Int Dragon Mag A/wk Final

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 8 A S S O C I A T I O N Y E A R B O O K

W W W . I N T D R A G O N . O R G

Undefeated!

Worlds 07, Dublin/Ireland 1.4.Gold Cup, Palma 1.2.3Kiel Week, Kiel 1.3.4.6.7.Europeans 07, Hankö 1.3.4Swiss Championship; Thunersee 1.Pfingstpreis, Tutzing 1.2.3.Princesa Sophia, Palma 1.2.Drachen Humpen, Utting 1.3.Grand Prix, Douarnenez 1.Osterpokal/Maibaum; Possenhofen 1.4.

Copa del Mediterraneo, Palma 1.Austrian Championship, Attersee 1.Campionat de France, Deauville 1.4.5.TechnoGym Wellness Cup, Koege 1.HLL Dragon Grand Prix, Kiel 2.3.4.5.6.Derby Dragon, La Boule 1.4.Pfingstbusch, Kiel 1.3.4.5.7.9.Swedish Championship, Saltsjöbaden 1.Sommerpokal, Starnberg 1.Vasco de Gama, Arcachon, France 1.

FRITZ-Segel GmbH · ERNSDORFER STRASSE 66 · D-83209 PRIEN AM CHIEMSEE

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in 2007

The Fritz sails dragon scoreboard 2007

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Int Dragon Mag A/wk Final 11/3/08 09:34 Page 40

This year the IDA held its AGM in Oslo, courtesy ofThe Kongelig Norsk Seilforening (KNS). I would like

to thank KNS and its members for their excellentorganisation and hospitality. Rupert Fischer (Germany)retired after two very busy years as Chairman andpreviously as a Vice-Chairman, and on your behalf, Ithank him for his outstanding contribution – Iunderstand Rupert is continuing his work as Chairmanof the German Association, so his contribution to ourClass continues.

The AGM was very well attended, withrepresentatives from 21 countries and a further twosupplying proxy votes. The IDA remains in goodfinancial shape, with adequate reserves (see page 30for last year’s accounts) and I would like to thankAndrew Craig (Ireland), our longstanding HonoraryTreasurer, for his careful management of our finances.My final thank you goes to the members of theAssociation for electing me as Chairman to succeedRupert. I am very mindful of the responsibility – ourcontinuing growth Internationally is due to a majorextent to the excellent leadership shown by theOfficers in recent years.

Our success can be seen by the Class’sincreasing representation around the world. During2007, three new National Associations have beenformed; we have been joined by Antigua, Greece andUkraine and now have 29 affiliated NationalAssociations. Additionally, 60 new plaques wereissued, the largest number for some years.

As you will have read, Borge Borresen died earlierthis year. Borge was almost the father of the modernDragon, having been the major contributor to steeringthe Class through the two major transitions in the early1970s. Firstly we were dropped as an Olympic Classand secondly the hull was translated from traditionalwood to a modern GRP construction. As we nowknow these apparent threats were overcome and theClass has thrived ever since. I am pleased to reportthat in memory of Borge, his family have generouslydonated a trophy to be raced for during the first raceof the Gold Cup series each year. Nothing could bemore appropriate as Borge raced in 51 consecutiveGold Cups, an amazing achievement unlikely ever tobe matched.

The major IDAevents in 2007 werethe Gold Cup inPalma, Majorca, theEuropeans in Hanko,Finland and the World Championshipin Dun Laoghaire,Ireland. Unfortunatelyboth the Gold Cupand the Worldssuffered from lightairs, but I have nodoubt all three eventsended with worthywinners, LarsHendriksen (Denmark),Marcus Wieser(Germany) and TommyMüller (Germany)respectively.Congratulations to youall and to your crews.

The TechnicalCommittee, led byMike Hayles (UK) hashad a busy year. Around 18 months ago it began work,in consultation with Naval Architects, on improvingbuoyancy in Dragons. We have suffered a number ofsinkings and we have to be mindful of an everincreasing emphasis on safety in our society. Theproposals the Technical Committee developed, whichof necessity can only affect new boats, were presentedto the AGM and approved unanimously. In essence,the required built-in buoyancy has been increased to2,500 litres (a Dragon plus crew weigh circa 2,000kgs)and the quality of the buoyancy has also beenenhanced.

This year, as you can see, we have revamped theIDA Annual Newsletter (and renamed it a Yearbook) Ihope you all consider it a welcome change and animprovement. Publicity and good communications areessential ingredients in any successful Class andsuggestions are always welcome on how to enhanceour performance in this area.

Chairman’s Message

IndexIndexChairman’s Message 3Major Trophies & Current Holders 5World Championship 2007 6European Championship 2007 8

Gold Cup 2007 10Hanseatic Lloyd German Grand Prix 2007 12The Annual Stavros Review 15Tommy Müller Interview 17International Ranking System 18

Borge Borresen 19Rob Campbell Interview 20National Association Reports 22AGM Report & Rule Changes 29IDA Contacts 362008 Fixtures List 38

3

2007 RESULTS Petticrow built Dragon finishing positions

World Championship 1 3 6 7 8 9Grand Prix Douarnenez 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Gold Cup 2 5 6 7 8 9Edinburgh Cup 1 2 3 4 5 6European Championship 2 4 5 6 8 9Regate Royale 1 2 4 6 7 8

because it’s all about winning

Petticrows LimitedThe Quay . Burnham-on-Crouch . Essex . England . CMO 8ATTel: +44 (0) 1621 782115 . Fax: +44 (0) 1621 785389Email: [email protected] . Website: www.petticrows.com

Dealer for Germany:Vincent HoeschTel: +49 17527006Email: [email protected]

Dealer for Benelux:Dupon Watersport . Mobile: +31 297 325 650Email: [email protected]

Dealer for Sweden:Leif Carlsson . Tel: +46 8717 0464Email: [email protected]

Dealer for Norway:Steff Herbern . Herben Marina as . Stranden 300250 Oslo . [email protected] www.herbern.noTel: 0047 90011400 . fax: 0047 22 83 1970

Sails by

Standard for 2008• All boats built compliant to new 2008 class rules• Our service team at major regattas• Extra large trailer boxes• Solid spinnaker chute• High capacity electric pump with waterproof battery box

New for 2008• Option of soft or stiff rig to suit crew weight• Option of traveller beam or Barney post for ease of movement around cockpit• New design tri-radial spinnaker

Front Cover Photo: Close downwind action at the 2007 Edinburgh Cup in Weymouth. Courtesy of www.fionabrown.com


Looking forward to 2008, these days the Classnever stops. By the time you read this, our Australianand New Zealand colleagues will be well into theirsailing seasons. In Europe, the Class now seems tomove to Cannes and Monaco to sail through thewinter and then in February to Cascais to start the2008 tour! The main IDA events in 2008 are the GoldCup in Cascais, Portugal and the Europeans in Oslo,Norway. They are two great locations and I amconfident both events will attract strong fleets.

Venues for future IDA events were confirmed atthe AGM, as follows;

Worlds Europeans Gold Cup

2009 Medemblik St Petersburg Skagen Holland Russia Denmark

2010 Balatonkenese GothenburgHungary Sweden

2011 MelbourneAustralia

Perhaps this is an appropriate time for me tocomment on how I see our Class developing over thenext several years. As can readily be seen, we aregrowing, and demonstrating the Dragon’s ability tooutlive other classes that come and go and our GrandPrix fleets and regattas go from strength to strength.However, the backbone of any Class is its local fleetsand local club racing. I believe every NationalAssociation needs to ensure that this section of theDragon Class remains enthusiastic and active. Oneexcellent trend I have noted is an increasing numberof inter fleet events not only domestic but alsointernational. The Interport between, Sydney, HongKong, Vancouver and Japan is perhaps the mostnotable event but on a more modest level (especiallyin distances involved) my own club, the RoyalCorinthian at Burnham has annual team racing eventsagainst Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (Hamburg) andPirogovo YC (Moscow). These events help forge newfriendships and strengthen the Dragon family on aworldwide basis.

Finally, as incoming Chairman of the IDA, I ammost fortunate in being able to join a veryexperienced team. All three Vice Chairmen, RobertAlpe (Australia), Xavier Rouguet-Luchaire (France)and Peter Warrer (Denmark) are continuing in office.Working together, we look forward to continuing thedevelopment our wonderful Class and theInternational Dragon family, and wish you safe andenjoyable sailing wherever you may be during 2008.

Rob CampbellIDA Chairman. (GBR688 – Quicksilver III)

The Royal Hellenic Cup – World ChampionshipsSinewave

Tommy Müller, Vincie Hoesch Max Scheibmair

Major Trophies and CurrentHolders

The Virginie Heriot Cup –European Championship

Bunker QueenMarcus Weiser, Sergei Pugachev, Thoams Auracher

Prince Henry the Navigator Trophy,King Juan Carlos Cup, Iberian Championship

Danish BluePoul-Richard Hoj-Jensen, Peter Bowring, Paul Mcguire

Grande Prix Petite Navire–Douarnenez

SinewaveTommy Müller, Vincie Hoesch ,Max Scheibmair

Trophee Panerai – Regates RoyaleSinewave

Tommy Müller, Vincie Hoesch, Max Scheibmair

The Nations Cup (Team Race within Gold Cup)

Germany – Sinewave, Rosi, Tucan

The Gold CupEva

Lars Hendriksen, Philip Skafte-Holm, Lars Stenfeld

Princess Sophia – PalmaBunker Queen

Marcus Weiser, Thomas Auracher, Sergei Pugachev

Dragon Grande Prix – StrandeBunker Queeen

Werner Fritz, Sergei Pugachev, Thomas Auracher

The Marblehead TrophyGet Away

Frank Berg, Soren Kaestal, Vince Kimvah

Technogym Wellness CupEva

Lars Hendriksen, Philip Skafte-Holm, Lars Stenfeld

Courtesy www.koriolys.com


Event Host – Royal St George Yacht Club Date – 30 August - 8 SeptemberLocation – Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

2007 saw Ireland host its firstDragon World Championship with a68 strong 15 nation fleetcongregating at the Royal St GeorgeYacht Club on Dublin Bay in thefirst week of September. Sponsoredby Aberdeen Asset Management, theevent was dogged by light airs andproved to be a high scoring regattawith only six of the schedule eightraces completed.

The fleet boasted some of thebest keelboat sailors in the world,with an Olympic medal tallybetween them of 4 golds, a silverand a bronze plus many worldchampions from classes includingDragon, Snipe, 505, Soling, FlyingDutchman and Fireball.

Race 1 Britain's Gavia Wilkinson-Cox wonSunday’s opening race whichbrought surprise results for some.Although poor visibility and 30-knotnorth westerlies postponed racingfor over two hours, winds haddropped below six knots andvisibility improved dramaticallywhen racing started. Wilkinson-Cox was almost alone at

the pin allowing her to sail low andfast to the left hand side of thecourse. It was a significantadvantage leaving her ten lengthsclear at the weather mark, followedby Ireland’s Tim Pearson andNorthern Ireland’s Simon Brien.

Brien overhauled her at thestart of the second run as windsfreshened to 10 knots, but theformer windsurfing champion cameback to win her first ever Worldchampionship race. Third wasBritain's Robert Campbell with

Denmark’s Frank Berg, who has wonsix Danish national championshipsand was second at the 2007Europeans, fourth.

Races 2 and 3 Monday was a day of frustration.Race two was sailed in perfect northwesterly conditions and 2007European Champion MarcusWieser, sailing for the Ukrain, madethe most of them to win from Bergwith Ireland’s Michael Cotter third.

After swinging to the northeast the wind died leaving the RaceOfficer with some difficult decisionsto get race three underway. By thesecond leeward mark Switzerland’sUli Libor had broken away from thefleet along with half a dozen othersand crossed the line in only twoknots of wind with Russia’sAlexander Erhkov, a formerOlympic 470 sailor and Snipe worldchampion, second and FrenchmanLouis Urvois third.

Many struggled to finish insidethe 30 minute limit with only 35finishers from 68 starters. Germany’sTommy Müller, a former Gold Cupwinner, was convinced that hischampionship hopes haddisappeared like the breeze as hefinished a Dragon race in lastposition for the first time in his life.

Weiser emerged the mostconsistent performer of the day witha first and a fourth place to leadoverall from Berg.

Race 4 Tuesday’s race four brought a steadysea breeze and very little placechanging in the top ten. Showingemphatic determination, Müller ledaround every mark to take the gunahead of Brits Quentin Strauss andLen Jones and keep hisChampionship hopes alive.

Overall Berg closed the gap on

76

Aberdeen Dragon World Championship 2007Regatta Reports

Wieser with only 4.7 points separatingthem. Irish champion Neil Hegartymoved into third after he wasreinstated from an OCS in race two,in which he had finished second, onthe grounds that the recall procedurewas not correctly followed

Races 5 and 6 Two more races and a discardrevealed a completely new leaderboard after Wednesday’s racing inlight but steady westerly conditionswith autumn sunshine. A strongflood tide meant a long port tack offthe start was favoured in both races.

The Ukraine's YvegenBraslavets won race five, followed byBritain's David Palmer whoexperienced the ultimate frustrationof discovering he was OCS as he

Top Ten Results

Pos Sail No Boat Crew O/A1 GER 996 Sinewave T. Müller, V. Hoesch, M. Scheibmair 70.72 SUI 299 Gaudium U. Libor, S. Hellriegel, F. Butzmann 73.03 GBR 708 Rumours L. Jones, C. Hoj Jensen, J. Lea 87.74 UKR 88 Queen Y. Braslavets, I.Sidorov, S. Timokhov 90.75 DEN 266 My Way F. Berg, S. Kæstel, L. St. Hansen 95.76 IRL 176 Phantom N. Hegarty, P. Bowring, D. Williams 97.07 IRL 202 Kin S. Brien, M. Brien, D. Gomes 102.08 IRL 192 Chimaera A. Craig, D. O'Dowd, A. O'Connell 107.79 SWE 328 Zystems L. Idmyr, P. Andersson, P. Lindh 108.010 IRL 174 Rigmarole J. Ross-Murphy, A. Shanks, R. Craig 110.0

crossed the line. Libor took hisplace with Lars Jensen of Denmarkthird.

In a masterly display of bigfleet sailing Müller scored a 15th inrace five and won race six fromSweden’s Lars Idmyr and Germany’sStephan Link to lead the fleetoverall by a narrow margin.

Wieser, the overall leader afterfour races, was judged OCS in racefive and finished 55th in race six tosee his championship hopesevaporate.

Final resultIn a frustrating anticlimax, no moreraces were sailed. On both Thursdayand Friday there was scarcely azephyr and reluctantly PRO AlanCrosbie was unable to send out thefleet.

So Germany's Tommy Müller,Vincent Hoesh and Max Scheibmairwon the Aberdeen Dragon WorldChampionship on Sinewave. Secondoverall was Swiss Olympic medallistUlli Libor with Stephan Hellriegeland Frank Butzmann on Gaudium.Third was Britain's Len Jonescrewed by Claus Hoj Jensen andJamie Lea on Rumours.

