Gunpowder3
(This page is under creation, please check back later!)

Above: first sail with the new mainsail and selftacking jib in 2023. Only used 11 times so far.
Background
Gunpowder3 is a very special Dragonfly 32 Supreme. It is a joint development venture by Quorning Boats and myself, Christer Rygaard, with family – with great help from Mats Johansson at GranSegel and others.
They goal was to create a light but comfortable cruiser/racer as a successor of our earlier Dragonfly – a DF800 with which we successfully raced and cruised for 13 years. And we made Gunpowder3 a very light, fast, good looking and comfortable boat. Fast enough for us to call her a ”Dragonfly 32 SuperSport”.
She is about 600 kg lighter than her fellow Dragonfly 32’s. But still has all the stuff you need for a couple of weeks aboard – such as heater, cooler, a lot of instruments and a beautiful teak interior.
We managed this together by creating a long list of ideas how to improve performance by saving weight and by doing stuff slightly different. We then went through this list and put an estimated weight saving and an estimated cost per idea. Some of the ideas was discarded but most were implemented.
It was a great project and the boat floats about 5 cm higher in the water than the boat launched just days after.
As the family’s interest (read: wifey’s) have changed slightly we are preparing to change back to a smaller boat, a boat more suitable for solo cruising in the Stockholm archipelago or double handed racing with our teenage daughter. An DF25 is also a more suitable boat for a teenager to take her friends out sailing on.
So right now you have an opportunity to buy a boat that Quorning (probably) never will build again. She is ready for the 2023 season and we will gladly help you sail the boat anywhere in the Baltic as a good handover.
It is important for us to find a new owner that both appreciates the effort that has been put into creating this special Dragonfly, and has the means to maintain the high standard she deserves.
How did we make her 600 kg lighter?
Skipping stuff
We started with ”What don’t we need”? Skipping stuff in the list of options was the cheapest part of this project. As an example we didn’t add warm water heater (but we prepared for it by letting the yard have the plastic pipes installed, in case the next owner might want hot water). We didn’t install an oven, no anchorbracket (we don’t use anchor that often anyway), no shower etc.
But we did install a diesel heater with extra outlets in the forepeak, heads as well as in the cockpit (excellent for drying wet gear in the cockpit tent, also extra).
I think you get the ambition: nice but not excessively heavy.
Choosing lighter alternatives
Then we moved on to ”What can we exchange for lighter parts?”. Now it starts to get more expensive. Batteries were an easy switch: Super-B Litium 160 Ah battery for house load and starter. We choose to install an retractable bow thruster (16 kg, perfectly flush when folded) powered by a Super-B Litium at only 4,3 kg but extremly high power (1500 CCA!). To save weight the bow thruster battery is charged through thin cables from a DC/DC-converter fed by the main battery.
We opted for an 30 hp outboard, which follows the rudder when folded down into the water. Saves a lot of weight (and we gained a big stowage were the inboard engine otherwise would be). Also makes manouvering much easier in tight spaces when you can ”crab walk” the boat with the motor at an angle and using the bow thruster as well. A high thrust propeller provides plenty of power. Less drag when sailing since it has an electric tilt and is completely free out of the water when sailing. It has electric start and charges the batteries as well. Easy maintenance is an extra plus.
As for the rigging, the Dyeform sidestays where upgraded to Aramid and the spreaders were made 5 cm shorter to allow for tighter sheeting angles/bigger jib with a standing and curved ”Glider”(TM) batten. The standard furler was upgraded to a much lighter Harken system. A self tacking jib was added for easy shorthanded tacking in the narrow waters of the Stockholm archipelago. The mast, boom, spreader etc are painted black by the way.
We went with lighter sails from GranSegel in Sweden, laminated in Italy by H-bite. Super thin with 70% of the fibers being carbon and 30% aramid. Laminated in heat and 7 tonnes of pressure. The mainsail and two jibs have now been replaced into a slightly more durable laminate with black LiteSkin but the fractional code 0, aka ”screacher”, is in H-bite, making it a light and easy to handle sail – with a lot of power! We are using the screacher going upwind, about 5-10 degrees lower than with a jib, but with much more power up to around 10 knots of true wind. To handle this the yard placed the waterstay even further down in to bow, to increase the angle of the Dyeform waterstay.
All running rigging were replaced with top-of-the-line Robline Dyneema, many lines being custom made by Robline in SK99 in a project they called Tool.Box. That way they made the lines with the core we wanted and a cover of the material/mix we wanted as well. A bonus was that we could choose color and thereby color coordinate all lines. All lines for the jib are yellow, gennacker lines are red, screacher lines are green and mainsail lines are black. Robline also did the splicing, tapering etc. With these very low-stretch carbon fibre sails it is imperative to have as little stretch and creep as possible in the halyards and other running rigging.
But I must admit that those titanium snap schackels for the gennacker halyard and sheets was a little over the top. The extra cost doesn’t really cover the savings in weight… But it is pretty cool.
Building things different
Then it started to get more complicated and certainly more expensive.
