And now we’re off to Denmark to sail a Dragonfly Boat

A few years ago, Ivan saw a video of a very fast trimaran that was built by a Danish company called Quorning Boats. Since then, he’s been following every video the company has published about their Dragonflys. It has been his ultimate dream to sail a Dragonfly for a long time, so we decided to head over to Denmark after our trip to the Edinburgh Tattoo. This is all part of our break from work where we are taking time out to enjoy France on our canal boat called Laura. We’re hoping to tick off as many bucket list items in the process. Sailing a Dragonfly was certainly on the top of Ivan’s bucket list.

We flew from Edinburgh into Billund in Denmark, which is famous because Lego’s head office is located there as well as Legoland, a theme park for anyone who is a Lego fanatic. I had no idea that Lego came from Denmark but it’s one of their most famous exports and is a company that Danish people are rightly proud of.

From Billund we caught a bus then a train to Skaerbaek in Fredericia where we rented the Dragonfly boat for a week.

Quorning Boat Factory

We were very fortunate to have a tour of the factory where the Dragonfly boats are built.

Quorning Boats are a very successful family owned business employing around 60 people. The company was founded in the 1960’s and now produces about 40 boats per year. We were shown around the factory by the wonderful Flemming who also showed us all the intricacies of how to use the Dragonfly.

Middelfart

After we received our boat instructions from Flemming, our first stop was a town called Middelfart (yes you heard me). It’s a very cute town with a funny name with plenty of shops and lovely restaurants. We ended up spending two days here because unfortunately I picked up a bug that knocked me around a bit. You can hear it in my voice in some of the videos.

Middelfart has lots of dolphins in the harbour and a wonderful marina.

One of the best things about travel is the chance to try different foods. Including chocolate! I couldn’t resist this one, especially as we were in Middlefart.

Danish Chocolate

How the boat works

As I mentioned earlier, the Dragonfly trimarans are incredibly fast. They are well built but they are also designed well in terms of their space utilisation. The sides of the trimaran fold out when it’s outside the marina which makes the boat stable and fast, and fold up in the marina so that it’s easy to manoeuvre.

The living space is all in the centre part. The boat we had was only 28 feet long so it’s tiny but because the space has been designed so well it has plenty of storage. Dragonfly boats also come in 25, 32 and 40 feet but the only ones that are hired out are the 28’s. One day we’d love to own our own Dragonfly, but it will definitely be the 40 foot, especially as Ivan is so tall (he’s 6 foot five).

Sailing the Dragonfly Boat

After Middelfart we had a wonderful day of sailing the Dragonfly. We couldn’t believe how fast the boat sailed in light winds! For any sailors out there, you’ll know what we mean when you see the below video. The Dragonfly boats can get to 20+ knots, which is as fast as a speed boat. Unfortunately we didn’t have the wind strength while we had the boat to reach those speeds, but you could feel that this would be possible. It’s a fantastic little boat.

Juelsminde

We travelled from Middelfart to a wonderful little town called Juelsminde. Sadly, the bug that had been plaguing me got worse and I also managed to hand it over to Ivan. So we ended up visiting the doctor for some antibiotics. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Despite feeling a bit poorly, we had a brilliant time in Juelsminde. We ended up spending 3 nights in the marina as we were a bit too sick to sail. Bugger!

Once we felt a bit better we explored Juelsminde. The band that you can hear in the background of the above video lured us like a siren song and led to our favourite experience in Denmark. It was a folk band fundraiser for the local museum. The band played Danish songs and as Australians we were given a very warm welcome. We drank beer, we sang Danish songs (there was a songbook) and we met the locals who were incredibly friendly. Many had never met an Australian in their home town before. Aussies, you should go there – and don’t worry, we’ve warmed the place up for you! Watch the below video to the end as you may see a familiar face…

The locals were really friendly people and the band gave us a CD! We would love to return to Juelsminde one day, especially as we are now in contact with Tinenaia and Torben, the lovely people in the video below.