Past IDA Chairman Rupert Fischer with battle flag flying!

All pictures courtesy www.fotosail.com.


9

Event – Volvo Dragon EuropeanChampionship 2007Location – Hanko, FinlandDate – 6-10 August

Two British boats joined the 48strong fleet from 11 nations thattravelled to Hanko, Finland in earlyAugust for the 2007 DragonEuropean Championship - RonJames and Julia Walsh with Feilin’sFlirtation and Michael Gifford,Charlie Sprake and I with Nereid.

The omens weren’t goodwhen we flew into Helsinki in arainstorm with a gale blowing.However, it turned out that this wasthe last gasp of the weather sentfrom the British summer and weshortly settled down to a highpressure system with lots of sun anda mixture of easterly gradient windsand southwesterly thermals as thecentre of the system moved around.I can strongly recommend tee shirtand shorts sailing in the Baltic.

Hanko itself was verywelcoming and the sailing watercouldn’t have been much fairer withno tides, no discernible Balticcurrent and little influence from theland.

We participated in the FinnishChampionship as warm up event.This certainly showed who was inform, even if the results took somedeciphering. They were won by TomJungell who sailed very consistentlyafter the disqualification of HenrikDahlmann and the inability ofMarkus Wieser to stay behind thestarting line sufficiently often to puta series together. Our best momentscame on the first day with twothirds. Thereafter we seemed tospend too much time doing penaltyturns for silly mistakes.

The Europeans began verymuch in the way the FinnishChampionship had been with a winfor Markus Wieser from GeorgyShayduko, one of the substantialRussian contingent present. Theweather also presaged the rest of the

Championship. Blue skies, decentwind and relatively small shifts, apattern only really broken on thelast day. The wind strength variedfrom the very light up to Force 5.

The racing was dominated byMarkus Wieser in Bunker Queen,who won with a race to spare.Behind him Wolfgang Rappel wonboth the windy races convincinglybut never showed the same speedon the lighter days to finish second.The other race winners wereChristian Borenius, who didn’totherwise show such form, MaksimSemerkanov, who sailed quickly butcollected too many legal problemsand Jean-Claude Danet whopersevered to win the last-racedrifter.

From a personal point of viewwe were pleased to find the boatgoing fast, but were struggling withthe shorter first beats and very shortlast beats, both of which seemed tous to make the course more difficultthan it needed to be.

More generally it was excellentto race against a rather differentmix of Dragon sailors from elevendifferent, mostly Nordic and Balticcountries who, unsurprisingly,turned out to contain a number ofprevious prize winners from other,mostly Olympic, classes.

8

Volvo Dragon European Championship 2007Britain’s Patrick Gifford Reports

Regatta Reports

overall Top Ten Results

Rank SailNo Boat Crew Nett1 GER777 Bunker Queen M. Wieser, S. Pujachev, T. Aurachev 16.72 GER1001Little Wolfi W. Rappel, H. J. Benze, M. Lipp 53.03 FIN50 Rat-Pack H. Dahlman, L. Henriksen, O. Dannström 58.04 SWE345 Ming J. Wallenberg, H. Baltscheffsk,y V. Hoech 60.55 FIN64 Lilla Vågen T. Jungell, M. Mannström, J. Rantala 62.76 RUS35 Valery D. Vokhmintzev, V. Kaptyukhin, V. Fogelson 63.07 MON1 Munegu C. Boillot, J. S. Ponce, L. Péan 63.78 RUS2 Alisa E. Alexander, V. Krutskih, A. Grigorjev 71.09 SWE334 Sweet Alice L. Hans, F. Heine, R. Carenfelt 71.710 RUS25 Versiya 3 A Krilov, A. Karachinskiy, V. Kapitonov 72.0

Marcus Wieser looking poised for the start!

Vincie Hoesch lays out the race strategy

All pictures courtesy www.koriolys.com


The entry list was very impressive. Previous year’swinner Jorgen Schoenherr, Princess Sophia Trophywinner Marcus Wieser, Poul Richard Hoj Jensen,Tommy Müller with Vincie Hoesch on board, WernerFritz, European champion Lars Hendriksen, numerousRussian Olympic medallists and not to mention at leastanother fifteen boats capable of winning the Cup.

Not really being in that group and coming out ofthe winter rest with only a couple of races in thepractice bag our own aspirations were quite modest.First beat of the first race we were happy to be in thecompany of Jorgen Schoenherr, Frank Berg and someother celebrities when the breeze shifted to ourdisadvantage and our vain hope that those guys hadsome special knowledge went up in smoke. We heard inthe marquee at the “post match analysis” that TommyMüller had an impressive first and we couldcongratulate the chairman of The Royal Swedish YachtClub Jacob Wallenberg on a very honourable fifth.Some celebrities were OCS and with no discard in theseries we understood the jury was busy that evening.

Two races were planned for day two and to give animpression of the shifting conditions it can be mentionedthat Lars Hendriksen scored a 27th and second, WernerFritz was 37th then second and Hoj Jensen was third andthen 28th. The most consistent were Vladimir Ikonnikouwith seventh and fourth and Tommy Müller with eighthand another first. From our point of view race two was a

11

The Transbunker Dragon Gold Cup 2007Nicola Wilton (formerly Maclennan) Reports

Regatta Reports

overall Top Ten Results

Pos SailNo Boat Crew Nett1 DEN138 Eva L. Hendriksen, L.Stenfeldt, P.Skafte-Holm 46.702 GER996 Sinewave T. Müller, V.Hoesch, M.Schehmais 50.003 UKR777 Bunker Queen M. Wieser,T.Anrache, S.Pugatchev 81.004 GER1035 Rosi P. Ocker, F.Grosser, M.Brather 83.705 RUS99 Murka 9 V. Uvarkin,D.Sapronov, V.Varnachkin 84.706 GBR705 Danish Blue P. R. Hoj, T.Palm, C.Brittain 88.707 GBR700 Princess Jalina D. Palmer, K.Harsberg, H.Bagnall 92.008 GER1013 Follow Your Dreams P. Froschl, S.Smuda-Frosch, C.Rusitschka 93.709 RUS27 Annapurna 2 V. Ikonnikou, A.Shalagin, A.Mikhaylin 104.0010 RUS2 Alisa A.r Ezhkov, V.Kautskih, A.Gargoriew 104.00

catastrophe with all our bogey teams ahead of us. Werestored our dented egos a little in the afternoon byfighting off Hoj Jensen, Lars Hendriksen, David Palmerand Cees Naters to mention a few.

Day three was another day of shifting conditionsand even if the breeze was rather weak on the secondbeat there were some raised eyebrows when the coursewas shortened. However it turned out to be a verycunning idea as three minutes after the last boat hadfinished, the wind died completely. Among the topboats Lars Hendriksen was third while Tommy Müllerand Marcus Wieser were 30th and 34th.

After three days and four races the overallstandings were Hendriksen first, Müller second andWieser third and little did we know that that was to bethe final result.

Day four was spent in the harbour watching avertical hanging AP pennant and a glassy Bay of Palma.The forecast for day five was not very optimistic and thelast day was spent in much the same way as the daybefore. The only difference was that the grin on Lars’sface was growing bigger and bigger as the minutesticked by. Eventually, the signal declared racing was over and we

had three very popular winners who really had made agood job in shifting and difficult conditions. Oursincere admiration and congratulations to Lars, Phillippand Lars. Very well done indeed.

There really were many good things about theGold Cup in Palma. The venue for one is superb;beautiful yacht club, great facilities and goodsailing waters. So the organisers can be forgivenfor thinking the Gods were against them as theyhosted the 2007 Dragon Gold Cup from 5-13April 2007 when Palma was possibly the only placein Europe that had nearly constant rain andmaximum 14°C temperatures.

On the positive side the Race ManagementTeam coped well with the light and shifty winds,doing a brilliant job to get 4 races completed. Theproactive International Jury “on the water”monitoring was a great success and the behaviour

of the fleet noticeably improve. Transbunker were a generous and active

sponsor, attending all the functions and showingreal support for the class. They have been a greatfriend to the Class over recent years and we owethem our thanks.

Apart from the weather, the Gods had oneor two other challenges for the Organisersincluding ferry cancellations over the weekend wewere due to depart. Thankfully the problem wasovercome by scheduling 2 races on the same dayso we could finish on Friday.

And so, we come to the race report, writtenas a view from the middle of the fleet.

Gavia salutes Lars's victory!Picture courtesy Ruben Ballester

Picture courtesy Txema OliverPicture courtesy Txema Oliver

Spring weather in Palma! Picture courtesy Txema Oliver

Picturecourtesy

RubenBallester


Olympic champion crew of JochenSchümann, Thomas Flach andBernd Jaekel sailed as the foxes.But all the twists and turns that thefoxes made in the light winds wereto no avail. They were soon caught.

After the race, the sailors,golfers and many guests attended

the CHILDHOOD Barbecueorganised by Hanseatic Lloyd. HerMajesty personally congratulatedthe winners, who were handed thespecial prizes of the GermanischerLloyd and of the BremerLandesbank. The financial result ofthe Charity Golf & Race once againreached a new high: Donations inan amount of Euro 200,000 hadbeen collected for CHILDHOOD.

North German Dragon FleetCaptain, Walter Behrens,representing Germany’sCommodore Rupert Fischer, said“It was a fantastic sailing and

social event, not only for sailors,but also for friends and guests”.Lothar Jenne (Chairman of the KielYacht Club, who organised theGrand Prix together with the YCStrande), added “If the DragonGrand Prix did not exist, it wouldhave be invented: The idea ofputting sailing sport of the topclass at the service of the weakestis simply enthralling! All who meetin the waters off Strande arewinners!”

For more pictures and thecomplete results list 2007: visitwww.hll-dragon.de.

Sixty-one crews from ten nationscame together for the second

Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon Grand Prix2007 in Strande on Germany’s KielBay in the Baltic Sea. Five raceswere sailed, mostly in force threewinds from westerly directions andin mixed weather conditions whichmeant that only five of the sevenraces could be sailed. The winnersby five points were the DanesFrank Berg, Sören Kaestel andSören Holm ahead of PeterFröschl, Sigrid Smuda-Fröschl and

Friederike Geppert (Germany) andPeter Due, Martin Due and MikkelKidmose (also from Denmark).

The incredible strength of thecompetition can be seen from thenarrow marginsbetween the scoresof the first five teams:all were separated byonly eight points.Furthermore, all fiveraces were won bydifferent crews. Thefirst race was won byMichael Koch,Michael Lipp andJustus Kniffka (SUI296). The secondrace went to the

twice Olympic champion Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen together withFredrik Hejne and Martin Payne(GBR 725). The following two raceswere won by the then reigningWorld Champion Jorgen Schönherr(DEN 375, with Jan Eli Gravad andChristian Videbaek) and by thesoon to be new World ChampionThomas Müller with Vincent Hoeschand Max Scheibmair (GER 996).With a win in the fifth and whatprove to be last race, the six timesDanish Dragon champion FrankBerg took over the leading positionin this highly competitive class.

Any one of the five teams inthe lead could still have won in thetwo races scheduled for the lastday. But very weak winds whichabove all were constantly changingdirection prevented the final show-down. The lack of wind thus gaveFrank Berg the – nevertheless well-earned – victory.

That overall victory also meantan engraving on a model of thecontainership “HLL Atlantic” and alimited partners’ share to the valueof 5,000 Euros in the full sizeversion of this ship that belongs tothe title sponsor Hanseatic Lloyd.

With the Championshipconcluded the Dragon fleet thenenthusiastically supported a benefitgolf and race day held on the finalSunday in support of the World

Childhood Foundation. Childhoodwas founded in 1999 by HM QueenSilvia of Sweden, who felt anurgent need to address the social,emotional and material poverty ofchildren around the world.

Queen Silvia was present forthe event which opened with a golfcompetition. Later in the morningthe Queen was greetedenthusiastically by sailors andspectators as she arrived for thesailing (see above). The Dragoncrews – all with a VIP guest onboard – were all wearing the redChildhood shirts. Out on the waterthe Queen fired the starting signalwith a practised hand.

The regatta was run as a foxhunt. The crews of Christian Boilloton MON 1 with Minister-PresidentPeter Harry Carstensen and SUI288 of Harro Kniffka with the twice

12

Hanseatic Lloyd DragonGrand Prix Germany 2007

Frank Berg successful among sixty-one crews

Regatta Reports

Hanseatic LloydDragon Grand Prix 2008The third Hanseatic Lloyd DragonGrand Prix in Strande/Kiel Bay willbe held from the 5th to the 8th ofJuly 2008. The regatta counts as aGrade 1 event for the InternationalDragon Ranking List. The CHILDHHOOD Charity Golf &Race is once again an integral partof the event.

For more information for 2008: visitwww.hll-dragon.de. For furtherinformation about the ChildhoodFoundation please visitwww.childhood.org.

New sail styling from Petticrows!

All pictures courtesy www.segel-bilder.de

From the pin - there may have been one or two over!


Stavros brings us his unique annual summary

of our racing year

IT ONLY SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY that I put pen to paper tobring a little cheer to Dragon Sailors across the Globe

with the racing news of 2006, such is the speed of timewhen you are privileged to enjoy racing the undisputedbest one design keel boat in the world…

What a year we have had, a record number ofDragon regatta’s from Portugal to Russia. A new, and verydeserved, World Champion Tommy Müller. Many morenew boats built; new trailers with their ever bigger boxes;new sails from a variety of makers and more importantlywe have seen many new sailors joining our terrific class.

So where do I start to tell of this amazing year? Ofcourse at the beginning, with the Ski Voile in Antibeswhich took place during a cold but sunny January. Why?Because I was on the winning boat! That’s why… Sailingwith Olaf Sorensen and Shawn Kingston we managed tostamp the Kinsale Yacht Club’s name on this premierevent of our calendar year. It was a memorable momentto see Don O’Donoghue (winner of the 2006 RégatesRoyal in Cannes) present proud fellow Irishman Olaf withthe yellow jersey/cover of a champagne bottle with achilled bottle of champagne in it!, as a follow on trophyfrom Don’s previous Cannes win. The Irish are a verystrong and competitive fleet, they sail fast and drink fast,the only problem is getting them to buy their ownrounds… only joking lads - they will kill me for that one!

An outstanding event followed in Monaco a weeklater which saw that ‘Old Work Horse’ Mick Cotter takethe Primo Cup with the help of his two alcoholic Kin crew,Simon and Davy. It was an event of both light and strongwinds so to win against a well attended and strong fleetwas a great achievement. Particularly for Mick as hereaches what must be the ‘twilight’ of his career.

From Monaco some of us lucky ones made the longbut scenic trip via Barcelona and Madrid to Portugal,where, in Cascais, we were greeted with blue skies, warmseas and the chance to race amongst the dolphins.Cascais has the most magnificent new Club House andMarina which was host to the recent ISAF Worlds. Withour prestigious Gold Cup there later next year, I wouldrecommend that as many of you as possible make theeffort to sail the early February regatta there. You will all bemade very welcome, both on and off the water, have thechance to practice in the fantastic big Atlantic waves thatroll endlessly down the Portuguese western shore andcatch some early 2008 sunshine along the way.

Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen dominated both Cascaisevents and although he had a relatively quiet year for him,make no mistake, he will be back. I had the pleasure ofracing with him in Germany at the very popular Grand Prixand I can tell you he has lost none of his competitiveedge, skill and enthusiasm. His main problem is waving atall his customers instead of sailing his own boat!

The Real Club Nautico in Palma de Mallorca hostedthe Gold Cup during April. Unfortunately, for once, Palma’s

weather spoilt the event.However, you would haveneeded more than rainand miserable grey skiesto wipe the smiles offLars Hendriksen and histeam‘s faces as they wonthis prestigious trophyafter only four races couldbe sailed. Lars’ beautifulwooden Dragon Eva, isone of the old Pedersen &Thuesen boats which has been re-vamped. These boatsseem to be very quick in light winds and flat water soPalma offered him its perfect conditions. Having said allthat Lars would have probably still won the event in a bathtub with some of Tommy Müller’s old sails….

Did someone mention Tommy Müller? Well he had toget a mention; after all he has had a fantastic season.Teaming up with a relatively new sailor to the class,Vincent Hoesch and Max he started his winning ways withthe Grand Prix in Douarnenez. He then took the biennialWorld Championships in Dublin, before beating everyoneat the Régates Royal in Cannes. Lastly, he has just wonthe first South American Trophy down in Uruguay. Not tomention his other successes. A great seasons sailing fromthis in form team, its just such a pity that Tommy stillthinks his jokes are funny. Stick to racing Tommy, let metell the jokes…….

Markus Wieser took the European title keeping hisTransbunker sponsor very happy, with that ever youngformer World Champion Wollfy Rappell in a deservedsecond place. With the Europeans taking place every yearnow, we can look forward to our journey to Oslo for nextyear’s event.

On our UK home front David Palmer continued hisnew found form. After a fine 2nd in Douarnenez, hefollowed that up by winning the Edinburgh Cup inWeymouth and also Skandia Cowes Week. So he can lookback on 2007 with a smile as he now takes a break fromInternational Sailing. Len Jones also had a good yearwhich reached a high with a Bronze Medal at the Worldsin Dublin. Gavia Wilkinson-Cox also showed promisethroughout the year including winning the first race at theWorlds. Lastly Ron James, sailing his beautiful coldmoulded boat, continues to improve.

I’m sure you will all want to send your best wishesand a speedy recovery to Uli Libor. He is now makingsteady progress after a worrying time due tocomplications after a simple operation. We need you backout there Uli, displaying the skills that saw you deservedlytake the Silver Medal at the Worlds in your newDoomernik Dragon. Have a good Xmas & New Year fromus all…..

Sail Higher, Faster, Longer…………. Stavros.

15

Everyone knows the ‘Man’ (Poul-Richard), can sail a Dragon single-handed. Stavros (one of hishumble disciples), does not evenneed a Boat!


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17

L ONG TIME DRAGON SAILOR and well knownsupporter of the International Fleet, Tommy Müller hashad an exceptional season by any standards. Winner ofthe Grande Prix Petite Navire in Douarnenez, theRegates Royales in Cannes and the WorldChampionships in Dublin, also winner of the AustrianChampionships and second in the Gold Cup this year,he finished the season as the first sailor to head the newInternational Ranking List and promptly declared that hewould present a Trophy for this new annual honour inthe Dragon Class.

Recognising this exceptional achievement, weasked Tommy for an interview to learn how he hasamassed the experience and ability to be able toachieve so many successes in such a competitive Classthis year as well as having established a reputation as aleading Dragon helmsman over the last 10 years or so.

Tommy has been on the water in boats of varioussizes and classes for all but a very few early years. Hecomes from a family who ‘have always owned andraced sailboats,’ from 12 metres, through ocean-racersin the 60s-80s (including all the famous Rubins) and forthe last 27 years his own Dragons.

His first boat when he was very young was a singlesailed clinker dinghy in which he learned to sail, this wasfollowed by another single hander, a predecessor of theFinn in which he learned to race. At 16 he got an old5.5m from his Grandfather, which he sailed in Kiel andLübeck, before moving on to the family “Rubins” in histeens followed by continuing International competition

in half, three quarter and then one tonners , where hewas part of many victorious crews as trimmer, tacticianand helmsman. In 1973 he was a member of Rubin’screw who won the Admiral`s cup.

In 1979 he decided to switch to the increasinglypopular and well established Dragon Class and his firstboat was an early Borresen GRP boat bought second-hand and sailed in Hamburg. This he kept for 2 seasonsbefore buying a Marcus Glas boat in which he wonseveral German events. In the late 80s he built a‘beautiful cold-moulded’ Dragon which he kept for afew seasons until buying his first Petticrow in the early90s. During this period he raced with his wife andfriends and sailing against fellow Germans VincentHoesch and Harm Müller-Spreer was generally in theleading boats at the Gold Cup and other Internationalevents. In 2002 he won the Gold Cup in Mariehamn –Finland with his friends Mario Wagner and BjörnOestereich.

In 2003, he decided to take his racing moreseriously and with Marcus Wieser and ThomasAuracher won the Princess Sophia and the Grand Prixin Douarnenez. Since that time he has campaigned hisboats at the major events with the best crews available,a policy which seems to work as all the big successesthis year have been with Vincent Hoesch and MaxScheibmair on board.

Like all the current top helmsmen Tommy feelsthat the standard of the Class has developed veryquickly over the last 7 years or so, and that to be andremain at the top in the current large fleets requires thebest boats and sails, and particularly crews. Tommyacknowledges his success this year has been due in nosmall part to his crew and the training they have carriedout off the race course as well as on it. He uses theireyes and ears, trimming skills, and tactical inputthroughout a race and is completely confident thatwhatever call he makes on the water, and particularly atmark roundings, they will be prepared for it and will beable to deliver. – All part of the seamlessness of thepracticed team.

Finally we asked Tommy what it was thatparticularly attracted him to the Dragon and kept himsailing it after so many years. His reply was, like somany owners, the technical challenge of the boat, thepleasure of sailing with and against highly skilledpeople in large Fleets, and the overall friendship acrossNational boundaries, ages and cultures that the sportand the Class engender.

As if all this was not enough, he also became thefirst winner of an excellent new event held, in December2007 in Punta del Este, Uruquay – The J. LauritzenDragon Championships. Well done Tommy!

Tommy MüllerW O R L D C H A M P I O N

The IDA’s David Dale profiles the 2007 Dragon World Champion

Et Voila!LUXURY WOODEN YACHTS WWW.LAGOONROYAL.COM


Børge Børresen Our Vice President and creator

of the Dragon Class Børge Børresen died March 5th, 2007

I met Børge for the first time in 1966 when, together with my skipper,Poul Nielsen, we went to look over Poul's new Dragon, DEN 183 Bajads. Inge, Børge's wife,

welcomed us, warm and questioning while Børge was more reserved and mainly talked aboutboats with Poul. A fragrant mix of wood, varnish and Inge's coffee enveloped us.

I remember him, too, in 2005, at the Dragon's 75th anniversary celebration in St. Tropez,sitting down to lee steering his Dragon, as always dressed in a beret, shirt and tie: a gentlemanon the water, but also a gentleman on land. It is these pictures of Børge that I live with today.

Børge died on a Sunday, peacefully at home in Vejle, 87 years old. We have all missed a greatskipper, an incomparable Dragon builder, a person known by thousands of sailors, from ship'sboy to kings, but nonetheless always helpful, calm and humble towards what he had created,

the International Dragon Class.

Børge built his first Dragon in 1936 and founded Børge Børresens Boat Builders in 1939.Since then he has built more than 750 Dragons with the famous BB stamp on the bow. Ofthese, about 450 Dragons are built in glass fibre and it was Børge who stood behind this

modernisation of the Dragon, securing the continuation of the class and its unique success theworld over.

The Børresen yard also built other boats that were or became large one-design classes, such asthe Knarr, the BB 10 Meter, the Soling, Yngling, Finn dinghy and BB dinghy. But it was always

the Dragon that remained his life's great interest.

Børge's results on the racing circuit and his stubborn fight for the survival of the Dragon inthe difficult years after it lost its Olympic status have made him a legend.

Without attracting a great deal of attention, Børge and Inge drove to sailing regattas thelength and breadth of Europe, often with their children, Ole, Anders and Lars, as crew. Therewere days of helping, repairing and selling new boats. And sailing and winning: 51 Gold Cup

starts, including four wins; several European and World championship victories; manyNational and International championships - the string of top results is endless.

For many years Børge was Chairman of the Danish Dragon Association and later an honorarylife member, as he was of the Danish Sail Union and his home club, Neptun. In 1993 he

became Vice President of the IDA and was later honoured by the Queen of Denmark with aCross of the Order of Dannebrog. It was a well deserved honour for a sailor gentleman, who inhis own quiet and determined way battled for a generation to extend and preserve the Dragon

as the one-design boat it still is today. His life's work was dedicated to giving continuedpleasure to the thousands of us sailors who do battle on the water, many in Dragons with a BB-

stamp on the bow.

Jorgen BondeChairman, Danish Dragon Association

19

Definition of the International Ranking

List (IDA-IRL)At 27 November 2007

Goal and Purpose of an InternationalRanking ListThe International ranking list shall servethe following purposes:• Rank all interested dragon sailorsaccording to their relative performancewithin the last 12 months.• Use the current ranking informationto identify groups for an event withgroup starts (like the Gold Cup 2003 inMedemblik)• Extend the current concept of“International qualification“ for Worldand European championship: The top25% helmsmen of the Internationalranking list will qualifiy for the Worldand European Championships in theforthcoming year.• Build-up a strong database with theresults of all major dragon events beingpublished and accessed via theinternet.• Raise funds through sponsorship ofthe IDA-IRL. The sponsor’s logo will bedisplayed on all printed and web-basedpublications of the IRL.There shall be two issues of theinternational ranking list: One for thehelmsmen and one for teams. (In 2007there is only a ranking list for thehelmsmen.)

Events to be included in the calculation -RequirementsOnly events which fully comply with theclass rules of the IDA and all relevantdefinitions will be included for theranking list. In particular class rule13.30 must be in effect.The organizing authority must supply thefinal result list to IDA within 14 days ofcompletion of the last race in the series. The following events shall be includedin the IDA-IRL:1. The Gold Cup and the WorldChampionship with a ranking-list factor(RL-factor) of 1.30 and a multiplier of 22. The European Championship with anRL-factor of 1.25.3. The “Grade 1” Dragon regattas inEurope with an RL-factor of 1.20 and amultiplier of 2 - in 2008 the followingraces will qualify:Princess Sophia Trophy PalmaThe Grand Prix DouarnenezThe Grand Prix of GermanyThe Regates Royales at Cannes4. The Australian Championship withRL-factor of 1.25 and a multiplier of 2.5. All other national championshipswith a RL-factor of 1.10 and amultiplier of 1 (regardless of thenumber of competitors)

6. In each country with a nationalDragon association, one more eventwith an RL-factor of 1.00 and amultiplier of 1. Each NationalAssociation shall nominate the event tobe included in the IDA-IRL prior to IDA-AGM of the preceding year in order toset up the fixture list correctly. The Ranking list in Australia with anRL-factor of 1.20 and a multiplier of 2and maximum three additional eventswith an RL-factor of 1.00 and amultiplier of 1. Only one event may beat the same location as the Australianchampionships. The AIDA mustnominate the events to be included atthe IDA-AGM of the preceding year.Not more than 3 events in each Dragoncountry per year shall be counted withthe exception of France.Australia is regarded as a continent(not as a country), the rules under 4.and 7. apply.At a later stage the RL-factors can bemade dependent on the number ofparticipants or even more sophisticatedby the overall quality of theparticipating fleet. The latter could beachieved for example by determiningthe average RL-points of the best 20%of the participants and deriving the RL-factor for the event from this average.

How to obtain individual RL-points for aneventThe individual points will be calculatedusing the final position in the event bythe following formula of the standardRL-system used in Germany and theNetherlands:

In general this formula awards theequivalent of 100*RL-Factor points tothe winner of a series and distributesall other participants evenly accordingto their final position.The following sample result tableshows the distribution of RL-points foran event with 28 participants and a RL-factor of 1.20:

Final Position RL-points1. 120,0002. 115,7143. 111,429...12. 72,85713. 68,57114. 64,286....27. 8,57128. 4,286

RL-points are awarded to thehelmsman and the team in the sameway, but they are counted for thecorresponding ranking list only.

The multiplier “m”The multiplier “m” of an eventdetermines how often the RL-points fora series can be used: If a series has amultiplier of 2, the obtained RL-pointsmay be used twice for the overall score,if it has a multiplier of 1, the obtainedRL-points may be used only once.

Calculation of total ranking list pointsThe total ranking list points of a periodare calculated as the average of thebest six results of a sailor (i.e. sum ofthe best 6 results divided by 6). Aminimum of 5 results is needed. If lessthan 5 results are available for aparticular sailor then the total ranking listpoints are set to 0. If five results arelisted then the 6th result is set to 0 butthe average is still calculated by dividingby 6.Remark 1: The reason to count 6 resultsis to give maximum points only tosailors who race abroad at least onceper season. In order not to be toorestrictive we will start the system byawarding total points already from 5results but still dividing by 6.Remark 2: The multiplier “m” gives adifferent weight to the events: The threeIDA regattas (Gold Cup, World andEuropean Championship), the majorregattas and the Australianchampionship (+ the current Australianranking list) count twice whereas allother championships and regattas countonly once. The maximum points can beachieved by participating in the IDAchampionships and one or two of theother major series. However, it is

possible to be present in the ranking listby sailing for example one major event,two national championships and twoother regattas. Under mostcircumstances it will be necessary totravel abroad to be listed in the IDA IRL.

Frequency of Calculation of the IDA-IRLThe yearly IDA-IRL is calculated for theperiod of December 1st of thepreceding year to November 30th of thecurrent year. This is done in order topublish it in the IDA magazine.In addition by means of the internetbased software it is possible to displaythe current standing of the IDA-IRL on amonthly basis (provided that the resultsare provided in time by the organizersand input into the database). The“ongoing” ranking list will be publishedon the 15th of each month.

Rupert FischerE-mail [email protected] 2007 ranking list available atwww.intdragon.org

18

RLPts =(NoOfParticipants+1) − FinalPositionNoOfParticipants

*100.0*RLFactorOfEvent


20 21

When did you start sailing and what sort of sailing didyou do before joining the Dragon Fleet?

“I've sailed in Burnham most of my life, startingwhen I was about 7 years old. My first sailing was inScows and then Cadets which were a very strongClass at that time, but after the Melbourne Olympics12sq m Sharpies became available very cheaply and Iwas one of a number of young sailors, who boughtthem, worked hard on them and sailed them in the UK.Throughout my childhood and formative years I alwaysused to admire the Dragon fleet at Burnham as theabsolute aficionado's boat and one that I aspired tosail.

