“Now I think we are going to have a bit of fun.”
Jens Quorning, CEO and owner of Quorning Boats—builder of Dragonfly trimarans—may be the master of understatement. Up to this point, our test sail of the new Dragonfly 36 performance cruising trimaran has had me grinning ear to ear (his measurement of fun, he told me earlier, was precisely that distance). Now, having just set the code zero to accompany the 780-square-foot, square-topped Elvstrøm EPEX main, we are simply flying across Denmark’s Kolding Fjord, making 13-14 knots in 16 knots of wind at a true wind angle of 120. Our rushing wake has me thinking about water-skiing, and even powered up, there is nothing skittery about sailing this winged creation; on all points of sail, we zoom like a big blue waterbug, the rolling hillsides, bright green with early May color, framing the dance.
“There’s a reason Paul Elvstrøm was our client for 10 years,” Jens says, invoking Denmark’s most famous sailor, who sailed a customized Dragonfly 800 Swing Wing, providing design, performance, and construction input to be woven into future builds. “Because he loved to sail.”
I get it. I’m lucky to be one of the first journalists to sail this performance version, hull No. 1 that debuted at the Düsseldorf International Boat Show in January and hit the water just a little over a month ago. (The 36 is offered in a touring or performance version, the main differences being mast height and, accordingly, sail area).
After several hours of sailing with Jens and his son, Peter—the third generation of Quorning who is training to assume his father’s position at this family-owned business—the overarching impression is that this boat invites you to play, to have fun, to see how fast you can go. Weighing just under 10,000 pounds (13,000 pounds kitted up), with top speeds of 23 knots and comfortable cruising speeds of 10-15 knots, she makes this pursuit irresistible. You really can’t help yourself.
Though I am primarily a monohull sailor, I can understand why Jens’ father and Dragonfly’s founder, Børge Quorning, converted after sailing a Piver trimaran in Vancouver, BC, back in the 1950s, leaving the hottest racer of the day—a Star—in the dust.
“My dad couldn’t believe it. So that turned his philosophy for boats and sailing totally upside down,” Jens says. “Suddenly, he was in a fast boat. He was used to building very, very exclusive rowing boats…so he loved skinny, lightweight boats, and he hated to put weight under monohulls. Suddenly you had this lightweight boat—skinny hull, lightweight boat—that answered all his questions.”
This bit of history is important to understanding the abiding passion and unwavering focus that kept Børge and later Jens Quorning perfecting their designs and construction techniques, even when boats with three hulls were viewed with suspicion and in some cases trepidation. So far ahead of the curve and with little information from other designers and builders to lean upon, they learned with their own R&D, experimenting, pushing to the edge and frequently plunging over it. Even when they had to build powerboats to keep the lights on, trimaran development was always happening.
“We love sailing so much. The trimaran for was, for us, the only right thing,” Jens says. “We made a lot of experimental boats for hull design, design for materials, rigging, you name it. Everything was new, because we had to find a way to combine all this.”
Now, 57 years after Børge built his first tri, the Trident 28, comes the Dragonfly 36, a performance cruising trimaran that distills that history and passion for fast, stable sailing and refines it into one beautiful, fierce machine. More than two years in development, the 36 draws from what the company has learned from its 40-footer launched five years ago and takes more leaps forward with this new design by Jens and longtime family friend and collaborator Steen Olsen. For the first time, the main hull joins the floats in having an inverted bow, gaining more waterline length, forward buoyancy, and interior volume. The razor sharp bows on the asymmetrical floats have increased volume for much the same goals.
The 36’s main hull and deck—vinylester, Divinycell core, GRP—are built by fellow Danes X-Yachts at their Poland facility. The floats, built in the Dragonfly shop, are vacuum-infused vinylester, Divinycell core, and a hand-laid inner fiberglass liner using chopped mat first to prevent print-through, followed by biaxial glass. Carbon reinforcements are in the main bulkheads and at load points.
One of the most important changes in the new design is further refinement of the “swing wing” system. Introduced in 1989, it folds this trimaran’s wings to transform it essentially into a monohull, reducing its beam from about 27 feet to just over 12 feet and enabling it to fit into a standard slip or even on a trailer for shipping. The beefy stainless steel brackets on earlier models that connect the floats to the main hull and allow this articulation are gone; except for one big bolt, the business end of the swing wing is now a seamless, CNC-cut, composite structure, the pivoting point integrated into the reinforced bulkhead, saving weight, production costs and time, and helping further stiffen the boat.