An Aussie has paved the way

The people of Denmark are fond of Aussies because one of our own has paved the way for us all – Crown Princess Mary. Danish people love her. Whenever we mentioned we were from Australia invariably people would talk about Mary and how much they admired her. From cab drivers, to people in cafes and restaurants, no one had a bad word to say about her.

Our new friend Tinenaia from Juelsminde explained to us why people love Mary so much. She said prior to Mary, everyone was a bit worried about Prince Frederik. He was very shy and not great with the media and they absolutely hounded him. Danish people are very proud of their monarchy and Queen Margrethe is much loved, so people were understandably worried that Prince Frederik was not up to the task of taking over from the Queen as monarch when the time comes.

Then he met Mary in Australia. They kept their relationship quiet for a while and then about two years after meeting Mary, Frederik stepped out in the spotlight and it was as if a magical transformation had occurred. He was confident and charming, and everyone put it down to Mary’s influence and love. Tinenaia said “Mary didn’t know Frederick was a Prince and fell in love with him for who he was. This love transformed him and gave him his confidence. And that’s why we love and we’re very proud of our Princess Mary”. What a legend she is! Thanks Mary for being awesome, and paving the way for Australians in Denmark.

Denmark is stunning!

When we felt better and got the opportunity to sail the little Dragonfly, we loved it. Denmark has amazing sailing because the water is well protected so there are few waves, there are plenty of marinas and places to pull up for the night and it is just stunning. And apparently the only sharks in these waters are not man eaters! We could see why so many Danish people have boats and love the water.

Here’s some more sailing videos. The one below gives you an idea of how fast we were sailing relative to the land. Apologies for the terrible audio.

Of course, when you’re sailing a fast boat, every other boat that you see is an opportunity to race. Why? Well why not?

The wind dropped off during the middle of the day but our little Dragonfly was sailing faster than the wind. The instruments below show TWS (true wind speed) as 6.0 knots yet we were doing 6.3 knots. The instrument on the right showed our maximum speed of the day was 10.8 knots. The boat could have done twice that speed if we had been in stronger winds!

All too soon our Dragonfly boat experience was over. We were both disappointed that illness meant we could only sail the boat for two days, but that’s the way things go. It’s a good reminder of how important health is and how much we take it for granted. If we get the chance, we’re going to try and come back again next year because it is an absolutely brilliant boat and we love Denmark.

Copenhagen

We decided to head to Copenhagen for a few nights. What a gorgeous city it is with amazing architecture, parks and lots of green areas. And the city is a haven for cyclists and pedestrians.

One of the things Ivan and I both love about Denmark are the number of wind turbines. Just about everywhere we went you could see a wind tower in the distance, including in Copenhagen. Here’s a video that shows how many towers there are around the city.

Apparently over 50% of Denmark’s energy comes from wind. Many of the wind turbines are community owned where locals can invest, get a tax saving and then generate income from the energy produced. Denmark does have high electricity costs, though, so like everything, energy generation is more complex than it appears. And each country is different in terms of population, natural resources and topography. But maybe there’s something for Australia to think about – wind towers in and around cities and not just in regional areas.

I’ve been fired!

Ivan has officially fired me as our travel agent as two accommodation places in a row that I booked were not great.

We flew out of Copenhagen to Basel in Switzerland where we overnighted in fail number 2.

I’ve learnt that accommodation marketing that says “close to the railway station” should not be taken as a good thing. Next time, I’ll read the reviews!

Overall our trip to Denmark made us realise three things. Firstly, that Denmark is a treasure of a place with beautiful people and scenery and incredible sailing. Secondly, that whilst Copenhagen is a lovely city, our hearts belong in regional areas like Juelsminde. And finally, that the Dragonfly boat was every bit as amazing as Ivan hoped it would be. We were very impressed with Denmark and we’ll return one day, that’s for sure.