At Oxford in the late sixties we did a lot ofkeelboat team racing all around the country and afterthat I did a lot of offshore racing including Admiral'sCup trials and sailing in five Fastnet Races on the trot -69, 71, 73, 75, 77 - the first one I didn't do was '79! Ialso raced in Contessa 32s and even the Finn.

I moved to Burnham in the eighties and sailedSquibs for a couple of years until in 1987 I bought myfirst Dragon. I bought a St George's boat fromAldeburgh and raced her for 7 years until 1994. Nextwas a very interesting boat built by Ian Lallow inCowes, a beautiful cold moulded boat. With her Istarted I started doing Cowes Weeks which offeredgreat racing and a unique Regatta atmosphere withmany competitors from other countries. A formulawhich I thoroughly enjoyed. I bought my current boat,

Quicksilver III, in October 2005'; she's a Petticrow so Ihave owned 3 Dragons, all from different builders.

I sailed my first Gold Cup in Le Havre in 1988 andhave attended as many as possible ever sincealthough regrettably I will never emulate BørgeBorresen’s record! I have also attended the last twoWorld Championships, in Neustadt and Dun Laoghaire.I am very keen on building relationships betweenDragon sailors across the world and have beeninstrumental in developing regular team racing eventsbetween my club in Burnham and the NRV (Hamburg)and Pirogovo (Moscow) Yacht Clubs. These arewonderful opportunities to build internationalfriendships and I hope other countries and clubs willbuild similar events.

”Your boats are all called Quicksilver - what is the originof the name?

“Quicksilver came about because of my hair. Thesilver bit is obviously after my hair and the quick bit issupposed to be about my impressive speed althoughthat is not quite so consistent!

”What do you do when you’re not sailing your Dragon?

“My working career has been primarily inmanufacturing of consumer products in a range ofindustries. For the last 11 years I have owned my ownbusiness and have recently sold it as a precursor toretirement. I have to admit that sailing is my allconsuming interest. My wife Barbara says all myfriends are boring because they don’t want to talkabout anything other than sailing – but I expect that isa problem many Dragon sailors suffer from!

Barbara and I also follow closely our daughterSara’s sporting exploits. She currently holds 3 worldrecords in free diving, her deepest dive to date being90 metres.

”What has kept you so enthusiastic about the DragonClass that you’ve chaired the British DragonAssociation twice and have now taken on the role ofInternational Dragon Association Chairman?

“I love the Dragon Class and was delighted to beable to become BDA Chairman for a second time.There are very few classes with proper fleets all overthe World and indeed to be part of that is a greathonour. As well as the strong home fleet one hasopportunities to travel and make friends all over theworld. Dragon sailors are all very nice people andenjoy the social side of Dragon events as much asthey do the racing.

I have been most fortunate to be electedChairman of the IDA at just the right time. I am just

Rob Campbell, Chairman IDAFiona Brown speaks to the IDA Chairman to find out more about the new man in charge

retiring from my main business occupation, so willhave the time to give the position the commitment itneeds. The breadth of the responsibility is fascinatingand I am lucky to be succeeding Rupert Fischer whohas done an outstanding job.

”What are your goals as IDA Chairman?

“The job description is clear – continue to ensurethe Dragon remains the world’s pre-eminent onedesign keelboat class and to work to extend ourgeographic coverage into new countries. I relish thechallenge.

I also believe strongly that long term successrequires strong fleets at local club levels as well as atGrand Prix level. I certainly want to work with NationalAssociations to help develop the strength of local clubracing.

”What type of person is a typical Dragon sailor?

“If you stand in the bar and look around at a bunchof Dragon sailors you would not think there is anythingparticularly unusual about them. They are all ages, allsocial backgrounds, all different financial backgrounds,there's a very broad spectrum. I suppose that wehave some difficulty in getting people under 30 into thefleet when I guess they are more interested in the highperformance range of boats and are busy withuniversity and starting their career and so on butotherwise the Class has a very broad appeal.

”Does getting into Dragon sailing cost a lot of money?

“Crewing is not expensive at all - you can do thatfor almost nothing. There's obviously a spectrum ofhow much people spend on their boats and its truethat sailing is an expensive sport but you can run aDragon at a range of financial levels and still enjoyracing greatly. Also the Class always has a largenumber of competitive second hand boats for sale

from a few thousand pounds upwards so there isalways a suitable entry level for someone new to theClass.

The Class is well established and big enough toprovide many different levels of sailing opportunity. Iget a lot of pleasure at both ends of the racingspectrum. I really enjoy going to the Worlds forexample where I'd hope to finish in the top third of thefleet, but equally I get a lot of pleasure club racing inBurnham where I certainly don't expect to win all thetime.

”Is it still possible for truly Corinthian teams to competeon the international circuit against the professionalcrews?

“A controversial subject! Personally, I welcome thechance to race against the best. It makes for atremendous challenge and quite often the Corinthiansdo beat the professionals. It would be a shame to losethat challenge. However, I am also in favour ofCorinthian prizes being available at the main IDAevents, to recognise the amateur. This was proposedbut rejected at this year’s AGM – I hope the proposalmight be resurrected.

”And finally what are your own Dragon sailing plans forthe 2008 season?

“I will be sailing at both the Europeans in Oslo andthe Gold Cup in Cascais. I also note some excellenttimetabling, with the Swedish (Marstrand) andNorwegian (Oslo) Nationals coming just before and justafter the Europeans. The British Championships(Edinburgh Cup) will be in Plymouth, an outstandingracing location. I also note that the French Nationalsare in Cazaux at the end of October, right in the middleof the oyster season! It looks like a busy year and Ihope to meet many of you in my travels.

”Pictures courtesy www.fionabrown.com

You can't miss the Chairman on the water!


AntiguaWith the arrival of ten new Petticrow

Dragons the Antiguan Dragon Fleet has made agood start. The official launching and theinauguration of Harmony Hall Yacht Club tookplace on the 16th December. The wives ofAntigua’s Prime Minister and Tourist Ministerwere among those who named the Dragons.

Eight out of the ten Dragons based atthe Harmony Hall Yacht Club in Nonsuch Bayare owned by Carlo Falcone. He owns thefamous Harmony Hall restaurant/hotel as wellas the Antigua Yacht Club Marina and resortcomplex in Falmouth. Carlo is first andforemost a racing sailor; he represented theCaribbean at the Barcelona Olympics in theStar (with his wife Paola crewing!) Some timeback, he took two years out to circumnavigatethe Globe with his family as crew in his classicyacht Mariella.

Carlo has bought the Dragons topromote one design racing in Antigua. Thesailing/racing conditions in Nonsuch Bay areexcellent. The Bay is completely protected fromthe prevailing east/south-easterly winds byreefs. Its size allows a course of nearly 1.5miles and racing whatever the wind conditions.Should a longer course be required, a 10-minute sail outside the bay allows for a 3000mile plus windward leg! The Dragons will beavailable for charter for races such as AntiguaClassic and Antigua Race Weeks. There is alsothe possibility for Yacht Clubs to use theseboats for team races; in addition, Dragonsailors will be able to do some winter crewtraining, while families can enjoy the famousbeaches of Green Island or thebeach/swimming pool at Harmony Hall.

Visiting Dragons sailors to Antigua willbe most welcome at the Harmony Hall YachtClub.

Look forward to seeing you on the racecourse in Antigua.

Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen RSecretary Antigua Dragon Association.www.harmonyhallantigua.com

AustraliaThe Australian Dragon Class is once

again building momentum. The Class was on ahigh in the ‘50s and ‘60s, was a littledepressed in the ‘70s, then came back with avengeance in the ‘80s and ‘90s with two WorldChampions in Stephen Boyes and Nick Rogers.The 2003 Worlds in Hobart and 2011 Worlds inMelbourne have led to a new resurgence ofinterest.

From New South Wales Wolf Breit hasregistered a 2002 Petticrow from Kinsale asAUS203, Tatsu. Richard Franklin had sold his

Ridgeway Toogara to IDA Officer Robert Alpeand bought a 1999 Petticrow from the Cowesfleet with Damien Hannes; she is now AUS204,Liquidity

Development and growth is infectious,particularly for someone as competitive as theirrepressible Gordon Ingate. He decided to buythe 1999 Petticrow Yankee Doodle Dandee, nowAUS200, which he had been using in Europesince his old friend and famous US yachtsmanGlen Foster died some years ago.

There are boats from the best builders;many refurbished wooden beauties and newskippers and crews. Rivalries between theAustralian States are rising – the WestAustralians are confident. Certainly, the Sydneyfleet is doing all the right things to be morecompetitive.

By the time you read this the 2007Prince Philip Cup (Australian Nationals) willhave taken place in Hobart in January and we’llknow the identity of our new NationalChampion. For the future the Australian teamsare looking forward to hosting the 2011 DragonWorld Championship in Melbourne and to onceagain welcoming Dragon sailors from aroundthe globe.

Find out more about Dragon sailing inAustralia at www.dragonclass.org.au

AustriaWe have a good fleet of 20 boats in

Austria and about half of the fleet also race insome of the major international regattas withboats visiting Germany, Hungary, Italy andFrance.

In the week from 19 to 27 July 2008Austria will host two regattas counting to theworld ranking list both on Lake Attersee – theEntenpokal regatta from 19-20 July and theAustrian Championship from 24-27 July. We

look forward to welcoming international visitorsto both of these regattas, but particularly to theBMW sponsored Open Austrian Championshipwhere we expect at least 40 boats from variousnations to complete. Competition is alwayshard, with top quality sailing as well asperfectly organised social events.

All Information on the Austrian Fleet canbe found at www.dragonclass.at

Denmark Insiders may have noticed a spectacular

development on the score boards this season:2007 has seen a major comeback for theDanish built Petersen & Thuesen Dragons!

Petersen & Thuesen Dragons were builtin Brandrupdam, Denmark in the period 1952 -1969. They produced about six dragons a yearwith a total production of approximately 100 ofwhich half are still in existence.

The P&Ts were built using the bestavailable timber by dedicated builders and inthe 60s were raced by famous Danish dragonssailors like Ole Berentsen, Axel Holm andHenning Jensen who won trophies at theOlympics, Gold Cups, Princess Sofia and otherclassics.

Now, 50 years later, you can find (if youlook carefully) beautiful original P&T Dragonsthroughout the world. Most of the boats havebeen resting from the race courses, havingbeen used mainly as beautiful day-sailors.However, some have been quite active on therace circuits and have proved that the "oldladies" are still competitive.

Personally, I found my Eva in an old shedin Scotland. She had spent the last 20 years ona mooring and was in poor condition. But it waslove at first sight!!! With help from my goodfriend David Young I got her back to Denmarkand began a 4 year restoration.

Meanwhile, HRH Prince Henrik had an

22

BB Dragon 2008 Edition

Same optimal shapeSame speedNew featuresOptimized in accordance with the new buoyancy changes

Administration | Production Vejle Yacht Service | Knud Hoejgaards Vej 18 | 7100 Vejle - Denmark

Phone | +45 76 49 71 12 | Fax | +45 76 49 71 13 | Mail | [email protected]

www.bb-dragon.com

BB annonce A4 +3mm.indd 1 04/12/07 11:58:14

National Class Reports 2007

Courtesy Austrian Dragon Association


Hong KongAfter years of weak turnouts, 2007 saw

the changeover of ownership of several boatsin Hong Kong and a significant revival ofinterest. The new owners are more active andthe racing is now keen and close with the 2007Class Championship decided between 4 boatson the last race.

We race almost every Saturday fromSept to May, with about 10 Sundays thrown in.Frequently visiting Dragon sailors can findcrewing spots in our races.

Please check the websitewww.rhkyc.org.hk for details of our racingschedule under sailing and classes.

HungaryThe Hungarian Dragon fleet saw a rapid

development in 2007 with imported second-hand boats and refitted classics.

One of the most exciting experiences ofthe past year was the Hungarian application towin the right to hold a large international eventon Lake Balaton, the largest lake in CentralEurope, where all Hungarian Dragons sail. TheIDA assured us the Europeans 2010 will beheld in Balatonkenese. Preparations are runningand both the 2008 and 2009 HungarianChampionships will be held at the same placeat the same time of year.

The Hungarian sailing communityfocused more and more on our Class as therumors of the Europeans 2010 on Lake Balatonspread. As a consequence, some of the tophelmsmen made a test of skippering a Dragon.One of the proofs that these efforts wereworthwhile was a 6th place for the Hungarianteam Atlantis with Tamas Kelemen at the helmin the German Championship on Lake Garda inOctober.

The HDA started a program to involve alarger base in Dragon sailing. For the secondtime we organized a highly successful DragonFamily Weekend with ten family crewsparticipating.

The Hungarian Championship held inBalatonfured early August was again a successwith 20 entrants, 5 from outside Hungary. WithAndreas Haubold and his team from Germanywe had an old-new winner.

Classic Dragoning got a new momentumlast year, as a Hungarian yard “Foarboc” and its

master Gyorgy Juhasz started the renovation ofwooden boats from the 50s and 60s. ClassicDragons were awarded separate prizes at allthe races of the Hungarian Dragon Grand Prix.

We are looking forward to a challenging2008 season when the HungarianChampionship will be hosted in Balatonkenseby Kenese Marina-Port Yacht Club, the venuewhere we also plan to hold the 2010Europeans. Quite a few international sailorsplan to participate in this event in preparationfor 2010. All Dragons sailors are welcome. Forfurther information [email protected].

Vilmos Naray,Secretary Hungarian Dragon Associationwww.dragonclass.hu

RussiaThe Russian fleet consists of 64

registered boats mainly located in Moscow andSt Petersburg. Since 2003 the fleet hasincreased more than four times. Now we havesome enthusiasts who are interested indeveloping the Dragons in the Southern part ofRussia and even in Siberia.

The National Championship, held in StPetersburg in July 2007 has become the one ofthe major sailing events in Russia as it has therecord number of participants, 35 boats, fromseven different countries. The event was alsothe first regatta for the new venue, TerijokiYacht Club, which is proposed to be the hostclub for the Dragon Europeans 2009. The firstthree were RUS 77 with Max Semerkhanovhelming, RUS 12 Vadim Stotsenko and FIN 50with Henrik Dalhman.

Since 2003 we have regularly organisedfour major events for Dragons: Bank Cup,International Baltic Regatta, Silver Cup and theRussian Championships.

At the last RDA meeting the membersdecided to expand the geographical areas forthe national championships. So now we havean offer from Tolliatti sailing club located on theriver Volga to host the Russian Championship in2008 and they compete with Moscow for thatright. The RDA is really interested in exploringnew venues for races and inviting more peoplefrom different regions of Russia.

For more information visitwww.dragonclub.ru

SpainThe Spanish Dragon Association

(Asociación Española de la Clase Dragón) wascreated in June 1996; however, the origins ofDragon class sailing in Spain go back to 1948,when it was still an Olympic class. The currentPresident, German Gil-Mendoza, has the soleobjective of re-launching the Class and creatinga local and national fleet.

