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#Sailing - Irish yacht clubs are "trying to ditch their elitist image" and cutting prices to attract a more diverse membership, according to The Sunday Times.

Members' fees across Ireland's top yacht clubs have been lowered by an average 15%, says the paper, while some clubs such as Skerries Sailing Club are experimenting with eliminating such fees altogether.

Even the world's oldest club, the Royal Cork Yacht Club, is offering an introductory rate of €180 for 2013.

While the attempt to broaden the horizons of club membership is fitting with the ISA's vision of a brighter future for Irish sailing after last year's "breakthrough year", the cutting of fees points to a different side to the story - one that puts last year's EGM on the ISA's funding structure and suggestions to radically rethink how Irish sailing spends its resources into perspective.

The Sunday Times has more on this story HERE.

Published in Sailing Clubs

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.