By request of my six year old neice, I built her mom, my sister, a model of a dragon boat. My sister races on a team, Dawg Paddlers, with the U of W hospital staff.
I started last Wednesday, and got it done in time for Christmas…
The Model is 1/24 scale, and built up from 1/32nd" plywood frames and balsa sheeting.
Beautiful! Where online did you find the plans?
Also, would you happen to know how far back this particular design goes? Some of the oldest canoe-type boats in Asia would seem to have been dugouts, or dugouts with built-up sides, while this design resembles a long, narrow sampan.
I know absolutely nothing about such things, but this certainly looks like a beautiful model of a most interesting vessel.
I gather the coxwain (or whatever she/he is titled) sits rather precariously in the bow, beating time for the oarsmen with the drum? It looks fast - if not particularly stable. The photos don’t show the stern; how does the steering work? I assume this is an Asian variant of the sport that’s migrated to the U.S. west coast. Do many of the universities out there take part? [Later edit: I clicked on the link, and got the photo of the steering board. One of these days I hope to get to the west coast again. I hope I’ll be able to watch a dragon boat race. It looks like a fascinating contrast with the western racing shell idea. I wonder if there’d be any support for adding a dragon boat tournament to the Olympics.]
This is a useful reminder to American and European modelers out there: Asia is the domain of all sorts of ship and boat types that, in addition to provoking thought about design characteristics that westerners all-too-often take for granted, make interesting and attractive models. I’m a fan of the Conway’s History of the Ship series of books, but my biggest criticism of it is its lack of coverage of non-western subjects. There’s a chapter in the first volume on the origins of some east-Asian types (e.g., the Chinese Junk), but the other volumes covering the sailing ship period completely ignore everything but the European and American traditions.
Prof. Tilley, there is dragon boat racing on the East Coast, too. For example, a Dragon Boat Festival is held every June in Ottawa, Canada:
http://www.dragonboat.net/home.php
Which link led me to another link:
And, perhaps, closer to home for you:
Well, all this demonstrates how little I know about such things.
I’m sure there are excellent published works in Asian languages that lay out the history of Asian boat and ship types in detail. It’s frustrating that so few of them are readily available in English translations.
Here in Portland, Oregon, the dragon boats are more similar to dug out canoes. Although the teams have been practicing in the racing shells. In Seattle, they are using the racing shells for competition. I am not sure of this design’s history.
The model is a bit straight compared to the designs for current boats I see on the river, and in competition.
I found the drawing I used for this model on,
http://www.selway-fisher.com/Opcan17.htm#DRAGON,
Then scaled it for 40 feet.
[:)]