The Hungarian Dragon fleet was chosen as the first in a series to be presented in the Yearbook of the International Dragon Association. I was asked to contribute by a story of not more than 800 words. As I could not keep it really short, I decided to share the unedited version with you. Pls forgive my unedited English.
From the minister’s lover to the Europeans on Balaton
The story of Dragon sailing in Hungary
The early years
We are in 1955, one year before the Hungarian revolution. Stalin is dead, the popularity of the communist party is decreasing day by day in Hungary. Yachting is seen as a heritage of the past, a sport made by enemies of the ‘people’s democracy’. Still: no matter what they say, the new rulers in the communist government know exactly, how to enjoy life. And the Minister for Transport, Lajos Bebits, decides to have a sailing boat on Lake Balaton, the ‘Hungarian see’. However, he would be despised by his comrades by owing a yacht himself. That is, why the newly built boat will be given to his girlfriend, Olga.
This is the start of Dragon sailing in Hungary. Olgi’s boat with iron frames is being built in Siófok, the biggest town on the southern shoreline of the 80 kilometer long lake. When owned by the Minister’s lover ‘Gordius’, was called Vitu, meaning ‘We two’. (Bebits used to live in the USA as a leader of the communist party’s Hungarian section there in the 20s, so he spoke English). The couple had been sailing with the boat six years long, and Bebits must have been very proud of it, as at the end of the 50s he was Hungarian Ambassador to Sweden, Norway and Iceland – where he saw a large bunch of Dragons at that time.
Minister Bebits would never have thought, that one of his successors, Transportation Minister Peter Honig, will be racing in a Dragon European Championship on Lake Balaton in 50 years…
Gordius/Vitu is registered with the Hungarian Dragon Association as Nr. 2. Unfortunately we have not seen her lately but she still exists. The Dragon fleet is, however, very proud of still having its Nr. 1 – Triton. She was built earlier, some sources say 1953, some others 1955 in Budapest. She has recently been refurbished again and sails quite regularly with her proud owners, Balázs Barts and István Lukáts.
The Golden Era
But the story did not stop with the lover of the Minister. The sixties brought the Golden Era of the dragon class in Hungary. In Balatonfüred, the key yachting center at the Lake, and Siófok, about 25 boats had been built in the yards. The shipbuilders used all types of wood that was available these time, when Hungary was quite isolated from ‘capitalist’ import sources. Mahagony, okume, oak, ceder and a series of other types of timber were used for the construction. Unfortunately, in some years copper nails had been unavailable, so the builders used quite often iron nails. This resulted in an erosion of the wooden parts of the boats, forcing the owners to sell these boats very low-price in the 80s and 90s.
The last wave of the development of wooden Dragons took place in the early 70s, when five new boats (Nr. 30 to 34) were built for competing in international regattas. They sailed in the Bavarian lakes and even at the Kiel Week. For one or another reason, however, a Hungarian Dragon never sailed at the Olympics, and these dreams vanished with banning the class from the Olympics after 1972.
The most successful Hungarian Dragon, Yorikke, built in 1969, won the Hungarian Championship 17 times and after her last refit in 2006 it even sailed in the European Championship in Balatonkenese, 2010.
Rebirth and development until 2010
From the late 70s until the mid90s the Hungarian fleet did not change much. The Dragon degraded to an ‘old sailor’s boat’, young sailors tended to choose more interesting classes. A new development was first heralded in when two Hungarian boatbuilders tried to build new GRP Dragons and some quality second-hand boats were imported in the late 90s.
Trinity, the first Hungarian made, regular GRP Dragon
Suddenly, Dragon gained on appeal for the sailors. As regattas became more and more interesting, talented sailors came in the class again.
Some enthusiasts started to go abroad and sailed in Switzerland, Germany, Austria. After decades of being away from the international Dragon circuit, Hungary attended the Europeans on Lake Thun, Switzerland. This was the basis for building up an organized association again.
Six-time Hungarian Champion, Fjord, in St.-Tropez, at the 75th Dragon Anniversary
We received much support from Germany, where Sándor Kecskés, an exiled Hungarian succeeded in persuading his fellow Dragon sailors to come and compete in the Hungarian Dragon championships on Balaton. Sailors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well as some others from the States and the UK regularly came to the Hungarian Championship in Balatonfüred. The international links made the class even more attractive which helped us reorganizing the Hungarian Dragon Association from 2005 onwards. We set the objectives that within five year we should have at least 30 boats in the fleet of which 20 regularly participate in regattas.
Some enthusiasts within the Dragon sailors circle saw a good chance to develop a modern, open and international class for Hungarian sailors who wanted to enjoy one-design racing instead of fighting against the clock in handicap-systems. They went to look for sponsors and decided to bring a grand international event to Hungary. We were lucky to find Erste Private Banking, whose management was aware that the Dragon image is very similar to that what they see to be important values. They supported us in our efforts to build our class. We ended up with Nr. 55 in 2010 – with 15 to 20 participants in large Hungarian events and up to 3 to 4 boats regularly attending events abroad.
And, what we are really proud of: the European Championship in 2010 was held in Balatonkenese, Hungary and we received much applause from the participants.
The reasons behind our success
It was clear for us from the very beginning that Dragon is a two-fold boat: competitive and social at the same time. We put much emphasis on both: created family-type events to make the class attractive for passionate sailors who just did not want to leave their children at home. At the same time, ranking list regattas were very competitive and we hired the best Hungarian sailors to be Race Officers.
A successful social event: IDA Chairman Rob Campbell (with about 100 other Dragon sailors) learns how to sing a Hungarian traditional song with HDA Chairman Ferenc Zenthe at the Europeans
We paid much attention to the classic fleet. As the most of them have no real chance to be in the top 5 at the regattas, we usually have extra prizes and an extra ranking list for them. Their enthusiasm is a core element of the success of the fleet.
Classic boat takes racing very seriously - HUN 8, Mefisztó at the Hungarian championship 2008
There is, of course, some set-back in Dragon popularity in Hungary after the Europeans. All in all we think that we have achieved a unique development in Hungarian sailing and Dragon class has a stable basis for the future.
