DRAGON POWERBOATS PRESIDENT CRAIG BARRIE believes the market will embrace another 39' high-performance monohull. He feels so strongly about it that he's invested a couple of years of this life — and from all appearances, a significant sum of money — working on the first Dragon Powerboat. The new model was set to debut shortly after the Miami International Boat Show.
   "I looked at the market and I said, 'Is there room for another high-performance monohull?'" Barrie said. "I said, 'I believe there's a market if somebody can create a boat that is different — totally non–me–too from beginning to end.' And I came up with the slogan, 'The performance boat you were promised.' Then I back–tracked and said, 'OK, how can I deliver that?'"
   Barrie and Dragon vice president Scott Smith assembled an A–team, if you will, with experience in design, engineering, construction and materials.
   After Barrie designed the boat, he needed someone with experience in five–axis milling to cut the plugs for the hull and deck and other components. He turned to Doug Wright of NDL Wright in Melbourne, Fla., to machine the foam plugs from which all molds would be made.
   "The first thing I want to do is have it cut on a five–axis machine by somebody who is very, very knowledgeable in boats and performance boats so I have, at least, the perfect boat to start with," Barrie said."That perfection starts with the plug and goes to the molds. And my molds truly are ... perfect."
   Wright said the stringer system will be foam coring capped with carbon fiber for stiffness.

He added that they used multidirectional fabrics to accommodate the loads and stresses that are inevitable in offshore applications.
   The transom will be made from okume wood, a dense Brazilian mahogany with excellent memory characteristics, Wright said. It's the only wood used in the boat. He added that they could have gone with a solid carbon–fiber transom, which would alleviate concern over water penetration, but that was cost prohibitive.
   "It's going to be a well–built boat that will still come in extremely light," Wright said, adding that the target weight was 7,500 pounds. "Weight's a big factor with Mark Bishop. He designs everything around structural integrity as well as shaving off as many pounds as possible."
   A native New Zealander, Bishop said his experience building sailing and power yachts for pleasure and racing applications —including offshore catamarans and V–bottoms— was the reason he was chosen to direct the boat's structural engineering and lamination ingredients.
   Epoxy resin, Kevlar, carbon–fiber, E–glass hybrids and knitted fiberglass cloth. Though all of it is off–the–shelf stuff —albeit off the top shelf— Bishop chose materials that would be readily available.
   "It employs far more advanced fabrics," Bishop said. "By that, I don't mean that it has to be carbon or Kevlar. We're not, for example, using chopped strand mat or woven roving."
   Bishop noted that the hull uses a Kevlar and E–glass hybrid woven material in conjunction with a linear foam coring. Carbon fiber is used for stiffness in places, but only where it was necessary.

   "There is a better way of building these boats," Barrie said. "And for the performance–boat connoisseur, the performance–boat client who has expertise in the field, or someone who's had a few boats will be able to see the difference. What I want to bring is that next level of a boat. It doesn't replace anything that's already out there. It doesn't really compete with anything that's out there except on the client level, not on the boat level."—Brett Becker

Top: Fitted with two mild steps, the Dragon will have okume wood — a dense Brazilian mahogany with excellent memory characteristics — in its transom. Center: To achieve the level of quality it was aiming for, Dragon used a five-axis router to cut plugs for all its molds. Bottom: The boat also comes with a windshield built as part of the deck, and is purportedly able to withstand a 180-mph impact.