What's it all about?
Retired teacher and structural engineer go on sightseeing sailing trip!
We, that is Charles and Di, sailed round the World between 1987 and 1993 but there are still many places in our home country of Great Britain which we have never visited!
As we are both recently retired we thought this would be a great time to go cruising and see some of the beautiful British coastline.
The boat.
Wings of Freedom is our third boat. She is a Dragonfly 920 Extreme. The Extreme part of the name refers to having a taller mast and a wider beam than the touring model. This is a trimaran or multi-hull and has a main hull and two outer floats known as amas. The amas are attached to the main hull by beams called akas which are hinged to enable the boat to narrow down and fit into a standard marina space. Yacht harbours or Marinas as they are often called, charge boat owners by the length of their boat, but in our case as the boat is particularly wide, there is often a surcharge if we don't fold the amas.
Vital statistics!
Wings of Freedom is 9.2 metres long and 7.8 metres wide when opened out and ready to sail.
To fit into the marina she is only 3.2 metres wide if we fold her.
Wings doesn't need much water to float as she is almost flat bottomed. She gets her stability from being so wide.
The depth of water needed to float is called the draft.
Wings has a draft of only 45cm with her centre plate raised.
If the centre plate is down she has a draft of 1metre 55cm.
The centre plate gives the boat directional stability and stops her skating across the water sideways.