The Dragon Harald Fairhair project sounds wonderful – and even these little prototypes are clearly great fun.
You may have heard that square-sailed craft without deep keels don’t go well to windward and have to be rowed, but from what I can see, these little boats do remarkably well on that point of sailing, even if we can’t see enough to tell whether they match up to a modern racing yacht.
My thinking is that the Norsemen made the journey to our islands in numbers on a regular basis, and did it in such numbers that most of the villages and features in the area where I grew up were named by them. In making their journeys, they must have sailed towards the prevailing wind on most occasions.
It will therefore be very interested to hear how the new Dragon performs when she’s complete. Read all about her here and here.
My thanks to John Lockwood for pointing this out.
I am searching for the test boat 8 meter Dragon Hearld Fairhair construction plans and hull design differences in viewing the video the hull design and overall performance of the vessel portrayed at start of video is the plan I seek and am interested in building myself. Are these available?