Mitch Booth

Mitchell Jay "Mitch" Booth (born 4 January 1963, in Sydney) is a sailor of both Australian and Dutch nationality.

Mitch Booth

Personal information
Full name	Mitchell Jay Booth
Nickname	'The Legend'
Nationality	Australian /Dutch
Born	(1963-01-04) 4 January 1963 (age 62) Sydney, Australia
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Sailing career
Class	Tornado
Club	Pittwater,Palm Beach, Sydney, Australia ; Rotterdamsche Zeilvereeniging; CV Palamós
Medal record Sailing Representing  Australia Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta Tornado 1992 Barcelona Tornado Representing  Netherlands World Championships in Sailing 2021 Formula 18 2010 Extreme 40 2003 Hobie Tiger 2001 Formula 18 2000 Formula 18 2003 Tornado 1994 A-Class 1992 Tornado 1989 Tornado European Championships 2004 Tornado 2002 Tornado 2005 Tornado
Updated on 12 February 2014

Sailing career

Background

Booth started his sailing career at the age of four, when his mother taught him the basics on Pittwater. Alongside his father John (Jay) Booth won his first State Championship as a seven-year-old boy. His father honored his desire to skipper and compete in international competitions. His first break-through came at the age of seventeen, when finishing second in an Australian Championship. This achievement guaranteed his participation at the World Championship in the United States. From a fleet of over hundred boats representing nine countries, he and his crew went on to win the title. Since then Booth has made his life as a professional sailor. The projects have varied from Olympic sailing to Ocean racing and to keel boat racing. Off the water he has been involved in many sailing related activities including the creation of the current Olympic Tornado class Rig, design and build of A Class cats, the creation of Volvo Extreme 40, sailing Manager for America's cup team (1995) and technical adviser to ISAF.

Olympics

• 3rd 1992 Summer Olympics with crew  John Forbes (AUS)
• 2nd 1996 Summer Olympics with crew  Andrew Landenberger (AUS)
• 5th 2004 Summer Olympics with crew  Herbert Dercksen (NED)
• 5th 2008 Summer Olympics with crew  Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED)

^[1]He represented his native country for the first time at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Booth as helmsman in the Australian Tornado with John Forbes as crew took Bronze. In 1996, Booth made a second appearance this time with crew member Andrew Landenberger the team took the Silver in the Tornado. In 2004, Athens Booth represented the Netherlands as helmsman of the Dutch Tornado.^[2][3] With crew member Herbert Dercksen Booth took 5th place.^[4] His final Olympic appearance came during the 2008 Summer Olympics^[5] in Qingdao. Now with crew member Pim Nieuwenhuis in the Dutch Tornado, Booth finished 5th.^[6]

Other

In total he took part in 64 World Championships, becoming a 10 times World Champion with wins various multihull classes including the A-Class, Formula 18, Tornado and Extreme 40. In the 50 national championships in which he took part he took the title a total of 13 times. He has won 23 out of 47 Australian State Championships in which he performed. He won eight European titles since becoming Dutch in sixteen starts. He took part in four Olympics. In 2000 Sydney he was coach of the Australian national team squad.

Awards and records

He has been named the 1992 Australian Yachtsman of the Year, the 1993 Caltex Sports Star finalist, three times NSW Yachtsman of the Year, the 1995 America's Cup sailing manager, the 1996 MMI Sports Star finalist, the 1996 Australian Yachtsman of the Year and the 2004 Dutch Sailor of the year. He was also crew member of the boats holding the previous World 24-hour distance record and Transatlantic (Cádiz to San Salvador) record holder (ClubMed) and the current Round Britain and Ireland record (PlayStation (yacht)).^[7][8]