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Displaying items by tag: Bill Hastings

#DALKEY ISLAND PROSPECT – An urgent meeting to discuss calls for a public enquiry in respect to the Dalkey Island Prospect is to be held in Dun Laoghaire next Tuesday (31st January).

The meeting which is to address the serious environmental and public consultation concerns is to be held in the Royal Marine Hotel (7.30pm) and follows an 'information' meeting held earlier this week in Dalkey Town Hall.

At that meeting it was concluded with an almost unanimous agreement that a public enquiry should be held over the foreshore licence sought by Providence Resources to carry out exploratory drilling some 6kms offshore of the south side-suburb.

As reported previously on Afloat.ie, the chairman of the Dalkey meeting Bill Hastings, commented that the issue could divide the community and he said "many people pointed out that it was not just a Dalkey issue but one for all of Dublin Bay".

Published in Coastal Notes

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.