Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: appreciation

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - An appreciation night was held in Galway last week for John Killeen, who has played a significant role in bringing the Volvo Ocean Race to the city.

As the Galway Independent reports, prominent business leaders and tourism officials were on hand at the Galway Bay Hotel on 17 January to honour the president of Let's Do It Galway - who was also one of three founding members of Ireland's entry in the 2008-2009 race, and was instrumental in bringing that race to the City of the Tribes.

Dan Murphy, president of tourism body Skål International Galway, said it was "only correct and proper" for the travel and tourism industries to recognise Killeen’s contributions to Galway and especially the work he has done bringing the Volvo Ocean Race back to Ireland.

Published in Ocean Race

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.