Yachting Monthly visits Boot 16 in Düsseldorf, Europe’s largest boat show, to see the new Dragonfly 28 Performance
Dragonfly 28 Performance
The Danish boatbuilder Dragonfly has been designing and building cruising trimarans for 50 years in 2016. Their breakthrough, it could be argued, was the invention of the swing-wing system in 1989, giving Dragonfly’s yachts the stability and deck space of a multihull, and the berthed or trailerable beam of a monohull. It’s proved a pretty successful formula as this boat’s smaller sister, the Dragonfly 25, won the multihull category in this year’s European Yacht of the Year.
The Dragonfly 28 Performance has new floats, longer and reverse-bowed to get more buoyancy forward
The Dragonfly 28 Performance is based on the 28 launched a few years ago, of which there still are Touring and Sport versions, the latter with a taller rig. The Performance has the same Sporty rig but the big difference lies outboard: her floats are based on the longer, wave-piercing reverse-bowed specimens that proved so successful on the 25. More buoyancy, more volume forward to lift the bows and prevent pitchpoling.
A cosy saloon with some stowage and, at a push, three berths
The heads is between the saloon and the V-berth forward, through the ring bulkhead. Might need a modesty curtain…
Flip up the steps and there’s a generous single/compact double under the cockpit aft of the neatly designed galley
The result? A comfortable, trailerable cruiser with space below comparable to many 28-footers, berths for seven at a serious push, five without even trying, cruising speeds well into the teens, and over 20kn with the hammer down. From the South Coast, that puts Cherbourg within 3-4 hours given the right breeze. It’s likely to be a fairly wet ride, even of you do have a sprayhood, but sailing at those speeds without even breaking a sweat is a remarkable feeling, once you get used to it. Down below you have a fixed heads, though you’d need curtains to separate it from the V-berth forward and the saloon aft, a basic sort of galley and enough stowage for a week’s family cruising
Who would she suit?
If you miss hooning around on dinghies now that you have responsibilities, and you’ve got a decent 4×4 or a marina berth, call Al at Multihull Solutions.
Price from €188,280 inc VAT (Around £142,217 inc VAT)
LOA 9.99m 32ft 9in
LWL 10.4m 34ft 1in
Cabins 0
Beam 6.5m 21ft 4in/2.54m 8ft 4in
Draught 0.4m 1ft 4in/1.7m 5ft 7in
Displacement 2,000kg 4,409lbs (Trailer weight 3,000kg 6,613lb)
Contact Multihull Solutions (in UK)
Tel 01243 370707
Website www.multihullsolutions.co.uk