Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: World Sailing Awards

The Ocean Race 2022-23-winning 11th Hour Racing was named Team of the Year at the World Sailing Awards ceremony in Málaga, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

And skipper Charlie Enright was on hand to pick up the prize on Tuesday evening (14 November).

From January to July of this year, Enright led his 11th Hour Racing Team to a come-from-behind victory in The Ocean Race, demonstrating remarkable resilience and fortitude over the toughest fully crewed offshore race in the world.

For Enright, the victory was truly a team effort. “Winning this race has been such an achievement for the entire team,” he told the crowd at a homecoming event in Newport, Rhode Island this past summer.

“We went through the first half of the race not winning a leg and then...we won Leg 4 into our hometown of Newport. This was a turning point for us in the race and the momentum stayed with us right through to the final victory.”

Among the other deserving winners on the evening, were The Magenta Project, which was recognised with the World Sailing 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award.

The Magenta Project was born out of the Team SCA campaign in the 2014-15 edition of The Ocean Race and advocates for gender diversity across the sailing industry through mentoring, events and governance.

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.