Quorning developed a carbon fibre boom, saving an additional 12 kg. The yard also used infused vinylester for the beams and for the bulkheads instead of fibre glass and polyester. Saving about half the weight! The floats were laminated with directional glass fibre, hand layed-up saving a lot of weight compared to the normal floats. This weight is also pretty far out from the pivotal center of the boat so this savings in weight also helps keeping movements in waves down. Some hatches etc were made lighter, and so on and on…
At last I realized that I wouldn’t be able to sit at the loo looking at the standard stainless steel mast support for the next 10 years. A special carbon fibre mast support was manufactured instead (saving about 12 kg) – and now I look at it happily every evening, sometimes tapping it with my fingernail to hear that typical sound you get from carbon fibre 🙂
Removing things
We then started to remove stuff we thought was heavier than what we thought it was worth. Like the rubber tops on the floats. Removing it cost extra since the yard had to make a nice finish instead of just glueing the rubber to floats and front of the main hull. To protect against chafe from fenders etc we have a clear ProtecTape all along the outside. This saved around 20 kg!
Smaller gains were made here and there, such as a few hundred grams by grinding away the stainless steel step on the pushpit. Instead there is a anti-slip mat on the Lopo LED on the bow, perfect to step on.
Upgrade of the cockpit
By doing some changes to the layout of the cockpit and upgrading to reversible Seldén winches 46’s on the cabin top and 40’s on the coamings we could save 2 winches while getting a cockpit easier to work in. A Spinlock Winchfeeder on each side lets us interchange between starbord and port winch for all halyeards and control lines. By moving the aft winches a bit further forward we get an even better view of the jib’s luff and telltales. The mainsheet traveller’s mainsheet blocks was upgraded to blocks with roller bearings and the traveller now runs so easy that the control lines don’t need winches, only cam cleats. Making it much faster to dump the main in big puffs or changing course.
The upgrade to Seldén reversible winches was great. We can now trim sheets in and out without having to remove the line from the selftail all the time. Just push a button at the end of the winch handle with you thumb and you can ease a few millimeters in a lull, and the winch it back after the lull. Super smooth. Making it easy the steer with one hand and trim the main with the other. The 4000 € upgrade was for sure worth it. (See this video to see how it works).
Tiller steering (reinforced) with a Spinlock tiller extension. The rudder blade was upgraded to a carbon fibre blade in 2018 with a more efficient form (you get the original rudder blade to have as a spare, if you like).
Making maintenance easier
We choose to have all hulls painted in gunpowder grey with a clear coat. This makes spring cleaning so much easier. Normally we don’t even need to polish, just wash and wax. We also went for epoxy treatment and CopperCoat antifouling. The yard sanded the CopperCoat to a supersmooth and slippery surface. Now we only need to wash it with a pressure washer, no need to paint every year. It did cost us some weight but we feel it was worth it.
Everything above was made by the yard to the high quality Quorning boats are famous for.
Power on board
Being solar installers we have used different solar panels on the boat over the years. Only temporary fastened with tape so not to drill holes in the deck. Often there has been 100W solar panels on each float and a ”Quorning standard” in front of the mast. There are 4 Genasun GV-10 solar charge regulators onboard; one for each float, one for the standard solar panel and one for removable solar panels. There are 3 plugs where removable solar panels can be plugged in. The Genasun regulators are very light and efficient with super low self consumption (0,9 mW) and a 15 Hz MPP-trackers. Genasun have programmed them especially to our specifications for the best charging and life endurance of the lithium iron phospate (LiFePO4) Super-B Nomia 340 Ah battery.
We are self sufficient and haven’t needed any shore power these last 10 years. But there is space to install a charger for shore power, if needed.
For this season there might be an upgrade of the solar panels, it is yet to be decided and something a new owner can decide on also.
Specifications – not finished
[List all options]
Seldén reversable winsches
Different layout
Tiller instead of wheel
Larger plotter for easy navigation in the shallow outer skerries in the Stockholm archipelago and a good overview. AIS and VHF of course.
Deck plate with storage bag for flares etc at the back of each float.
Upgrades and maintenance
Since delivery we have only replaced sails, lines etc ”like for like” with the exeception of the wires in the netting that has been exchanged for high modules Dyneema, saving some more weight.
2024 season:
A new full size jib is ordered for this season and you can have it designed to your preference.
New mainsail and jib covers (antracite grey), all inspection hatches replaced, new backstays.
New battery, a Super-B 340 Ah LiFePO4
2023 season:
New mainsail and selftacking jib (only hoisted a handful of times) from GranSegel in carbon fibre membraine with LiteSkin.
2022 season:
Sidestays (Dyneema), nets (light grey with stronger design closest to the aft beams) and waterstays (Dyeform) changed for the 2022 season.
2 kW inverter and an induction hob. The 2-burner gas stove is left still but we haven’t used it the last few years. We have enough battery and solar panels to not need the gas stove.
Pictures and videoclips – not finished
First test sail at the yard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2mwUyJ_vg
Baptise and test sail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM2h9EEErkY