Christmas greetings 2013 from the Dragonfly team‏

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TC
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri 31 Dec 10, 20:26
Your Country: USA, Sedro-Woolley

Christmas greetings 2013 from the Dragonfly team‏

Post by TC »

Got this today:

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Dear Dragonfly sailors and friends of the house.

In keeping with tradition it is time for the yearly retrospect for the year that has now passed and we will have to say it has been a different sail/journey this year compared to recent years.

You will this year receive our Christmas card and greetings by mail instead by our traditional regular mail, so we can reach you all better.

We started the New Year in January at London Boat Show in corporation with our English dealer Al Wood, and here we presented a DF 28. The show, is like all other shows around Europe, marked by these times’ market conditions, where we in general experience almost a halving at the different shows. This makes it even more important that we are visible at these shows. The show went well and was a success, which makes it possible to yet again experience a Dragonfly at London Boat Show from the 4th to the 12th of January. We will expose a brand new DF 28 and DF 32. We will from the yard be represented during the whole period. Jørn from the 4th to the 7th and I (Jens) will personally be there from the 8th till the 12th of January.

Later in January we was, like the tradition dictates, at BOOT Düsseldorf. We had a DF 28 as well as a DF 32 at the show, with the last mentioned having BOOT premiere. It was difficult to foresee what to expect from this show, however fortunately it went well and we ended up selling 5 boats in total; this we were of course satisfied with – and thank You for that.

During the winter we finally finished our long expected and complicated rebuilding of the fibreglass laminating shop with a new huge ventilation system. This is requirement in Denmark for this type of production. Finally, in February we could start up this new system, that indeed has improved the space and working conditions in this part of the production.

The production has been working really hard with our high skilled employers, and yet again – like they put it in Ryan Air – we serve on time delivery. We are perhaps the most stabile supplier of new boats within the delivery time in this sector of industry.

The spring continued with several, and some these new, boat shows, where we were also represented at the Danish indoor show with a DF 28 and DF 32. Later in the beginning of April we sat the course towards Bergen Inwater Boat Show with a DF 28. Even though we had snow on the deck during the show, the Norwegians defied the cold weather and came to see lots of boats. Thereafter Henrik and Jørn drove the DF 28 on a trailer across Norway and what we call “The Northwest Passage” (picture below). This was quite a test, with up to 5 feet of snow . In late April we were yet again at Oslo Inwater Boat Show in the city centre of Oslo. At these Norwegian shows we have had the pleasure of meeting many new and excited faces who fortunately bought some boats. At the same time was our French dealer at a boat show as well in La Rochelle for the Multihull Boat Show.

The Spring and Summer went fast with deliveries of new boats as well as our charter project “Tri Me”, which again have been ongoing during the whole season 2013; nonstop 24 weeks have led to the direct outcome of this project of four boats sold this year. The “Tri Me” project will proceed next year, however now with a second boat as well, in order to meet the increased demand; however we will stick to the original concept and will only rent out for new sailors who want to try the “Dragonfly concept”. This interest for “Dragonfly Tri Me” have led to a new DF 28 charter project in Stralssund Germany, that will only be rented to sailors with previous multihull experience. In Austria we have a charter project coming up this Spring as well – also with a DF 28. Recently we have made an agreement on delivery of two new DF 28 for a chartering project in Croatia next summer. The interest to charter and this way test the Dragonfly has been much more of a success than first expected which is fantastic.

In May Fanny and Jean Marc from Multihull Sailing (Dragonfly France) had gathered 15 Dragonflys and in total 50 Dragonfly enthusiasts in Lorient where we sailed for two days. Even though we had some rough wind at times, it was a beautiful experience, also backed up with all the great MOD 70 that were lying at the same dock. In this occasion a new Dragonfly association was started “Association Trimarans Dragonfly” with Mr. Bernard Ivanoff (DF 28 #54) as President. It can be followed at the Website http://www.trimarans-dragonfly.com/.

The production in the spring went as planned, even though we faced a challenge with selling boats. This made it difficult to plan the production as we wanted to. However finally the summer holidays came, and all of us could enjoy the long expected summer in Europe that we all had longed for during the long and cold winter and the very late spring. This summer, with the most fantastic weather, have indeed been good for the Yachting industri.

After the summer holiday we had planned a very aggressive boat show strategy, as we wanted to put an extra effort into securing the winter sale. In close connection with our Dragonfly dealers we were during the autumn at the following boat shows: Orust (Gøteborg), Amsterdam, La Rochelle, Southampton, Oslo, Stockholm, Friedrichshafen, Genua (Italy) and Hamburg.

