty hard to believe that a displacement monohull could possibly average more than twice its hull speed for twenty four hours. Would take some intervention from higher powers IMO.

This has little bearing upon the OP's decision, but might lead to disappointment when he can't reach such speeds in reality. After all, he admits to being a power boater, and may have greater expectations re performance!!

Jim

[fdr14127]

Believe.... George the designer at the helm in the Freeman Cup downwind in a really stiff breeze. Take a look at the bottom, flat as a plate with a thin keel terminating in a baulb. We had an Aussie take delivery at Niagara, modify it some and sail home...(do not attempt this without some serious reflection). Sharkies have been racing here in Niagara for the last six weeks. Classic yacht...

[Jim Cate]

Believe....

Well, not quite yet! George at the helm: so what? Designers are not necessarily hero drivers or miracle workers. aussie sails one to OZ: interesting, but not applicable.

Yep, it has a quite fine hull shape, and that can help exceed hull speed. It has a flat bottom, and that can help with getting to surf on waves. But the LWL is only around 20 feet, and that means a hull speed of around 6 knots. And it has a PHRF rating of around 240 which takes into consideration actual performance over years of competition.

I'm quite ready to believe that it can exceed hull speed at times. Not yet ready to believe that it can average 10.4 knots for 24 hoours. If you have some concrete evidence of such, like published race results with a course length included and it supports your claim, I'll be most impressed with the boat. Until then...

Jim

[GordMay]

“... In 1963, using a spinnaker on a close reach across Lake Ontario, Sid Dakin, on of the early Shark owners, sailed the Blockhouse Bay race from Toronto to Olcott, N.Y., with an adrenaline-pumping average speed of 10.2 knots, beating the 56-foot Innisfree on a boat-for-boat basis. Sidís speed boggled the minds of sailors unaccustomed to semi-displacement hulls ...”

➥ C&C Shark

➥ The Shark 24

[hamburking]

It takes a lot of wind, and just the right conditions to get a shark planing. And only when planing will it exceed hull speed. For the typical sailor, this just about never happens. I've sailed sharks. Overall they are pretty slow and tender. No space below.

I've also owned a Tanzer 22. Easily twice as much space below, and a cockpit twice the size of a shark's. The wide beam makes them stiff, and their flat bottom gets them planing much easier than a shark. I've done it. Its a rush. The whole boat starts to shake.

I've also owned a Cal25, another flat bottomed, fin keel boat. On my first sail, delivering the boat back home, I exceeded hull speed as the boat planed, much more easily and comfortable than my previous T22. I was using a handheld GPS for speed, and could not believe my eyes. However, my speeds were only like 6 or 7 knots (very fast for a 25 foot boat)...nothing like 10 knots.

The shark is a well loved and historic boat, but I would advise against buying one. They have not aged as well as some of the other older boats in the fleet. And I'm sorry to say, but for such a small boat, it's just not worth the effort of resoration. Kingston has/had a huge fleet of sharks. They often sell here for around $1500. The only reasons I can think of to get a shark would be the absolute low price, or if you intend to race against other sharks.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by GordMay

“... In 1963, using a spinnaker on a close reach across Lake Ontario, Sid Dakin, on of the early Shark owners, sailed the Blockhouse Bay race from Toronto to Olcott, N.Y., with an adrenaline-pumping average speed of 10.2 knots, beating the 56-foot Innisfree on a boat-for-boat basis. Sidís speed boggled the minds of sailors unaccustomed to semi-displacement hulls ...”

➥ C&C Shark

➥ The Shark 24

Gordy, thanks for that info. I had a look at a chart, and the direct line distance between Toronto and Olcott NY is around 35 miles. This is a little short of the 240 plus miles that averaging 10+ knots for 24 hours would have covered. I couldn't readily find a course description of the race, but unless it has a wildly convoluted route, the reported 10.2 knots would have only taken a few hours at most.

This is still a very impressive speed for a Shark, no foolin', but a bit different in difficulty from maintaining such a speed for 24 hours.

Thanks for your always useful research!

Jim