This year has been a good year ofhosting events in Mallorca, however, due to thelack of local support by the clubs, we are

currently encountering difficulties trying toorganize future events and attract current andnew members. One of German Gil-Mendoza’sobjectives is to consolidate Palma de Mallorcaas a winter base for a big number of Europeandragons, especially those from northerncountries, so we are currently looking at futurepossibilities.

Our current fleet is of eight boats butunfortunately we don’t envisage an increase inthe coming year.

We are currently working on our nationalwebsite www.dragonclass.es and hope to haveit up and running very soon.

SwedenSince it was created on the initiative of

the Gothenburg Royal Yacht Club, The Dragonhas always had a very strong position inSweden. Many of us have grown up with theDragon. I myself sailed a Dragon in the early1950s, one with the original rigging. Thenumber of Dragons has remained more or lessconstant in recent decades, and you will find aDragon anywhere and everywhere along ourcoasts.

Interest in recent years has focused toomuch on the racing Dragons, but our intentionis to once again get all the Dragons into theSwedish Dragon Association and all our oldmembers back. Special efforts are also beingmade to involve the younger generation in ourcrews. At present we have about 50 activemodern or restored racing Dragons. There are15–20 of these on the West Coast and the reston the East Coast, in Lake Mälaren, on Lidingö,at Saltsjöbaden and on the coast betweenVästervik and Kalmar. Nowadays, we also haveabout 10 Dragons racing during the winterperiod in the Mediterranean.

The main event in the summeralternates between Marstrand on the WestCoast and Sandhamn or Saltsjöbaden on theEast Coast. The Swedish National

25

old dream come true. The owner of White Lady,Henrik Dahlmann, was finally persuaded byHRH to let White Lady change hands. Many inthe Danish sailing community were thrilled tosee White Lady back in Hellerup Sejlklub,dancing on Øresund again.

In Palma this spring, after almost 40years of absence, Eva was back on the racecourse. The four years of hard work, provedworth while. Together with my crew, LarsStenfeldt and Phillip Skafte-Holm we werelucky to be able to bring back the Gold Cup toDenmark.

But this was not the only fine result forthe old ladies in 2007. Frank Berg won theMarble Head and the Baltic Cup in Majbritt(now named Get Away), and Henrik Dahlmanwon a bronze medal at the Europeans inDebutant (now called Ratpack).

Others are following: Brian Juncker ispresently bringing another beauty back to lifeand Simon Brian is rescuing Josefine from anuncertain destiny.

So keep an open eye on the race coursenext season: you might be passed by a ladyolder than your mum!

See you out there!!! Lars Hendriksen Danish Dragon Associationwww.dragonclass.dk

(Editor’s note: The IDA actively encourages therestoration of the old Classics, but before youstart your work please read Class Rules 1.60-1.65, tell the IDA what you plan to do in yourproject, and keep your local Measurer informedof progress)

FinlandThe main event of 2007 for the Finnish

Dragon fleet was hosting the Volvo DragonEuropean Championships in Hanko in August.With 48 boats participating from 15 countriesand with the good work of local organisers HSFthe event was a definite success for allparticipants. Our thanks to all our foreignvisitors who came to sail in Hanko!

Concerning the Finnish fleet, the comingEuropeans attracted two new competitive

teams and there were also a couple of localboat ownership changes. The total number ofFinnish Dragon’s continues to be 34 withactivity centred on Helsinki. One of the mainefforts of the fleet is to further develop goodco-operation with the fleets in Tallinn, Estoniaand St Petersburg, Russia. One of the Finnishranking regattas in 2008 will be sailed in Tallinnon 13-15 June together with the EstonianChampionships.

The 2007 Finnish Open DragonChampionship was organised as a tune-upbefore the Europeans. 37 boats participated ofwhich 14 were Finnish. The winner was TomJungell, second and third places went toRussia's Georgy Shayduko and KonstantinEmelianov.

The 2008 Open Finnish NationalChampionships will be organised by HSS, oneof the most active Finnish Dragon clubs, on 15-17 August in Helsinki. We warmly welcome allvisitors to participate in this regatta.

On 9 August a special traditional event,Viaporin Tuoppi, is organised for wooden boatsof all classes in Suomenlinna, Helsinki. Thisevent attracts over 100 boats of all classes torace in the very centre of Helsinki, usually with5-8 classic wooden Dragons along with otherclasses.

The 2008 season will finish with theDragon Challenge Invitational on 30 August.This regatta allows sailors from other classes toget to know and race with Dragons. The fleetprovides boats and crew members and, ofcourse, sauna and dinner after the sailing. Thespirit has always been excellent, and the eventis a perfect way to attract new sailors to theDragon class to keep it active and attractive!

Jussi HeikkiläFinnish Dragon Fleet Captainwww.finnishdragon.fi

FranceThe number of boats in the French fleet

during 2007 was 105. We were delighted tosee many new owners joining our associationin almost every fleet. The number ofparticipants in races is also going up.

The French Open in 2007 was sailed in

Deauville and in 2008 will be held at Cazauxnear Arcachon. Each year the French Openmoves to a different fleet.

In recent years we have organised acampaign to attract boats from abroad to thesouth of France offering a complete racingprogram during the winter.

The main French regattas in 2007 werevery interesting with often difficult weatherconditions, but despite this we had greatregattas. We must thank the race officers andall the volunteers for the great job they havedone for us.

We have focused our communication onthe website, trying to be reactive; followingregattas everywhere; bringing news ondifferent subjects of interest; increasing ourphoto gallery etc.

We have strengthened the role of juriesthrough judging on the water. They arefollowing the races, standing by the marks andthey whistle a boat doing something wrong.The jury will then be a witness if there is aprotest. We have noticed a much betteratmosphere at the marks!!!

We have many classics in France all overthe country but the place where they are sailingas a class is Noirmoutier.

We hope too see many boats on ourcourses in 2008, and we will still do our best towelcome everybody,

The French website can be found atwww.afsid.org

GreeceGreece is another country where the

formerly strong Dragon Class had lost impetus,but thanks to an enthusiastic new group ofowners that situation is changing. The HellenicDragon Class Association was established in2007 in order to encourage existing ownersand new sailors. The Class is mainly hostedand supported by the Yacht Club of Greece, theclub with the longest history with the Dragons.Presently five boats form the active fleet andfour more will soon be racing too as they arenow undergoing repairs.

HDCA will shortly nominate a veryexperienced measurer to the IDA for approval,so all necessary measurements can be takencare of locally.

In Greece there are many sailors whohad raced in Dragons and have a goodknowledge and experience, but have movedinto offshore racing. HDCA is now raising theprofile of the Dragon and the Class is veryactively working to attract these sailors backand increase the fleet numbers again. Severalmembers of the Class are ex Olympians,national and international champions and thereare also sail makers representing the keybrands.

The Greek Sailing Federation and themajor yacht clubs of Greece have saluted andwelcome the establishment of HDCA.

For more information about the HellenicDragon Class please visit - www.hdca.gr.

Courtesy French Dragon Association

Courtesy Hungarian Dragon Association

Courtesy Spanish Dragon Association


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Championship 2007, hosted by the RoyalSwedish Yacht Club at Saltsjöbaden with 35participants, was a very successful event, quiteclose to the centre of Stockholm, and was wonby Sune Carlsson.

We now have a large group ofinternational and national champions in theSwedish Class. This meant that only onehelmsman, the previous World Champion in theInternational 11 Meter Class Stefan Winberg,was able to be best in two races. This ensuresexcitement in all the races. We have a newprize, which was inaugurated this year, for the“Worlds Best Swedish Dragon” to encourageparticipation in major international events. Theprize was won by "Sweet Alice II" with HansLiljeblad at the helm.

The AGM, chaired by Patrik Salén, washeld in Stockholm and a traditional racingprogramme has been adopted for 2008. Themain international event next season will be theSwedish Open International Championship inMarstrand on 24 – 26 July. It will be organisedback-to-back with the annual MarstrandRegatta and is also planned to be the NordicChampionship and part of the "BalticChallenge", ending with the Europeans in Oslo.

Ulf BjurmanNational Secretary, Swedenwww.dragon.p.se

United KingdomThe main British events in 2007 were all

won by different people. Rob Campbell won theEast Coasts at Medway. The South Coasts atWeymouth were won by Ivan Bradbury andDavid Palmer won the 2007 Edinburgh Cup,also at Weymouth. This was the first time theclass has held the Edinburgh Cup atWeymouth and all who attendedconsidered it to have some of the bestfacilities in the UK. In 2008 Lowestoftwill host the East Coasts and anothernew venue, Plymouth, the SouthCoasts and Edinburgh Cup.

In the future the UK hasbeen awarded the 2013Dragon WorldChampionships, to be heldin Weymouth and wewill be using some ofthe facilities from

the 2012 Olympics, so are absolutely confidentabout the quality of the of the event.

Outside the UK, Len Jones achieved theUK Fleet’s best away result, coming 3rd overallin the Worlds at Dun Laoghaire.

We are pleased that Aberdeen AssetManagement will continue to support theBritish class in 2008. Their generosity has beenvital to us, and we are most grateful.

In 2007 we have been using a pressofficer to increase our publicity. This has reallyworked and we will continue to develop this in2008. Our website continues to progress withtwo key developments now in place. Firstly, onecan see who are current members, enablingregatta organisers to check that entrantsbelong to the BDA and helping local fleetcaptains collect dues! Secondly, we haveintroduced a confidential section containingmembers’ addresses, emails, telephones etc,replacing the white book used for many years.The new system will be more economical andmore up to date.

In January 2008 Rob Campbell retires asBDA Chairman, having become Chairman of theIDA. Owen Pay will become our new Chairmanand is already fully immersed in theorganisation for the 2008 South Coasts andEdinburgh Cup.

Kate SandersonSecretary British Dragon Associationwww.britishdragons.org

USA2007 was a year of treasure hunting and

connecting the dots in the USA. The good newsis that we’re finding Dragons everywhere - inbarns and sheds, under tarps in yards – andpeople are starting to restore them, which, asyou know, takes longer and costs more thanyou expect. Partly this has been a result ofgetting out there and talking about Dragons andgetting some of them out on the water inplaces they haven’t been seen for a while. Andpartly it’s been about getting our new websitein place. In a continent with large distances, theonline connection is a crucial element forcommunication. While it’s not a strong marketfor buying new Dragons, with the US dollar atrecord lows, there seems to be a healthymarket for restoring existing Dragons andpotentially for buying good used Dragons fromoverseas.

Fleet numbers have dramaticallyimproved, with 44 members and 28 boats atthe end of 2007. Concentrations continue in thePacific Northwest, and the Great Lakes, butthere are also Dragons being restored in theNorth East the South and the West. And one ortwo of our stalwart travellers continue the NorthAmerican presence at international regattas. Akey event next year is the Pacific Rim Interport,which is being hosted by the Royal VancouverYC – come and see Dragon team racing!

We extend our particular thanks toPatrick Gifford, Classics Coordinator IDA, theAustralian, British and French Associations fortheir advice and support, and the Centre forWooden Boats, Seattle.

We recognize that we’re small, butbelieve it’s important to have a voice at thetable, so we were pleased that the BDA actedas our proxy at the recent IDA AGM in Norwayand we look forward to the day it’s hosted inNorth America!

Come visit our new website atwww.usdragons.org.

Courtesy www.koriolys.com

27


29

AGM REPORT

1.Apologies for AbsenceSee website for details

2.Declaration of ProxiesSee website for details

3. The 2006 MinutesThe 2006 Annual General Meeting

Minutes previously circulated wereapproved.

4. Chairman’s ReportDear Delegates of the National Dragon

Class Associations, Fellow Officers, DragonSailors and Guests of the Annual GeneralMeeting 2007,

Within the following paragraphs I will tryto deal with the activities of the Officers ofIDA and how they look on the past yearsince the AGM 2006.

4.1 RacingIDA Championships and Major Regattas

in 2007At Easter, we had the Gold Cup at the

Real Club Nautico in Palma de Mallorca.This regatta did not meet our expectations,especially because the Secretary and myselfhad spent more time than ever before toassist the Organizers.

At the beginning of August we saw aEuropean Championship in Hankoe/Finlandwith a very positive number of entries. TheWorld Championship 2007 in DunLaoghaire/Ireland was very well preparedand organized.

All sailors felt very welcome at the RoyalSt. George Yacht Club. Unfortunately the“Dragon breeze” did not show up and wecould sail only 6 races, 5 of them in verylight conditions. However in both cases(Europeans and Worlds) the final result listcontained no big surprises at least in thetop ten.

RotaApart from the complaints about the

Gold Cup we received some criticism aboutthe timing of the Europeans and the Worlds(being only 3 weeks from each other). Weaccept those points and try to proposesolutions to it in the course of the meetingwhich hopefully will have a positive effect onthe race calendar for 2009 and onwards ifaccepted by the delegates.

In springtime we received a letter fromthe Dubai International Yacht Club withwhich they withdrew their offer to host theGold Cup 2009. Therefore a few items onthe Rota for 2009 and 2010 will have to bere-arranged.

Improvements of Dragon racing ingeneral

The current group of Officers startednearly two years ago to discuss intensivelyabout the possible future of Dragon racing.Vice-chairman Peter Warrer has put togetherthe issues and results of these discussionsin a strategy paper. He published this paperon the forum to obtain broad feedback fromsailors. Since then we have refined it furtherand during the course of the AGM Peter willpresent our key proposals for

improvements. If accepted they will bepublished in our Regatta Regulations asmodified or amended items.

Please let me point out one major insightafter being an Officer of the Class for fouryears now and associated as Nationaldelegate before that. Either the DragonClass takes this whole issue very seriously.Then most of the definitions have to bemade mandatory for IDA Championshipsand (what we call now) Grade 1 events. Inthis case the Officers of the Class have tohave means to enforce that all Organizersadhere to the given standards. The otherway is to leave everything as it is, i.e. inform of recommendations and rely totally onthe quality and goodwill of the OrganizingAuthorities. This will work out quite often (asit has done in the past) but on someoccasion it will end in a very disappointingevent (as we have also experienced).Because each participant spends much timeand a considerable amount of money toattend events I would advise strongly for themore controlled approach to improve thechances for all to enjoy a good regatta.

International Ranking ListFinally we have defined and installed a

first version of the International Ranking List. Iam proud to present the first issue for theperiod of 1st December 2006 until 30thNovember 2007 at the AGM. It contains theranking of helmsmen only; but the lack of theranking for crews is due to the fact that manyresult lists today contain only the names ofthe helmsmen. This will change quickly withthe awareness of the ranking list. See page18 for details.

Now we should examine closely theresults of this ranking list definition over thenext two seasons; maybe the definition hasto be fine-tuned in order to achieve itsgoals.

4.2 Work of the Technical Committee andthe Measurers

BuoyancyThe work of our Technical Committee

has since the last AGM centered around thesinkings of racing Dragons in 2006 and thisyear. The main questions were if, how andto which extent can we increase thebuoyancy in our Dragons.

