Klassiske Linjer nr 10 1999 - Klassisk Treseiler Klubb

26
Seventy years with Johan Anker’s
DRAGONS
SIMON HOLT
By the end of the 1920s, Johan
Anker was firmly established as
the nestor amongst Norwegian
yacht designers. He had also
won a second olympic gold
medal in the 1928 olympics, so
his position as Norway’s premier
yachtsman was equally undisputed.
During 1928 he designed
the winning entry in a
competition organised by the
Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club to
produce a smaller and less
expensive sailing boat for
young people. This design by
Anker was a Bermudan rigged
sloop keelboat with long overhangs
and short coach roof
over a tiny two-berth cabin –
minimal conditions for living
on a boat for two or three days.
Many of us have forgotten what
these looked like but there is still
the rare example dying slowly
in the corner of some boat yard.
Anker named the boat type
DRAGON, and the first was built
in Sweden for the 1929 season.
It quickly became a popular
boat. Norway had some in
1930 and then Germany. The
design shows a boat LOA 8.9m:
LWL 5.7.m: beam 2m with a
draft of 1.2.m and an total
overall weight of 35 cwt.
In 1933 A.H.Ball, a member of
the Clyde Yacht Club, came
back to Britain with the design
after a cruising holiday in
Scandinavia. In 1934 the first
British Dragon was launched
on the Clyde, ANITA (owned by
J.H.Hulme)and the Dragon
Gold Cup was inaugurated by
the Clyde Yacht Club in 1936; it
was to be raced for in Hankø,
Norway, the following year, in
KLASSISKE LINJER NR.10 MAI 1999
Early Dragon specimen waiting for restoration.
Another DRAGON immaculate after restoration.
honour of Johan Anker. In
1938 there were 25 racing and
at the outbreak of war one
hundred and twenty Dragons
were registered in Britain. Now
there are in the region of 153.
The difference is that in 1938
the price was around £300 and
now is around £30,000.
Dragons were put away for the
war, both in Britain and in
Norway under the occupation.
However, Dragons were
amongst the first boats to
appear again after the war.
Although a luxury at the time,
those who had formally indulged
in big boat racing found in
the Dragon a cost effective
alternative to the old 6, 8 and
12 metre boats. Furthermore,
the heirs to Johan Anker in a
generous gesture had waived
all royalties on British built
boats.
The measure of success can be
judged by the Dragons being
selected in 1948 as an Olympic
Class. The price of this olympic
selection was the end of its days
as a weekend cruising boat.
The Olympic weight rules stripped
out the cruising gear and
the cabin with its pipe cots,