Piper wins 2013 Shark 24 World Championship

A crew from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, Ontario Canada won the 2013 Shark 24 World Championship held September 29-October 2 in Robel/Muritz, Germany. Using a borrowed boat provided by the host Robel Sailing Club, the RHYC team led by Keven Piper along with team mates Tom Nelson and Jordin Clark won the nine-race series, defeating 45 other boats from Canada, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and Austria.

Sailing under the name of their Hamilton-based sailboat “Bedlam,” the Hamilton-based crew was tied with an Austrian-based boat following the four-day regatta but was awarded the pennant during the tie-breaking process.

Two other Canadian yachts finished in the top ten, with Eager for More skippered by Greg Cockburn of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and “Devil with a Blue Dress On” helmed by John Brunt from the National Yacht Club in Toronto finishing third and fourth respectively.

Piper’s crew was in eighth position after the first day of racing as they struggled with the sails and rigging on the borrowed boat, but moved up the standings with a second-place finish in the long distance race on Oct 1 and posted 1-2-5 in the three-race finale on Oct 2.

Piper, Nelson and Clark has been sailing together for more than a decade and won the 2012 North American Shark Championships.

Final results