This “Tour de Europe” really kickstarted the sale. We have never before in our 45 years at the yard sold this many new boats as we did this year from September to the beginning of November and this means that at present we have 35 new boats on order. It is amazing to be able to look almost a year ahead and actually we are starting selling boats now in year 2015. We can still deliver DF 32 from mid September 2014 and DF 28 from November 2014.

In keeping with tradition we will again be at the BOOT Düsseldorf January 2014. We are here proud to announce and introduce you to our new and next coming member of the Dragonfly range. This new project is still on paper and we look forward to your input as well. So if you are curious, please come and see us. At the show we will expose the DF 28 and the DF 32 in the latest new versions. This coming year we will also introduce a new concept “Owners Lounge” at BOOT Düsseldorf. Here existing customers can come and have a talk with us while resting the legs.

The year 2013 was the year where we had to say goodbye to our Dutch dealer during 19 years, André Buwalda. André – thank You for the many good years and thank You for the fantastic work you have done in order to make Dragonfly well known in the Netherlands as well as the surrounding countries. At the same time we welcome Dennis and Dean Hennevanger as our new Dutch dealer, who are also famous for their production of smaller exclusive monohulls “Saffier”.

After many years of searching we have recently found a dealer in China, “Furi Group”, who are specialized in exclusive products on the Chinese market. We welcome the new dealers and we look forward to corporate with them.

The year 2013 was also the year where we introduced our new DAU concept (Dragonfly Approved Used), which means we happily receive our own second-hand Dragonflys in exchange for a new Dragonfly. We will go through and renovate these older boats in order for resale – and DAU is a quality stamp that you buy a secondhand Dragonfly, that is technically “up to date” and everything is checked and controlled from sails to electronic equipment and so on.

With all these new initiatives and the fantastic sale of new boats, it is a pleasure to welcome 7 new employees, which lead us to a total count of 31 men here. In order to have enough space, we have just taken over the production facilities from our old colleague Faurby next door. These “new” facilities are just next to our already existing facilities and we are primarily going to use this for making service on the DAU boats and customer’s boats as well as winter storage and general repair. This means we can focus the production of new boats in our main facilities.

These are all the reasons for 2013 being a very different sail/journey compared to what we expected just a year ago, and it feels as if the world is now more friendly to Multihulls and Dragonfly. We are very proud about what is going on in these times and we feel the increasing acceptance and acknowledgement of trimarans – this is simply amazing. It is probably not only due to this years’ Americas Cup setup, but it has definitely brought multihulls more into the picture.

We are very much looking forward to seeing all of You on the upcoming Boat Shows and/or on the water next year. Likewise it is always pleasant when so many of you drop by here at the yard.

We thank for the year that has passed.

All of us at Quorning Boats and Team Dragonfly wish all of You a Merry Christmas and a Happy sailing New Year.

Jens Quorning
TC

Formerly of:
Strider
DF 1000 #17
Bo Wetzel
Site Admin
Posts: 166
Joined: Thu 01 Jan 70, 1:00
Your Country: France, Provence

New DF project

Post by Bo Wetzel »

"...We are here proud to announce and introduce you to our new and next coming member of the Dragonfly range. This new project is still on paper and we look forward to your input as well. So if you are curious, please come and see us. ..."
Anybody out there who has an idea what this new project might be?

Have a guess: Bigger or smaller?

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2014 to all DF User Forum readers.

Best Wishes

Bo
Mathias
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat 14 Dec 13, 16:47
Your Country: Germany, Hamburg

Post by Mathias »

The DF1200 would be up for renewal, would it not?

Cheers

Mathias
DF28 Sport, Red Pearl, Sail GER2896, Calling Name DJ6448, MMSI 211628220
Bo Wetzel
Site Admin
Posts: 166
Joined: Thu 01 Jan 70, 1:00
Your Country: France, Provence

NEW DF - Bigger or smaller ?

Post by Bo Wetzel »

And the answer is ......

SMALLER !

New Dragonfly 25 Model Coming Up

We are very happy to inform all Dragonfly fans and followers that we are working on the design of a new Dragonfly. We will bring the concept drawings at BOOT Düsseldorf so that all of our guests have the possibility to see the first workings of this new boat. The first boats of this new project will be ready for delivery in 2015. We have designed several new boats before, however, this time we are going to try a new approach. We want to hear Your opinion of what You expect of a Dragonfly, and what would be important for You to include in this new Dragonfly 25. We will only present the concept drawings, and that is why Your opinion matters. The guests at Dragonfly's stand at BOOT answering a short questionnaire will be in the competition of winning a week of sailing in Denmark in one of our own Dragonfly 28 charter boats. We will also have the latest up-dated versions of DF 28 and 32 at expose and many of the Dragonfly dealers will be present during the show. There is no excuse for not dropping by to see us at BOOT Düsseldorf from the 18th until the 26th of January 2014. We look forward to see You in Hall 17.
www.trimarans.com
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