7. Half hull model of the Dragon

 

                                   Original line drawing by Johan Anker (1926)

Half hull models

At present I am busy with building two half hull models of a Dragon. Scale is 1: the 15, length of the model becomes 59 cm. The above the waterline part of the hull will be made of mahogany, the "wet" part will be painted white. The deck will be made of teak, the hood of mahogany. A different colour scheme can be ordered.

As you can see, the model is not yet completed! Hull to keel transistion, final coating, etc. The panel is temporarely, it will be a soild mahogany board with a brass nameplate.

The Dragon

In 1929 the Norwegian designer Johan Anker designed a weekend-sailing boat with two berths with which boat you also could participate in coastal races. He called this design Dragon. In 1936 the first Dragon was delivered to Holland. The class became very popular in Holland as well as in the rest of Europe and in 1948 the Dragon Class became Olympic, which status was held till 1972. The expected decline of the class did not occur, the class even grew with high speed, mainly thanks to the beautiful, elegant hull shape, which has not been changed significantly since 1929. Only the cabin has become more streamlined, because modern Dragons do not have berths anymore and are being built for racing. The rigging and sail plan have been changed, however, during the years. Since 1973 Dragons are also built of fiberglass and since 2000 a cold molded version is on the market. In the Netherlands we still see a lot of old wooden Dragons, carefully restored, and in use as weekend-sailer or for racing. Because not many things have changed in more than 70 years the uniformity in the class has been kept reasonably well, so that older boats - if they have racing rigging - can participate in the various regattas organized in Holland (and the rest of the World).

In 2009 approximately 1300 Dragons were registered at the International Dragon Association. The greatest fleets can be found in Europe, with Germany on top. The Netherlands are on the fourth place with 93 dragons, behind England and France. There are more Dragons in Holland, but they are not registered at the national organizations. The Dragon class is the greatest open one design open keelboat class in the world.

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