When presented with the challenge of creating a new Dragon boat for a client who wanted a competitive edge, Scott Dagley of Dagley’s Boatworks called in professional help. He contacted Michael Mason, a professional yacht designer and specialist in small boats, who assisted Scott in engineering a new generation of Dragon boats.

The problem was how to build a Dragon boat that was faithful to the traditional form of the boat, but lighter than traditional solid plank boats and stronger than fiberglass ones. Mr. Mason, who operates under the business name of Mason Marine Designs Inc. in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, looked at the problem as an engineering challenge, not a boatbuilding problem. By analyzing the forces at work in such a long, narrow hull, Mr. Mason identified where robustness was necessary for strength, and where it could be eliminated for weight savings. The resulting hull was evaluated as a beam structure with an outer skin, and bending and flexing stresses were calculated to arrive at an optimal form. Further strength of materials calculations were conducted to determine the precise materials specifications to arrive at the greatest strength for the least weight possible.

The result of these engineering exercises was a thin-skinned cold-molded Okume plywood hull sheathed in an abrasion-resistant fiberglass skin set in marine epoxy, with a robust centre line girder and gunwales to provide longitudinal strength. The classic form of the Dragon boat is retained, but the all-up weight of the hull is approximately 20% less than a fiberglass hull, and the unbroken epoxy sheathing on all hull surfaces ensures that the plywood structure never rots or gains weight from absorbed water.

A lighter and stronger Dragon boat means a faster, more competitive Dragon boat. Traditional form married to modern engineering and materials – the next generation of Dragon boats brought to you by Dagley’s Boatworks and Mason Marine Designs Inc.

Advantages of the New Dragon boat

• lighter
• more durable than traditional Dragon boats
• comes complete with customized boat trailer that can be pulled by any sized vehicle

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