Mike’s report will deal with the approachtaken and the findings so far, but aneffective, efficient and good solution to theproblem needs very careful considerationand cannot be found in a rush. We hopethat the discussion of this topic at the AGM2007 will give the Officers and the TechnicalCommittee good guidelines for theircontinuing work on this issue in 2008.

For the discussion of the Class Rulechanges I have a general comment: You willfind not too many proposals in your AGMdocuments but a few of them have beenraised in the recent past. As an example rule13.30, the crew weight limit, has been onthe table since I first joined your group in

1999. So it will happen again this year; inthe run-up to the AGM I have seen severaldozens of e-mails dealing with modificationsto this particular Rule.

We should make better use of this time.Around 2000 we decided to have a“moratorium” of 5 years concerning themajor rules of building a Dragon. This didnot work out because it seemed toounspecific and too long for most of thedelegates. But maybe we could re-try with aslightly different approach: Once we havetaken our decision about a certain ClassRule change we attach a rule-specificmoratorium. For example: Once we arethrough with the discussion about the crewweight limit and how it shall be checked weshould state that the earliest time to re-openthe debate about rule 13.30 and theattached procedures will be the AGM 2010.

Event MeasurersWe have tracked the activity of event

measurers and see from their reports thatthe rule conformity of our boats, spars andsails is satisfying. Only very minorcorrections had to be requested fromparticipants and manufacturers.

Again all preparations have been madeto weigh a sample of Dragons before theWorld Championship. However, once morethe weather conditions at the measurementdays prohibited the execution of theweighing. It has to be stated that the goal tocompress the championship regattas inbetween two weekends is to a certaindegree counteractive to the goal of athorough control of the participating boats;but if the process of first measurementworks satisfactorily this might beacceptable.

Boat Builders and MeasurementsThe overall number of new builds

remained quite stable over the past fewyears and also for 2007. Whereas individualnumbers of builders for example in Germanyhave dropped we encounter new buildersespecially in the East-Europe countries.Often those new shops underestimate thetask to build a Dragon in full accordancewith our Class Rules. In addition we see thatsome of the old classic Dragons undergomajor repairs.

The Class has to have a tight grip onthose developments to avoid major trouble.In this context it is good that we still haveGuenter Ahlers on board. His excellentknowledge of our Class Rules and his well-known attitude are very valuable assets. Iwould like to suggest we make use of hisskills and his readiness to travel to therelevant places.

It will cost money for the association butthis is well-spent, especially if we ask him totrain two or three new first measurers and toprepare another experienced man who maysucceed him in a couple of years.

4.3 Professionalism in the Dragon ClassThis has been and still is a controversial

issue in the Class. We have sailors in the

The Annual General Meeting 2007The 2007 AGM was held at the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club, Huk Aveny 1, 0287 Oslo on Saturday 27 October. 34 people were present and 21 countries were represented


30

class who earn their living (at least partially)by helming boats, crewing on boats,conducting trainings and/or working asconsultants for boat builders andsailmakers. It is my personal firm convictionthat the Dragon class never would havearrived at the level of racing we see todaywithout the group skills and the dedicationof those people.

The downside is that we risk splitting theClass in two (events mainly for and withprofessionals and events on a pure local level)and that we lose long-term Dragoneers toother classes. The strength of the classresults from the broad base it has in manycountries and regions. I can speak mainly forthe German Dragon scene and there Iobserve a remarkable decrease in regatta andtraveling activities over the past 10 years.Entries for the major regattas in Bavaria havedropped from 60 – 70 in the 1990s down to40 – 50 nowadays. Not a single month passeswithout a Dragon being replaced by someother boat in my home club. Quite often long-term Dragon sailors leave the Class once andfor all or simply do not participate in regattasoutside the local level.

When I ask those people for theirreasons I usually receive the stereotypeanswer: “I cannot / do not like to competeon the level of the professional sailors but Ialso do not like the idea of just filling up theentry list”. At least in Germany I see asteady negative development.

There is no easy solution to the problem,maybe there is no solution at all. Howeverthe Officers felt the necessity to deal withthe issue. You will find a summary of ourfindings amongst your AGM documents andwe will discuss the matter at the AGM inorder to obtain directions for furtheractivities. As the chairman of the GermanDragon Association I am interested in asmuch feedback as possible from the otherNational Secretaries in this respect.

4.4 ConstitutionToday we all experience rapid and

frequent changes to all aspects of our life.So it is not a surprise that the IDA is alsosubject to these kinds of changes. Today wereceive an amount of information overcommunication channels which did not exist20 years ago. In the eighties of the pastcentury o one could foresee the number ofregatta events per year we have now andthe amount of money which is needed torun them. Together with boat building andsail making the Dragon market has becomea multi-million Euro/Pound/Dollar business.The IDA is meant to provide the guidelinesfor some aspects of this business andoversee the important activities and players.

With justification sailors, businessoperators and organizing authorities expectgood service from the IDA. This is basedmainly on the work of volunteers who servethe association a limited period of time.Hence the constitution should be a welladapted framework to make the best use ofthe available resources. By looking at ourcurrent constitution we found a few itemswhich can be improved or clarified. Vice-chairman Robert Alpe spent some time tospot those areas and to draft possiblesolutions. At the AGM we will discuss theseideas with you if and to which extent theofficers shall proceed.

With this AGM my 2-years term as

Chairman of the IDA will end. It was achallenge and by the same time a greatpleasure to work on behalf of theInternational Dragon Class Association. Iwould like to thank my fellow officers for theirtime and contributions, Mike Hayles and histeam for their work and all National delegatesand interested sailors for their input.

And finally a very special “Thank you”goes to our Secretary David Dale. Inaddition to the enormous amount of day-to-day work he makes himself available to theclass for all kinds of special tasks and withhis knowledge his advice is invaluable to theOfficers.

I look forward to discussing all relevantmatters of our beloved Dragon Class,

Best regards, Rupert Fischer

5. Treasurer’s Report

OverviewLast years receipts and payments

account shows a very satisfactory outturn.Income was very strong across all headingsand while some costs increased most weregenerally in line with the budget. As a resultour reserve increased by £ 7,436 giving us aclosing bank balance of £50,559.

The Association continues to benefitfrom subsidies from the officers in terms oftravel costs and administrative support.

The strength of the Class and goodturnout at major regattas continues.

ReceiptsSubscriptions were ahead of budget and

last year as a result of a strong drive by theAssistant Secretary to get all countries toremit their subscriptions early.

A further drive will be made next yearfollowing requests for subscriptions inFebruary for immediate settlement.

Buildings fees were at the same level aslast year reflecting the strength of the classand the interest in new boats with 47 newplaques issued during the year.

Sail label income, which had showed asignificant reduction of almost £ 6,000 in2006 recovered strongly in 2007 with 1,537being sold as against 1,233 in 2006. Thehigh sales are a reflection of very strongturnouts at major regattas especially theWorld Championship in Ireland.

As I reported last year, volumes can beaffected from year to year by major eventsand by the build up of stock at the mainlofts, North, Petticrow and Fritz. The fiveyear average is 1,350 labels per year andthis is the normal level for setting thebudget.

Newsletter and website advertisingincreased strongly. The better thanbudgeted income allowed for improvementsto be made in both the newsletter andwebsite and this is reflected in higher costsunder both these headings.

Other income reflected higher thanexpected income from the sale of plans,rules and templates.

PaymentsExpenditure was approximately £ 4,500

over budget and £ 7,000 over the prior year.As I reported last year there were savings in2006 on Officers and secretaries travelwhich were not expected to, and did not,occur in 2007.

Newsletter costs were ahead of budgetand prior year by approximately £1,000. Ournewsletter costs were higher than budget aswe increased the size due to stronger

advertising revenue and, in addition, we didnot benefit from savings we had hoped toachieve by changing our newsletterproducer.

We also invested more in the websiteand Jill Hayward did great work on this.These additional unbudgeted costs weremore than covered by increased incomefrom advertising.

Secretary and Officers travel wereincreased over last year as there was moremonitoring of the major regattas during theirplanning phase. It was agreed at last yearsAGM that this monitoring was a necessaryactivity as we attempted to improve thequality and consistency of the Majorregattas. There is a proposal before theAGM to seek to recover these costs fromthe regatta budgets in future.

Other costs were broadly in line withbudget and the affairs of the Associationcontinue to be solidly and professionallymanaged by the Secretary/ Manager DavidDale with strong support from Jill Hayward.

6. Budget for the year 2008We continue to maintain a reserve of

approximately £50,000 and are budgetingfor a small increase in this figure for thecoming year. This is despite predicting areduction in income from sail labels andproviding an additional figure for the work ofMeasurers relating to the buoyancy issue. Itis vital that we preserve a balance of thisorder to deal with any unexpected issueswhich might threaten the strength of theclass. The current review of buoyancy is aspecific matter which could require classfunds to bring it to a conclusion. While themajor cost will, and should, be borne by thebuilders it is expected that there may beincremental technical committee activityaround the subject.

Any additional one off significantexpenditure which has not been budgetedwill be approved by the Treasurer andChairman as and when it occurs.

Our commitments continue to increase inline with the demands of our members for ahigher level of service however the affairs ofthe Association are well managed and wehave a sound base for moving forward butwill need to continue to ensure that ourincome keeps broad pace with theincreased expenses going forward.

The strength of our Class and it’sstanding on the International stage,continued to be maintained. Major eventsattract very large high quality fleets. Thechallenge for the National Organizations isto encourage growth at country level as theInternational and travelling fleet is wellcatered for by a Rota of events at a range ofinteresting venues.

7. Technical Committee Chairman’sReport And Class Rule Changes

Mike Hayles reported that the Technicaleffort this year had been on trying to match aneed to increase the buoyancy of new boatswith constraints such as cost, design of theinternal spaces, and the integrity of currentand future bulkheads. Mike had consultedthe designer David Cannell who indicatedthat the buoyancy could be increased to aminimum of 2500 litres comparatively simply.At a recent meeting of all the boat buildersthere was general agreement that they couldmeet this target, if certain Class Rules couldbe altered to enable the necessary changesin construction.

AGM REPORT

The Marblehead Trophy was presented by the town of Marblehead, North America, in 1929 for an international inter-club competition.The Deed of Gift stipulated that in the inaugural year it could only be won by a non US Club.Thewinning Club should then announce arrangements and issue invitations to any recognised yacht club to race for theTrophy, by the 1st Jan of the following year.The holding Club could stipulate the location of the event and the type

of boat to be raced. Since 1983 it has been raced for regularly in the Dragon Class and in 1987 the Clyde YachtClubs Association included a series of races for the Trophy in its Gold Cup Jubilee event.

The Royal Danish Yachtclub is holder of the trophy, won by Frank Berg at the Danish DragonChampionship 2006. In 2007 a series of races for the trophy took place at the Danish Championship in

Svendborg, from June 28th to July 1st and Frank Berg won the trophy again.

In accordance with the Deed of Gift, issued by the City of Marblehead in 1929,The Royal DanishYacht Club hereby invites challengers for the 2008 Marblehead Trophy races. Challenges are only

accepted from recognised yacht clubs, who may challenge with one Dragon per club only.

In 2008 a series of races will take place in Copenhagen on May 23rd to 25th 2008.

Challenges should be received not later than May 1st 2008 and should be mailed to:

Royal Danish YachtclubAtt.: Morten Lorenzen

Tuborg Havn,Tuborg Havnevej 15DK -2900 Hellerup, Denmark

E-mail: [email protected]

The Marblehead Trophy


32

WELCOME TO THE DRAGONEUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2008

OSLO – NORWAY 1ST AUGUST TILL 9TH

ALL INFORMATION ONwww.kns.nowww.visitoslo.nowww.herbern.no

Please feel free to call us at any time: Steff Herbern +47 900 11 400Tor Møinichen +47 900 36 025

WELCOME TO GOOD SAILING AND A HAPPY EVENT !

Mike, had classified the Rules whichwould require changing as those relating to“Building Policy” and those affecting“Safety”

Building Policy

Class Rule 2.191 Minimum Buoyancy

Amendment: Replace existing rule withthe following:

“All Dragons first measured after 1stMarch 1991 shall have a minimum of 1,400litres positive buoyancy.

All Dragons first measured after 1stMarch 2000 shall have a minimum of 1,700litres positive buoyancy.

All Dragons, with the exception of thosebuild in timber, first measured after 1stMarch 2008 shall have a minimum of 2500litres positive buoyancy.

The buoyancy may consist of buoyancytanks and/or closed cell polyurethane foamwith a minimum density of 32 kg/m3.

Each new type of Dragon, first measuredafter 1st March 2008 shall pass a test,where the hull in racing condition, butwithout sails, shall be inclined to 90 degreesfor not less than 1 minute. After this time,the boat shall come upright and float for notless than 30 minutes with no part of thedeck submerged. The test shall take placewith either an IDA officer or Measurerpresent.

The Builder shall issue a “Declaration ofBuoyancy” for each Dragon built after 1stMarch 2008, stating the type, capacity andlocation of the various watertightcompartments and the total buoyancy, whenthe cockpit and cabin area has beenswamped.

Rule 2.192


“Watertight bulkheads shall bepositioned within 300mm of stations 5, and12. The bulkheads may be of timber or anysandwich construction. Watertightinspection hatch(es) shall be fitted. Theweight of each hatch shall not be greaterthan the part of the bulkhead which theyreplace. Substantial fastening devices forthe hatches shall be permanently fixed tothe bulkhead.

Any hatch to any watertightcompartment shall be closed while racing.A means of pumping the fwd and aftwatertight compartments clear of water shallbe fitted, this shall be capable of beingoperated from the cockpit. Non-returnvalves, draining in to the main bilge, shall befitted to any watertight bulkhead andcompartment, except when it is filled withfoam. Holes for control lines passingthrough any watertight bulkhead shall be nofurther than 100mm from the underside ofthe deck.

Rules to permit increased buoyancybelow the cabin and cockpit floors

Class Rule 2.515.2 (c) Partial Bulkheads


Partial bulkheads in way of themainsheet arrangement and within 300mmof station 8. If the cabin and/or cockpit floorand/or sides tanks are forming buoyancycompartments, the bulkhead shall bewatertight to each adjacent compartment,

The bulkhead may be watertight above thecabin floor on each side, have a doorwayand means to be closed watertight.

Class Rule 3.41 Area of Floorboards


Floorboards shall not exceed 16mm inthickness and shall be of timber or GRP.Floorboards forward of the bulkhead nearstation 8 may be sealed to form a watertightcompartment.

Floorboards between stations 9 and 8may create watertight compartments, butshall not be sealed for a minimum width of500 mm. Note: - The original floorboards inboats laid down before 15th November1958 may be retained.

