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Displaying items by tag: Ocean Liner Society

#LONDON SHIP SHOW - The 2012 London International Ship Show, will be held on Saturday 27th October at the Royal National Hotel, Bloomsbury, London, writes Jehan Ashmore. 

The show organised by the Ocean Liner Society, will have exhibitors stands in the Galleon Suite of the central city hotel. Among the exhibitors will be maritime booksellers, maritime artists, maritime model makers, traders in maritime memorabilia and ephemera postcards.

In addition there will be a Talks Programme held off the main exhibition hall. The theme for the lectures is P&O, which this year celebrates its 175th anniversary. The first speaker, Ian Gibb, will provide a personal link with the cruise era of the line. A popular Master and Commodore and a highly distinguished merchant mariner he will be known to a generation of cruise passengers.

Bringing the story up to the present, P&O's Operations and PR Departments will give an inside view of this year's spectacular 'Grand Event' from Southampton, where a seven-strong cruiseship fleet included Arcadia (2005/83,781grt) as previously reported on Afloat.ie In the report there is a photo link to the maritime spectacle. The Arcadia is the third vessel seen from the front as she sailed down Solent waters heading for her first port of call that was to be Dublin Port.

For further details about the London Ship Show (opening hours 10am-5pm), click HERE, noting admission is £5 for non- members of the society and £3 for members.

Published in Boating Fixtures

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.