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Displaying items by tag: Green Marine

#TradeNews - BBC News reports that Green Marine, the high performance yacht builder in the UK responsible for entries in the Volvo Ocean Race and America’s Cup, has gone into liquidation.

Forty-six jobs have been lost with the end of trading at the boatbuilder, which moved its core business to Hythe in Hampshire from Lymington and Southampton in recent years in order to take on multiple projects.

A slowdown in large yacht orders has been blamed for the decision to enter voluntary liquidation — though a Scuttlebutt Europe reader alleges manoeuvres at the builder’s Dutch owners Vitters undermined its ability to prosper.

Green Marine build more than 180 boats since it was founded in 1982, specialising in custom racing yachts such as those competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, the Vendée Globe, and Sir Ben Ainslie’s recent America’s Cup challenge.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Trade

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.