Rule 3.42 Floorboards


The area of floorboards shall not be lessthan 0.2m2

Rules to permit increased buoyancy bylarger side tanks

Class Rule 2.505 Internal Hull Moulding


The upper part of the moulding shall notbe below a continuous fair curve betweenthe minimum points on each side of the hull,nor shall it extend higher than 200mm belowunderside of deck, with the followingexception. Between the bulkhead nearstation 5 and 8 the inner moulding mayextend higher, provided it forms a watertightcompartment. Between the bulkheads nearstations 8 and 12, the inner moulding mayextend to the lower edge of the cockpitcoaming and be joined with it, provided itforms a watertight compartment.

Amended Class Rule 2.507 Floors


A minimum of 8 floors shall be fitted. Themaximum spacing between adjacent floorsshall be 700mm. The floors shall extend upto the underside of the cabin sole.

The floors shall be of a uniform laminateof 7.5kg/m2. The floors shall be bonded tothe hull with a laminate of not less than6kg/m2.

Floors supporting the mast may beconnected by longitudinal members. Anylongitudinals shall, including any bondingflange, not extend more than 100mmforward of station 4 or exceed 350mm inwidth. The distance between the top of anylongitudinal and the underside of the deckshall not be less than 650mm.

Class Rule 2.508 Weight of Internal HullMouldings

Amendment: Add the following to the endof the current rule:

When the inner moulding is joined to thecockpit coaming, in accordance with CR.2.505.3, the total weight of it may increaseby 5kg.

Rules to permit improved safetySpinnaker Chute

Class Rule 3.31 Hatches

Amendment: Add the following to the endof the current rule:

If used as Spinnaker launching hatch, a

watertight spinnaker chute shall extend frombelow the hatch to the bulkhead near station5 and to the bulkhead at station 8 if fitted.

The chute shall be rigid from the hatch tothe bulkhead at station 5 from there thechute may be flexible.

The inner diameter of the rigid part of thechute from aft of the hatch shall not exceed300mm.

The material of the chute is optional.

Class Rule 11 Equipment

Class Rule 11.10.6 Bucket


Two buckets each holding not less than9 litres and with a lanyard of not less than 1metre.

Class Rule 11.10.8 Position ofemergency equipment

Amendment: Add New Rule“The anchor, anchor rope, buckets,

towing rope and all other emergencyequipment, which may be required by otherrules, shall be stowed in positions wherethey are accessible without having to openany watertight or sealed compartment.”

Class Rule 2.192 Bulkheads andWatertight Compartments

Amended Rule:‘Bulkheads shall be positioned within

300mm of stations 5, and 12 and shall bewatertight.

The bulkheads may be of timber or anysandwich construction.

Inspection hatches, which shall bewatertight, shall be fitted.

The weight of each hatch shall not begreater than the part of the bulkhead whichthey replace

Substantial fastening devices for thehatches shall be permanently fixed to thebulkhead

Any hatch to any watertightcompartment shall be closed when racing.

A means of pumping the fwd. and aftwatertight compartments clear of water shallbe fitted, capable of being operated fromthe cockpit.

Non-return valves, draining in to the mainbilge, shall be fitted to any watertightbulkhead and compartment, except when itis filled with foam.

Holes for control lines passing throughany watertight bulkhead shall be no furtherthan100mm from the underside of the deck.’

The following minor Amendments toClass Rules where subsequently approved:

Class Rule 6.72 Spinnaker Boom


The spinnaker boom length shall notexceed 2240mm.

Rule 6.73Amendment: Add New Rule

The fore and aft projection of thespinnaker boom fitting shall not exceed75mm and shall not project athwartships atthe mast.

Finally Mike mentioned that there hadbeen some proposals that Rule 13.30 beamended to ensure that the total weightlimit per boat was not exceeded throughoutan event. After some discussion it wasdecided that there should be no change to

AGM REPORT


34

the current Rule and that it should not bediscussed again until 2010 at the earliest.

Following a reference to the possibility ofusing carbon fibre in the construction of thenew rigid Spinnaker chutes, The UKrepresentative asked to be assured that`exotic' materials were not creeping into theconstruction of new boats. He wasconcerned that they would be reflected inhigher costs as well as not being permittedby current Rules.

On the general safety issue of racingboats in heavy weather, the Chairman askedthat the builders provide more advice onsafety and seamanship to owners in future.He suggested that this might be providedon the website or in a column on safety inthe new `Yearbook”

8. Items for Discussion

a) Venues for Major Events and RegattaRota

Dates were confirmed for the Europeansand Gold Cup next year and the Worlds inMedemblik for 2009. Russia was confirmedas the hosts for the Europeans in 2009subject to one condition being met, andDenmark would hold the Gold Cup inSkagen. All these venues were formallyvoted by the delegates as wereBalatonkenese for the Europeans andMarstrand for the Gold Cup in 2010.

In 2011 (Jan) Melbourne was finallyvoted to hold the Worlds, which, it wasagreed could be classified as an ‘open’event. Kiel would bid for the Europeans withSt Tropez seeking the Gold Cup againstOstende. In 2012 Ireland bid for the GoldCup to be held in Kinsale, against Vigo,whilst Douarnenez, bid for the Europeans.

It was the continued intention to confirmvenues by a vote 3 years before the eventbased on the IDA having received a detailedapplication from National Associationsdetailing the dates for the event as well asthe facilities and experience of thenominated host Club.

b) Regatta Regulations.The Secretary reminded the Meeting that

there were many details about all aspects ofrunning a major event in the RegattaRegulations. The Booklet would be reissuedin January and will have been re-organisedinto 4 sections covering,

1. Overall organisation of an event frominitial application to specific facilitiesrequired.

2. Detailed management of the racingitself and advice to PROs.

3. Rules of specific championships,templates for Notice of Race and SailingInstructions, and other associated forms.

4. Details of the recently introducedInternational Ranking List.

Copies will be sent to all NationalAssociations and will also be available todownload from the IDA website. NationalAssociations are asked to translate theimportant parts of the document regardingRace Management to improve the use of theRegatta Regulations by local regattaorganizers

c) Proposal for a Grading System forInternational and National Events

The paper previously circulated waspresented by Peter Warrer, and theproposed ranking system agreed as follows:

Championship Events; World and

European Championships and Gold CupGrade 1 Events; Princess Sofia, Petite

Navire, German Grand Prix, RegatesRoyales.

Grade 2 Events; All NationalChampionships and one other suitablenational event nominated by NationalAssociations. Both events to have morethan 20 entrants.

These categories and events to bereviewed each year by IDA Officers at theAGM.

An IDA Officer will be formally assignedto the Championship events to ensure thatthe Organising Authority is fully aware ofand can provide the quality of racing andinfrastructure expected by the Class.

The Officer’s intend to form a group of 3to monitor all aspects of the graded eventsand their development in the future.

The paper also outlined certain criteriafor the running of these events all of whichare, or will be, included in the Regattaregulations, but two additional initiatives arethe encouragement of Regional circuits,such as the Iberian Championships andNew Regatta Venues in areas of potentialDragon development such as theCaribbean, North and South America andcertain states in the Middle East. Howeverin was recognised that in planning any suchRegatta, care must be taken not to detractfrom Graded events scheduled in anon–European location within 12-18monthsof a proposed date.

d) The International Ranking ListA final version of this paper was

presented to the Meeting with a sample ofthe rankings worked for the period01.12.2006 – 24.10.2007.

It is a comprehensive explanation of theRanking List and how it is calculated. This,with any subsequent amendments will beincluded in Section 4 of the RegattaRegulations when re-issued in January2008. The success and accuracy of thisRanking List will depend on NationalAssociations (or Organising Authorities)submitting full results as soon as possible totheir own and the IDA websites after aneligible event. A list of eligible events will beincluded in the ranking List paper asAppendix A, as will be a Regatta ReportForm, Appendix B which must be submittedto the Secretary of the IDA as soon aspossible after the event. Rupert Fischer haskindly agreed to oversee the compilation ofthe Ranking List for the next 2 seasons, andany query about its working or structureshould be addressed to him on E-mail ateither; [email protected] [email protected]. See page 18for full details.

e) Growth of Professionalism in theDragon Fleet

Following a paper sent to all NationalAssociations about this topic together withthe outline of a method that is widely andincreasingly used by other classes to dealwith it, a general discussion concluded thatthe benefits of having professionals closelyassociated with it as crews, skippers,coaches, tacticians, and general advisors,currently far outweighed any perceiveddisadvantages. There was no discernabledesire to limit their involvement and it wastherefore decided not to pursue the ISAFSailor Classification Code in the immediatefuture, Furthermore it was agreed that this

subject should not be raised again until2010 at the earliest.

f) Comments on the Current Class

ConstitutionRobert Alpe, (Vice-Chairman) had raised

with the Officers during the past 2 years thewording of the current Constitution and hisconcern that it no longer matched theaspirations, activities and governance ofClass now or in the future.

He outlined to the Meeting his fear thatthe current Rules no longer providedsufficient protection for the Class and itsOfficers in an increasingly litigiousenvironment, and may not be suitable toallow progress and initiatives we may wishto make in the future.

After wide consultation and study ofRules and Constitutions for similarorganisations in several different legalenvironments he had produced a new set ofDraft Rules for the IDA as a basis forconsideration and discussion. He askedthat National Associations study this draftand report to the Secretary by the end ofMarch 2008 if they feel that a review of ourRules is necessary. If there is generalacceptance for change then he suggestedthat a small Committee of past IDA Officersand one current Officer to fully develop anew IDA Charter for consideration bymembers at the end of June 2008 followingwhich it would be considered by the AGM inNovember of that year.

g) Yearbook and CommunicationsThe Secretary said that it was felt to be

time to revue the Newsletter, which in recentyears had become somewhat repetitive inits style and layout. It was acknowledgedthat it contained much useful and interestingmaterial but it needed an updated designand style to make it of more permanentinterest during its 12 month life and of moreappeal to potential new and youngerowners.

Accordingly we are engaging for theproduction of the Yearbook a professionaleditor/publicity Consultancy, veryexperienced in the yachting world (handlespublicity and the yearbook for the Melges24 Class, and publicity for the BritishDragon Association). The Consultancy willalso help us with the production of up to 4E-letters per year to the Class, as well asbeing able, if required and funded, to coverthe major IDA events. The Consultancy,managed by Fiona Brown will be anexcellent resource for the Class to use asrequired in the future on an ad hoc basis.

9. Election of Officers - Appointmentsand Retirements

Robert Campbell was elected asChairman in succession to Rupert Fischer.

Xavier Rouget-Luchaire and Peter Warrerwere re-elected for a further 2 years each asVice Chairman of the IDA.

10. Date of Next Meeting Note change tothis date

Saturday 18th October, London, (venueto be confirmed)

AGM REPORT

Visit our newly redesignedIDA website –

www.intdragon.org


36 37

IDA Website – www.intdragon.org

IDA OFFICERSPRESIDENTH.M. King Constantine

VICE-PRESIDENTSH.R.H. Prince Henrik of DenmarkChristopher Dicker

OFFICERSCHAIRMANRobert Campbell (UK)Dragon House, 13 Ship Road,Burnham on Crouch, CM0 8JX, UKMobile: +44 (0)7974 204441E-mail: [email protected]

VICE-CHAIRMENRobert Alpe (Australia)37 Loombah Street, Bilgola Plateau,Sydney, NSW 2107. AustraliaPhone (Office): +61 2 9918 4885Phone (Home):+61 2 9973 4800Fax (Office): +61 2 9973 4600Mobile: +61 419 272 167E-mail: [email protected]

Xavier Rouget-Luchaire (France)5, Square Jasmin, 75016 Paris, FrancePhone: +33 1 45 27 35 00Mobile: +33 6 85 21 01 38E-mail:[email protected]

Peter Warrer (Denmark)Vestre Skovvej 4, 8240 Risskov, DenmarkPhone: +4540290941E-mail:[email protected]

TREASURERAndrew Craig (Ireland)Phone (Office): +353 1 662 6210Phone (Home): +353 1 285 8057Fax: 353 1 704 8712E-mail: [email protected]

SECRETARYDavid Dale (UK)2 Leelands, Lower Pennington Lane,Lymington, Hants SO41 8EYPhone/Fax: +44 (0)1590 689 704E-mail: [email protected]

ASSISTANT SECRETARYJill Hayward (UK)Berrycroft, Tye Lane, Walberton, Arundel,West Sussex, BN18 OLUPhone/Fax: (Office) +44 (0)1243 555931E-mail: [email protected]

IDA TECHNICAL COMMITTEEMike Hayles UKChairman [email protected]

Antonio Cardona Espin ESPChief Measurer [email protected]

Gunter Ahlers GERInternational Measurer [email protected]

MembersPhilip Ocker GER [email protected]

Marc van Bemmel NED [email protected]

Lars Hendriksen DEN [email protected]

Andrew Johnson [email protected]

LICENSED INTERNATIONAL DRAGONBUILDERSJoop DoomernikHavendijk 22, 5017 AM-tilburg, The NetherlandsTel. +31 (0)13 - 58 00 306, Mobile +31 (0)655 80 66 66E-mail: [email protected] www.doomernik.nl

Markus Glas GMBHSeeweg 1-3, Bootswerft, 82343Possenhofen, GermanyTel +49 (0)8157 93950, E-mail: [email protected] www.bootswerft-glas.de

Petticrows LtdThe Quay, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, CM0 8AT, UKTel +44 1621 782115, E-mail: [email protected]

Royal Dragon by Vejle Yacht Service Knud Højgaards Vej 18, 7100 Vejle, DenmarkTel +45 7649 7112, E-mail: [email protected]

West Projects LtdMoskovsky Pr 145-45, 196015, St Petersburg, RussiaE-mail: [email protected] [email protected], Tel +7 812 324 4144, Mobile +7 921 9386607

For a complete list of licensed buildersplease E-mail [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL DRAGON RULES &PLANSAvailable from the IDA – [email protected]

Plans 1-7 + Johan Anker Original Drawingsvia e-mail £55 Plan 8 hard copy £130Plan 8 on disk £300Prices include postage

BUILDING PLAQUES ISSUED 30/9/2006 – 30/9/2007

Petticrows 36Veijle Yacht Service BB Dragon 10Doomernik Dragons 5West Projects 4Markus Glas 2Single Builders 3

Total 2007 60Total 2006 51

General Information

IDA MEASURERS

Country Name Description

Australia Ediss Boyes MFPeter Hay MSAlwyn Jarman MFTed Laing MFNorman Longworth IMIan MacDiarmid MSBob McCluskey MSRichard Smith MSJohn Standley MFCharles Stanton MFHugh Wardrop MFDavid J Vaudrey MFIan Malley MS

Austria Hubert Raudaschl GesmbH MSGunther Staudinger MF

Belgium Frank Dobbels MFCanada Kent Aggus MS

Greg Bratkiw MSDenmark Bo Bundgaard Lassen MF

Ken Brown MSTom Carlsen MSJakob Grünfeld MSClaus Hoj Jensen MSJanne Nielsen MSSigne Jeppesen MSCarsten Lauridsen MFTheis Palm MFMogens Pedersen MSBo Selko MSJanne S. Nielson MSSteffan Schultz MS

