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Displaying items by tag: Maritime Heritage Hub

#historicboats - Chairman of Silvery Lights Sailing, Gerry Brennan, has called on the Newry, Mourne & Down District Council to support the need for city's maritime heritage to be recognised.

According to the Newry Reporter, the charity’s mission is to restore Silvery Light - a 100ft heritage tall ship, which was built in Cornwall in 1884 and has been lying in disrepair at Newry Quays for many years.

A group of Trustees are currently managing the project and hoping to secure funding for £750,000 to completely restore the former fishing vessel to its former glory.

The charity has already secured a grant of £10,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Resilience Fund to commission a Project Business Plan and Strategy but it now seeks further funding through investors.

Mr Brennan voiced his disappointment at the Council’s lack of support for the charity. To read his comments and more on the ketch project click here. 

Published in Historic Boats

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.