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Displaying items by tag: Emergency Appeal

In the UK a Southampton based sailing charity has launched an emergency campaign to raise £1m by tomorrow (Friday 5th July)  or face a bleak future.

The trustees of Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST) according to the Southern Daily Echo, has launched the rescue effort to address "serious financial challenges" and to continue operating.

If unable to reach the £1m target by the end of the week it will "cease to exist immediately", unless another solution is found.

Based in Woolston, the JST has been struggling financially for the past year following a number of mechanical problems on both of its ships.

Similarly, a poor uptake for its winter 2018 programme has had negative financial impacts.

Founded in 1978, the JST owns the Tenacious and Lord Nelson which are two specially adapted traditionally-rigged sailing ships.

They are the only ships in the world designed to be sailed by a crew with a variety of physical impairments and health conditions.

Click here for more on the story. 

Published in Tall Ships

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.