George Hinterhoeller

George Anton Hinterhoeller (1928–1999) was a Canadian boat designer and builder, a significant contributor to the Canadian sailboat industry for almost forty years.

Early life Hinterhoeller was born in Mondsee, Austria on March 16, 1928. He first sailed at the age of 8.

Career Hinterhoeller apprenticed and developed his trade as a master boat builder before eventually emigrating to Canada in 1952, where he was employed building powerboats at Shepherd Boats in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. He designed and built sailboats in his spare time. By 1956 he was taking numerous orders for the Y-Flyer one-design. He built 40 before “the market dried up.”

In 1959, Hinterhoeller built a 22-foot plywood sloop called TEETER-TOTTER, which he hoped would "go like hell when the wind blew". It did exactly that, and there was demand from others to buy copies of the racer. He increased the design by two feet and called the new boat the Shark 24. Though the first few were plywood, an early customer insisted his be built with fiberglass and the design was changed to the cheaper material, helping to spur the growth of sailboats for "the masses".

In 1969, Hinterhoeller merged his operation with three other companies: Belleville Marine Yard, Bruckmann Manufacturing, and the design partnership of George Cuthbertson and George Cassian, to form C&C Yachts. Hinterhoeller was in charge of "production shop" and Bruckmann the "custom shop". The new company took over manufacturing of the Shark 24 along with numerous other new designs including the very popular C&C 27. Hinterhoeller left C&C in 1976, and refounded Hinterhoeller Yachts which created, among other designs, popular series of catboat called the Nonsuch, of which there are nearly 1000 in existence.

Death George Hinterhoeller died of a heart attack in Niagara-on-the-Lake on March 18, 1999, at age 71.

Hinterhoeller archive The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario has in its archives the personal drawings and files of noted Canadian boat builder and designer George Hinterhoeller, the donation thanks to his son Richard Hinterhoeller and Hinterhoeller's widow Nona Hinterhoeller. GT-26 (Hinterhoeller) – 1983 Hinterhoeller 25 – 1969 Hinterhoeller 28 – 1967 Hinterhoeller 30 – 1969 HR-25 (Hinterhoeller) – 1969 HR-28 (Hinterhoeller) – 1967 Niagara 26 – 1975 Niagara 30 – 1967 Shark 24 – 1959