Membership Application | Shark Club Application
If you want to learn all there is to know about owning a boat (without actually doing so) check out the Shark Club. You’ll pick up a whole new lingo, make fast friends, and have access to one of the Club boats all season long. Spinnaker training, motor maintenance, and launch prep are a few of the topics covered by Shark Club guest speakers and the fun doesn't stop there! Saturday morning work parties, barbecues, races and regattas are also part of the fare.
NYC’s Shark Club is a community sailing program within the National Yacht Club, offering program participants the opportunity to sail without owning a boat.
The Shark is perhaps the most significant of small keelboats in Canadian sailing history. Designed in 1959 by George Hinterhoeller, the Shark was produced until the late 1980s and may be the first production fiberglass boat in Canada. Of the approximately 2500 Sharks built, almost all are still sailing and many are actively raced, including some 500 on lakes in Switzerland and Austria.
Skipper or crew one of National’s own fleet of 24-foot Sharks on a cruise or in a race, while learning about boat care and maintenance throughout the season. As a community sailing program, skills in boating care, maintenance, commissioning & decommissioning is shared by experienced National Yacht Club members.
All program participants are expected to attend any offered day clinics (i.e. crew overboard) throughout the season, as well as assist with fleet maintenance by contributing to maintenance work and boat care.
This popular program provides the opportunity to learn what it takes to own a boat and improve sailing skills. The NYC Shark Club is a great way to continue your boating sailing education.
The Shark Club has 2 membership categories:
-
Crew Category: Shark Club Crew members do not require any previous experience and have full access to the Shark Club fleet. Crew participants cannot sail the boat without a qualified Shark Club skipper onboard.
Skipper Category: To qualify as a skipper, members must have, and provide a copy of:
- Completion certificate of CYA’s Basic Cruising Course or have equivalent experience to successfully challenge the CYA Basic Cruising exam.
- Valid Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC)
- Valid Toronto Harbour License (THL)
- Valid Radio Operator Certificate-Marine (ROC-M)
All Shark Club program participants must be National Yacht Club members. Shark Club membership is an additional membership.
Fee $300.00 plus HST. In addition to become a member of the Shark Club at NYC, you must be a member. Please contact our program office at (416) 260-8686 ext 27 or email: programs@thenyc.com.
ABOUT THE SHARK
Sharks are popular 24 ft. sailboats that have been around for almost 50 years. They remain one of the largest and most competitive one-design keelboat fleets in Canada.
The Shark is a 24 ft. (7.34m) sailboat with 190 sq. ft. (17.72 m2) of sail, a beam of 6'10" (2.08m) and weighs 2,100 lbs. (953 kg.)
It may have a racing background but the cabin can accommodate three to four people on overnight cruises, so some owners use their boats only for cruising.
Having first appeared in the early 1960s on Lake Ontario, the Shark was the first production fiberglass keelboat built in Canada and nowadays more than 2,000 Sharks can be found in North America and Europe.
Excerpt from Ontario Sailor, April 2008