Winter 2010 (Issue No. 46)

OLYMPIC BRONZE: USA244 WILL SAIL AGAIN

1968 DRAGON CAPRICE

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Click to go back to < DRAGON CAPRICE PAGE 1 OF 2 >

Captain Andrea's Dragon SMAUG appears in the Spring 2006 issue of Bone Yard Boats < SPRING 2006 BYB > in her story titled "I Have Wood Boat Disease".

The story that appeared in the Winter 2007 issue follows:

FOR THE LOVE OF A DRAGON  (Part 2 of 2)
By Captain Andrea McDonald

Meanwhile, I also did lots of Dragon research and found out we once had this huge fleet here in Seattle that has now been gone for over 25 years. No more Dragons, according to the IDA, were here. Only a few in the east were known to exist. WHAT? No Dragons? Well, this just won’t work. Who is CAPRICE supposed to race when I get her done? So, I set out to find all those old Dragons. I am called "The Dragon Lady" and "The Dragon Hunter" now. I advertised on the web, I emailed, I made phone calls, I traveled to marinas and boatyards. If they were out there, I was going to find them. And, find them I did!

Before long I had 10 on my list and I was put in contact with an awesome fellow named Vern from the Center for Wood boats here in Seattle. He, too, wanted to see the fleet restored. He also worked very hard organizing and we ended up getting 5 Dragons to come to the Blanchard regatta. We needed 4 boats for a fleet race. We did it! One of those boats was one of mine, US35, and it was such a thrill to be a part of the first Dragon start in 25 years. I sold that boat after the races. She lives at the Center for wood boats and takes people sailing. Now, it seemed we had created such an interest in these Dragons that I had people everywhere writing me and asking if I knew of one they could fix. One fellow even offered to buy CAPRICE from me -- the same boat a few months earlier they could not even give away for free. NO WAY would I sell her. Odd thing is that she is US244 and so is my very first sailboat that I still have, my little Columbia 23 Sweet Pea. Both have US244 sail numbers.

Now that we have all this Dragon interest going, we are planning a big Dragon race this coming July at the Center and all are invited. If you know of any Dragon sailors, please put them in contact with me! No Dragon will now be crushed or left to rot around here anyway. I’m still hunting down several more of the old boats and it’s so sad when I find out one was burned or crushed. My heart actually hurts for them. Silly I guess.

Another amazing thing CAPRICE did for me in return was she brought me the love of my life. While I was in the locks, a man commented on how gorgeous my Dragon US35 was. He told me about another man who had an old beat up Dragon and gave me his phone number. I had already been told of this man months earlier in response to one of my Dragon hunting ads, but they hadn’t given me any contact information. I was thrilled to have his phone number in my hand as I left the locks headed for that first race.

I called him the day after the races on my way to work at the Center. I told him I was hunting Dragons and was told he had an old one from the fleet that he may not want. He invited me to see her, which I did. While I was not looking for a boyfriend at all, this man was so interesting -- such a gentleman and so smart and funny. He is one of the best shipwrights around and had worked for over 20 years on an old 1909 60-foot Ketch that had sunk. Totally rebuilding her. Every frame, every plank. I needed to hunt for Dragons at a particular boatyard. Since he knew how to get there and I didn’t, it was good excuse I guess for a date. We have been together ever since. We joke that his Dragon and mine got us together and planned this.

CAPRICE is now at his boatyard in Seattle. She is right next to his Dragon. I’m sure they are old friends from their days of racing in the Puget Sound Dragon Fleet together. After it dissolved, the boats ended up lost. While several of them have been destroyed and sadly are gone forever now, I’m still hunting the remaining Dragons. My fleet is on its way to recovery here on Puget Sound so CAPRICE will have other Dragons to race.

We are working to restore both of our Dragons together and then we will return them to their fleet and race them together.  I spent 5 hours yesterday slowly and painfully chipping out 350 old bung plugs. Only 1650 or so more to go! CAPRICE needs some major work, like 82 new steam bent frames and all new floor timbers. We are going to add extra floor timbers and do some other very interesting things to stiffen her up so she can actually compete against modern glass Dragons. Horn timber and stem needs repair as well as some planks. We will save 90% of the hull and even the original teak deck and the cabin house too.

But how odd that I have barely started removing old paint and bungs, and yet this old, abandoned boat has already done so much for me? Yes, they are a lot of work and money to fix, but I can’t think of anything more worth my time and dollars. These boats really will give back to you ten times what you put into them. CAPRICE has given me so much happiness and love and helped to save other Dragons and reform a lost fleet. I am going to keep that promise to her and turn this ghost of a Dragon back into the champion race boat that she was. She will be one of the fastest and more eye catching Dragons around. But, much more important than that…she will be now be well-loved for the rest of her new life doing what she was born to do.

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