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Displaying items by tag: Carding 2014

#ROWING: A relatively good 2013 for Irish international rowing will bring practical benefits this year. Five rowers, three more than last year, will receive funding from The Irish Sports Council under the 2014 International Carding Scheme. Sanita Puspure and Claire Lambe have again hit the mark: Puspure qualifies for €20,000 as a world class category athlete and Lambe receives €12,000 as an international class competitor. The two are joined this year by Paul O’Donovan, Leonora Kennedy and Monika Dukarska, who will also be granted €12,000 as international class athletes.

O’Donovan won a medal at the World Under-23 Championships in 2013, while the women’s double sculls of Dukarska and Kennedy finished 10th at the World Championships. This position would secure Olympic qualification for an Ireland boat if it were reproduced at the World Championships next year.

Published in Rowing

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.