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Byrne Finds Form on Home Waters with Two Wins at Dragon Nationals

27th July 2012
Byrne Finds Form on Home Waters with Two Wins at Dragon Nationals

#dragon – On day 2 of the Brewin Dolphin Dragon national championships the current champion Martin Byrne found his form with two firsts and a third. The conditions were ideal with sunshine and an oscillating westerly breeze which gave ample oppprtunity for snakes and ladders. Overall after discard visiting Danish Olympic gold medallist Poul hoj jensen leads with ten points. Byrne is second on 20 and the UK's Chris Hunt is third on 28.  Kinsale's Cameron Good is fourth. Belfast Lough's Simon Brien is 5th. The event continues tomorrow and Sunday with three more races scheduled.

Published in Dragon
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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.