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Displaying items by tag: Trainee ships

#NavalVisits - A trio of French Navy trainee ships docked in Dublin Port for a crew rest and recreation visit to the capital this weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Léopard class school-training vessels each with 18 students, had arrived yesterday and berthed along Sir John Rogersons Quay.

Each of the small ships measure 43m in length and have a beam of 8.30m. The trio are the Lynx, Panthère and Tigre.

Displacing 335 tonnes, the sisters are part of an eight-strong class that were commissioned in the early 1980's. Among them Jaguar which along with Tigre called to Dun Laoghaire Harbour just over a year ago.  

Arnament comprises of pair of 12.7mm guns. 

The range of the Léopard class is 5,000 nautical based on a speed of 12 knots.

Published in Naval Visits

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.