Estonia Juri Saraskin MFFinland Erkki Hintsanen MF

Chris Winter MFPelle Kindberg MS

France Claude Burillon MSJoseph Guillou MSYves Leglise MFAnnie Ravach MSDaniel Petton MS

Germany Gunter Ahlers IMHeinz-Werner Aping MFBernd Faber MSWerner Fritz MSGerd Hoglinger MFWalter Mai MFAndreas Hermann MSFrank Schonfeldt MSBarbara Mang MS

Hong Kong Alan Lau MSHungary Bence Toronyi MFNetherlands Marcel Wagenaar MFNew Zealand Roger Knightly MF

Allen Smith MFNorway Harald Gjoertz MFPortugal Nuno Reis IMRussia Vasily Alexeev MFSpain Antonio Cardona Espin MF

Fernando Sallent MSSweden Matz Brown MF

Lars Stjerna MFSwitzerland Fred Gachter MSTurkey Ziya Ergun MFUK Geoff Appleton MF

David Chivers MFPeter Duce MFChris Henderson MSStuart Jardine MS

Measurer Sails = MS Measurer Full = MFInternational Measurer = IM

IDA NATIONAL CLASS CONTACTS & REGISTERED FLEET NUMBERSRS

Country Name Telephone Web/E-mail Registered Boats

Antigua Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen Mobile: +44 7753650803 Web: www.harmonyhallantigua.com 10Email: [email protected]

Australia Donald Blanksby Office: + 61 3 9536 3103 Web: www.dragonclass.org.au/ 46Mobile: + 61 417 377 492 Email: [email protected]

Melbourne Vic 8008Austria Christoph Schindler Home: + 43 7752 71194 Web: www.dragonclass.at 20

Mobile: + 43 664 2114490 Email: [email protected] Peter De Gryse Home: + 32 59 340 281 Web: www.beldragon.be 19

Home Fax: + 32 59 340 289 Email: [email protected] Peter Jeffery Office: + 1 416 252 5032 Email: [email protected] 20

Off Fax: + 1 416 252 5933Mobile: + 416 571 2408

Denmark Lars Broen Home: + 45 39 64 14 54 Web: www.dragonclass.dk 50Office: +45 39 64 09 54 Email: [email protected]: +45 26731454

Estonia Margit Hein Home: +372 6 628358 Web: www.puri.ee 5Office: + 372 6398960 Email: [email protected],Off Fax: + 372 6398960Mobile: + 372 56604238

Finland Kai Talas Home: +358 50 5930348 Web: www.finnishdragon.fi 34Email:[email protected]

France Eric Le Bon Home: + 33 2 31 87 15 33 Web: www.afsid.org 103Mobile: +33 6 79 18 87 90 Email: [email protected]

Germany Rupert Fischer Office: + 49 89 546369 21 Web: www.drachenklasse.de 421Off Fax: + 49 89 546369 69 Email: [email protected]: + 49 1 72 593 56 33

Greece Antonis Nicolaras Home: +30 210 4526 894 Web: www.hdca.gr 5Home Fax: +30 210 4532 165 Email: [email protected]

Hong Kong Phyllis Chang Home: +852 2813 1877 Web: www.rhkyc.org.hk 15Office: +852 2533 2718 Email: [email protected] Fax: +852 3150 3718Mobile: +852 6478 8791

Hungary Naray Vilmos Office: +36 (1) 225 7836 Web: www.dragonclass.hu 19Off Fax: +36 (1) 225 7848 Email: [email protected]: +36 (20) 369 2126

Ireland Tim Pearson Home: +353 1 283 2423 Web: www.dublinbaydragons.org 51Office: +353 1 6070221 Email: [email protected] Fax: +353 1 6070226Mobile: +353 87 2480361

Italy Antonio Viretti Home: +39 010 583557 Web: www.primazona.org/Dragone_home.htm 4Off Fax: +39 010 583557 Email: [email protected]: +39 335 6121592

Japan Bocci (Atsushi) Ayoma Home: +81(0)3-3444-4600 Email: [email protected] 25Office: +81 (0)3-5159-8951Home Fax: +81(0)3-3444-4600Off Fax: +81 (0)3-5159-8953Mobile: +81(0)90-6521-3897

Netherlands Nick Andriesse Home: +31 294 414157 Web: www.dragonclass.nl 93Office: +31654 988991 Email: [email protected] Fax: +31 294 411672Mobile: +31 06-53437299

New Zealand Jude Hooson Home: +64 9 302 3035 Email: [email protected] 12Mobile: +64 21 662 006

Norway Rolv Giske Home: +47 70138031 Web: www.nordragon.com 51Office: +47 92 66 13 40 Email: [email protected] Fax: +47 70 12 50 00Mobile: +47 92 66 13 40

Portugal Mário Quina Mobile: +351 967814205 Web: www.dragopor.org 21Email: [email protected].

Puerto Rico Miguel A Casellas, Jr Office: +66 787 793 4700 Email: [email protected] 3Off Fax: +66 787 781 1912

Russia Igor Frolov Home: +7 921 9386607 Web: www.dragonclub.ru 64Office: +7 812 3244142 Email: [email protected]: +7 921 9386607 Email: [email protected]

Spain German Gil-Mendoza March Office: + 34 971 716 286 Web: www.dragonclass.es 4Mobile: + 34 639 385 450/ Email: [email protected]

+ 34 687 782 110Sweden Ulf Bjurman Home: +46 8 765 40 75 Web: www.dragon.p.se/ www.segladrake.se 51

Mobile: +46 70 680 28 64 Email: [email protected] Switzerland Lotti Schmid Home: +41 31 931 61 69 Web: www.dragon-class.ch 67

Home Fax: +41 31 931 61 69 Email: [email protected]: +41 79 222 72 65

Turkey Ersan Bayraktar Mobile: +90 532 335 8585 + Web: www.turkish-sailing-federation.org.tr 25Email: [email protected]

UK Kate Sanderson Mobile: 07808 159512 Web: www.britishdragons.org 177Email: [email protected]

Ukraine Evgeniy Braslavets Home: +380562365183 Email: [email protected] 4Home Fax: +380562365183Mobile: +380979632054

USA Mickey Lake Home: +1 251 988 1718 Web: www.usdragons.org 19Office: +1 251 443 3418 Email: [email protected]

Total 1438


YACHT CLUB STRANDE

Welcome to the

Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon Grand Prix 2008 5th-8th July in Strande/Kiel BayGrade 1 Event for the International Dragon Ranking List

and CHILDHOOD Charity Golf & Race for the benefit of the World CHILDHOOD Foundation.

www.hll-dragon.de

DRAGON REGATTA SCHEDULE 2008

Start End Regattas Venue Country Contact RL_F M

IDA Championships31/7/08 8/8/08 European Championship 2008 Oslo Norway www.kns.no/Engelsk/Race/

Dragon_European_Championship 1.25 229/8/08 5/9/08 Dragon Gold Cup 2008 Cascais Portugal www.cascaisdragongoldcup2008.com 1.3 2

Grade 1 Events15/3/08 21/3/08 39 Princess Sofia Trophy Palma de Mallorca Spain www.rcnp.es 1.2 230/4/08 3/5/08 Grand Prix Petit Navire Douarnenez France www.grandprixpetitnavire.com 1.2 25/7/08 8/7/08 HLL Dragon Grand Prix Germany Kiel/Strande Germany www.hll-dragon.de 1.2 222/9/08 27/9/08 Régates Royales Cannes France www.regatesroyales.com 1.2 2

Grade 2 Events2/1/08 13/1/08 Australian National Championship - Prince Philip Cup Hobart Australia www.tasdragon.org.au 1.25 21/2/08 3/2/08 1st Antiguan National Dragon Championships Nonsuch Bay Antigua www.harmonyhallantigua.com 1.1 121/2/08 24/2/08 King Juan Carlos Trophy (Iberian Championship) Cascais Portugal www.cncascais.com 1 16/3/08 9/3/08 VI Copa del Mediterraneo (Iberian Championship) Palma de Mallorca Spain www.dragonclass.es 1.1 130/4/08 4/5/08 International HLL Swiss Championship Arbon Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch 1.1 123/5/08 25/5/08 International Italian Dragon's Cup Sanremo Italy www.primazona.org/Dragone_home.htm 1.1 124/5/08 25/5/08 Jungfrautrophy Thun Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch 1 124/5/08 26/5/08 UK East Coast Championships Lowestoft UK www.rnsyc.org 1 131/5/08 2/6/08 Irish East Coast Championship Dun Laoghaire Ireland www.nyc.ie 1 16/6/08 8/6/08 Technogym Wellness Cup (Baltic Cup Challenge) Koge Denmark www.dragonclass.dk 1 17/6/08 10/6/08 Portuguese National Championship Cascais Portugal www.cncascais.com 1.1 110/6/08 14/6/08 Derby Dragon La Baule France www.yclb.net 1 112/6/08 15/6/08 Hungarian Dragon Championship Balatonkenese. Hungary www.dragonclass.hu 1.1 113/6/08 15/6/08 Open Estonian Championship Tallinn Estonia 1.1 126/6/08 29/6/08 Hankoe Race Week Hankoe Norway www.nordragon.com 1 15/7/08 6/7/08 Grand Prix Enkhuizen Muiden Netherlands www.dragonclass.nl 1 19/7/08 12/7/08 Edinburgh Cup - UK Championships Plymouth UK www.rwyc.org 1.1 110/7/08 13/7/08 Open Russia Championship Moscow Russia www.dragonclass.ru 1.1 117/7/08 20/7/08 Irish National Championship Dun Laoghaire Ireland www.rsgyc.ie/newsite 1.1 119/7/08 20/7/08 Entenpokal Attersee Austria www.sck.at/home.html 1 124/7/08 27/7/08 International Austria Championship Attersee Austria www.uycas.at 1.1 124/7/08 27/7/08 International Baltic Regatta St Petersburg Russia www.dragonclass.ru 1 124/7/08 26/7/08 Swedish Open InternationalChampionship Marstrand Sweden www.segladrake.se 1.1 128/7/08 31/7/08 Danish Championship(Baltic Cup Challenge) Skelskor Denmark www.dragonclass.dk 1.1 114/8/08 17/8/08 Belgian Open Championship Ostend Belgium www.beldragon.be 1.1 115/8/08 17/8/08 Finnish Championship Helsinki Finland www.finnishdragon.fi 1.1 124/8/08 28/8/08 International German Championship Starnberger See Germany www.drachenklasse.de 1.1 14/9/08 7/9/08 Open Dutch National Championship Medemblik Netherlands www.dragonclass.nl 1.1 15/9/08 7/9/08 Norwegian Championship Oslo Norway www.nordragon.com 1.1 116/10/08 19/10/08 Hans-Detmar Wagner Cup Torbole Italy www.primazona.org/Dragone_home.htm 1 130/10/08 2/11/08 Open International de France -Dragon's Cup Cazaux France http://cv.cazaux.free.fr 1.1 1

Non-Graded Events24/1/08 27/1/08 Ski-Voile International Antibes France http://cna.antibes.free.fr/Skivoile/sv2008index.htm31/1/08 3/2/08 Primo Cup Monaco www.yacht-clubmonaco.mc:80/sportAct/primoCup.html7/2/08 10/2/08 Prince Henry The Navigator Trophy (Iberian Championship) Cascais Portugal www.cncascais.com28/2/08 2/3/08 Semaine Internationale de Cannes Cannes France http://gailes.free.fr21/3/08 22/3/08 Osterragata Thun Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch23/3/08 24/3/08 Pâques à Cannes Cannes France http://gailes.free.fr17/4/08 21/4/08 Antigua Classic Regatta for Dragons Falmouth Antigua www.harmonyhallantigua.com19/4/08 20/4/08 Glariseggcup Steckborn Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch19/4/08 20/4/08 Oresund Dragon Championship Copenhagen Denmark www.dragonclass.dk26/4/08 2/5/08 Antigua Race Week for Dragons Falmouth Antigua www.harmonyhallantigua.com26/4/08 28/4/08 Coupe de Bretagne Douarnenez France www.grandprixpetitnavire.com2/5/08 4/5/08 Battle of Jutland Aarhus Denmark www.dragonclass.dk17/5/08 18/5/08 Henry Lloyd Cup Rungsted Denmark www.dragonclass.dk23/5/08 25/5/08 Marblehead Trophy Copenhagen Denmark www.marblehead.kdy.dk31/5/08 1/6/08 Patrick Monteiro de Barros Trophy Cascais Portugal www.cncascais.com21/6/08 22/6/08 Sommerregatta Steckborn Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch25/6/08 28/6/08 Open International de Dragon Deauville France www.dyc14.com6/7/08 8/7/08 South Coast Championships Plymouth UK www.rwyc.org9/9/08 10/8/08 International Dragon Cup Thun Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch26/8/08 28/8/08 Gold Cup Tune Up Cascais Portugal www.cncascais.com12/9/08 14/9/08 South Coasts Kinsale Ireland www.kyc.ie22/9/08 27/9/08 Vintage Yachting Games Medemblik Netherlands www.vintageyachtinggames.org27/9/08 28/9/08 Zugerseemeisterschaft Zug Switzerland www.dragon-class.ch8/10/08 11/10/08 Dragon Saint Tropez Saint Tropez France www.snst.org10/10/08 12/10/08 Jack Craig Memorial Bell Lough Derg Ireland E-mail [email protected]

DRAGON REGATTA SCHEDULE 2009IDA ChampionshipsTBA TBA Dragon European Championship 2009 St Petersburg Russia www.intdragon.org 1.3 22/8/09 8/8/09 Dragon Gold Cup 2009 Skagen Denmark E-mail [email protected] 1.3 25/9/09 11/9/09 World Championship 2009 Medemblik Netherlands www.dragonclass.nl 1.3 2

Please regularly check www.intdragon.org for further events and additional information


J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 8 A S S O C I A T I O N Y E A R B O O K

W W W . I N T D R A G O N . O R G

Undefeated!

Worlds 07, Dublin/Ireland 1.4.Gold Cup, Palma 1.2.3Kiel Week, Kiel 1.3.4.6.7.Europeans 07, Hankö 1.3.4Swiss Championship; Thunersee 1.Pfingstpreis, Tutzing 1.2.3.Princesa Sophia, Palma 1.2.Drachen Humpen, Utting 1.3.Grand Prix, Douarnenez 1.Osterpokal/Maibaum; Possenhofen 1.4.

Copa del Mediterraneo, Palma 1.Austrian Championship, Attersee 1.Campionat de France, Deauville 1.4.5.TechnoGym Wellness Cup, Koege 1.HLL Dragon Grand Prix, Kiel 2.3.4.5.6.Derby Dragon, La Boule 1.4.Pfingstbusch, Kiel 1.3.4.5.7.9.Swedish Championship, Saltsjöbaden 1.Sommerpokal, Starnberg 1.Vasco de Gama, Arcachon, France 1.

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in 2007

The Fritz sails dragon scoreboard 2007

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Documents

Int Dragon Mag A/wk Final