Dragon Wings
I've been interested in multihulls for a long time. When I moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area, I took the opportunity to purchase a used cruising
catamaran. It can't truly be considered unique, since two were built at
the same time. It was probably the first successful catamaran with a
side-by-side (aka biplane) rig, although this one used a
Chinese Lug rig. She was built in Friday Harbor, Washington, and
her designer/builder took her to Alaska and to Mexico before settling in
Sausalito, CA. I was the 3rd owner. It is certainly a strikingly
different looking vessel. Too bad the performance wasn't even close to
it's looks...
This is Dragon Wings under sail in her original color scheme. The black
hulls with white decks and red trim was striking, but the hulls got
really hot, and I expect the heat was degrading the plywood. The
sail color is called Tan Bark.
This is Dragon Wings on the day I sold her, motoring away under command of
her new owner. You can see the new color scheme, which was mostly to
replace the black by a light grey color. I also used the red trim color a
little more liberally than in the original scheme.
More Images
Here are some other pictures of Dragon Wings. Most are in her original
color scheme (mostly 640x480 pixels).
Note that the pictures (except from Latitude 38) were all taken with a 110
camera, and "scanned" using video capture and my cam-corder. Maybe someday
I'll get better scans...
Analysis of the Design
The vessel was heavily constructed, mostly of 1/2" fir plywood and WEST
system epoxies. The design was inspired by the first owners earlier
Wharram designed catamaran, but was his own ideas. The bottom and
some critical areas were covered in fiberglass, but most of the vessel was
sheathed in epoxy only. After 10+ years, the underlying fir ply was
showing through in many places. The crossbeams were flexibly attached in
the manner of an older Wahrram design, but were also massively
overbuilt. In contrast, the free-standing solid wood masts were probably
just strong enough, and the rudders and daggerboards were poorly designed
and under-strength. The hulls were exrememly fat for a catamaran, about
7:1 length/beam ratio at the waterline. All professional multihull
designers that I know of recommend a minimum of 10:1 hull fineness, unless
the hulls are designed to plane.
Sailing performance was mediocre in most conditions. Rather than
complementing, the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese Lug rig
reinforced those of the sluggish hull. The Chinese Lug does not point as
well as most other rigs, and the lack of fore-and-aft spread to the rig
made her extrememly sluggish (and reluctant!) when tacking. To minimize
interference with the accomodation, the masts were placed too far forward,
and she carried mild lee helm in moderate winds; she always fell well off
after a tack. The biplane rig is poorest on a beam reach where the
windward sail blankets the leeward one. Her handling went about with the
wind speed: the more wind, the better she handled. Down wind with the
sails wing-and-wing was easily her best point of sail -- stable as though
on rails. Too bad I don't have a picture of that configuration, because
that's how she got her name!
The chinese lug rig has many virtues for a cruising vessel: easy sail
handling, lack of a need for shrouds, no need for winches in most cruising
sizes. In the right hull, it would be a great rig. This was not one of
them.
All in all, it was a fun boat to sail around the bay. I certainly gathered
more than my share of looks and pictures. Including the Latitude
38 Looking Good centerfold
(1220x1035 171114 bytes) one year.
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Scott Henry
<scotth@sgi.com>
Last modified: Sat Mar 22 16:01:35 1997
This is Dragon Wings on the day I sold her, motoring away under command of
her new owner. You can see the new color scheme, which was mostly to
replace the black by a light grey color. I also used the red trim color a
little more liberally than in the original scheme.
