Upwards of 160 Dragon sailors attended a classic dragon sailors reunion this month at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire.
Guests from Spain, France, UK, together with a large contingent from Kinsale and Glandore matched those from Dublin Bay.
Throughout the evening Dragon characters of the wooden era to recounted some amusing memories, notably Conor Doyle, John Kidney, Bill Riordan, Tom Fitzpatrick, Dan O'Connor, Reggie Goodbody, the present Dublin Bay class captain Conor Grimley and not forgetting Tony O'Gorman.
Ireland in the front row of a Dragon start at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. IR2, Isolde – E.Kelliher, R.Dalton and H.Maguire. Photo: Hashimoto
A wonderful "slide show" of over 200 pictures of Dragons and their crews from 1962 up to the present day ran during the proceedings in the background.
Among the memorabilia on display was part of a broken wooden mast, Eddie Keliher's souvenir medal from the 1964 Olympic Games and a letter from Paul Osterberg describing his father bringing the first Dragon named Alp(h)a, into Ireland in 1937, some 80 years ago, delivered with sails to Dublin docks at a cost of £300.
