The Premier Dragon is the result of two years comprehensive design, research, testing and development of arguably the world’s most distinguished one design racing boat. To achieve the preferred Premier Dragon design, a team of specialists was pulled together, by PCT, including, Andy Claughton (Wolfson Unit), Paolo Manganelli (Gurit) and Klaus Roeder (Carpe Diem Yacht Design).

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Andy Claughton, an experienced and successful America’s Cup yacht designer, was responsible for the hull, keel and rudder design of the Premier Dragon. Paolo Manganelli, a senior engineer at Gurit headed up the role as structural engineer, using empirical data collected over the years to determine the geometrical constraints and calculations to ensure the boat was as stiff and structurally optimised and Klaus Roeder was responsible for reshaping the Dragon design accordingly, using his extensive Dragon boatbuilding and yacht design experience.

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Initially seven different hull and keel configurations were tested using velocity prediction programmes (VPP) and from this, the two most successful were refined further and optimised. Andy Claughton then gave specifications on what the design should look like and Roeder adjusted the shape of the boat accordingly. Paolo Manganelli used Roeder’s data to engineer the fibre reinforcement and the layout of the structure, with the main objective being to hit the target weights set out by the rules.

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As a result of all of this work, the Premier Dragon, is extremely stiff, with the deck and hull shell playing a major part in ensuring this. The boat also exhibits minimum structural bend, which results in the boat achieving a longer wetted surface more of the time which translates into higher speed gain.

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