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Displaying items by tag: Quest Sailing

#HYC - Howth Yacht Club is preparing to roll out its new sailing school initiative in the coming weeks as the spring season catches the breeze.

Quest Sailing has been devised with the intention of bringing “new blood into the club”, according to Commodore Joe McPeake, who notes that the scheme will already involve participation at the corporate level as well as a number of language schools.

“This will create a much greater activity in the water, and hopefully will bring in new members and reinvigorate the sailing platform,” he says.

Volunteers are also wanted to help the club in various ways, with an evening scheduled for next Thursday 29 March to connect with members who wish to contribute beyond the usual activities afloat.

Elsewhere in his message for Spring 2018, McPeake hails the season-opening Icebreaker open dinghy event, which runs for five weeks from Sunday 15 April and promises fun on the water for Optimists, Lasers, Fevas, 420s and Toppers alike ahead of the junior racing season proper. The programme launch takes place at the clubhouse tomorrow Saturday 24 March at 4pm.

The beginning of summer will see another open event in the Wave Regatta over the June Bank Holiday, which will showcase facilities currently being spruced up after escaping the ravages of Storm Emma relatively unscathed.

Howth Yacht Club has much more from the commodore’s spring statement HERE.

Published in Howth YC

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.