It’s also the first thing on display when we leave the slip and head out to sail. Using one line and one of the two standard electric Andersen winches at each of the twin helms (two more Andersens are on each side of the coaming a little farther forward), Jens pushes a button and extends one float and its connecting trampoline, then repeats the process on the other side. It takes barely a minute to extend each float.
The buoyant, foam-cored, fiberglass centerboard is equally easy to manage, and when down its control line is fixed in a spring-loaded cam cleat that’s designed to release if the board touches bottom—“Dinghy technology taken to a new level,” Jens says. When down, the board provides 6 feet, 7 inches of draft for upwind work; with the centerboard up and drawing only 2 feet, 2 inches, you can beach the boat.
Out of the slip, Peter raises the mainsail on a Ronstan batten car system up the nearly 61-foot carbon spar (54 feet on the touring version), which is built at the factory from lengths of industrial carbon tube. Providing equal windage in all directions, the round sections offer the most stability when the boat’s floats are tucked in. Untapered, they carry the same strength throughout their length, their sections joined with a carbon fiber insert and the joints covered by stainless steel sleeves. Everything for the boat’s rigging and spars—including the mast base and head fitting—is custom designed and fabricated in house.
With the main up, even before the genoa is out, we’re making 7.2 knots upwind in 10 knots true. Even this detail is carefully thought through; they’ve developed a headboard car and angled upper batten that easily deploys the square-topped main without need for a hook or other method that can complicate things up high.
The mainsheet runs through a 4:1 single point system set in the cockpit floor just ahead of the helms and developed by Ronstan for this design. “It’s very important to have good control of the main in such a powerful sailplan,” Jens says. The vang system is run via the floats, and a preventer system is preset for downwind running.
Ever the racing sailor, Jens acknowledges he dislikes wheel steering on most boats because it’s not sensitive enough, but thanks to yet another Danish company—Jefa Steering—the 36’s steering is flawless. Tacking this trimaran is smoother, faster, and more precise than a lot of monohulls I’ve helmed. Running off the wind under the gennaker (lifted from the port float’s forward hatch and deployed on the fixed bowsprit via a sock), Peter encourages me to sail her like a dinghy, heating up for speed, bearing off slightly to ride the puffs down. It’s fingertip sailing even at 12 to 14 knots of boatspeed.
The helms are models of ergonomic efficiency. Each has Raymarine Alpha MFDs (instrument displays over the companionway complement these), two primary winches an arm’s length away for sailhandling, and comfortable (optional heated) seats in each corner with excellent visibility. Likewise, it takes about 15 seconds to furl the code zero on a Facnor electric furler; this speed contributes to easy, safe shorthanded sailing (electric is optional on the code zero and genoa Facnor furlers). Lots of builders say their boats can be easily sailed by one or two people from the helm; few pass the reality check with as much truth as this.
The two-zone cockpit layout ensures that all the sailhandling happens aft, while in the forward area guests can sit undisturbed with a centerline, folding table for entertaining. The engine—a 30-hp Yanmar standard (40-hp optional) powering a folding GORI prop on a saildrive—is easily accessible under the center cockpit hatch aft. If you must motor, you’ll cruise at about 6.5 knots at 2,500 rpm (8-8.5 knots at 3,200 rpm, wide open throttle).
It’s four steps down the companionway belowdecks, where the layout is traditional but efficient and spacious for a 36-footer. A well-appointed galley to port of the companionway includes an 85-liter Isotherm fridge on countertop level for easy access. To starboard, a door opens to the aft double cabin that serves as the owner’s cabin. The dining table can be lowered to form a double berth, while the V-berth forward—a climb-in affair—can become more private via a simple sliding door. A wet head is forward to port before the V-berth. Aft of the starboard settee is a small desk (this can be modified to be a laptop table) where the electrical panel drops down for clear access. Four-hundred amp hours of lithium batteries are stored beneath the aft cabin, and separate AGM batteries power engine start and the windlass and bow thruster.
With a choice of elm or ash, both styles are beautifully rendered by Dragonfly’s in-house joiners, and the overall ambiance is cozy and warm. Fresh air and light are ample, with subtle touches like sleek louvers in the storage sliders allowing interior lighting to shine through.
Anyone looking for a dance-hall-sized multihull vibe isn’t going to find it here; this is more like a monohull. But there’s an elegant simplicity to this space—as elsewhere on this boat—that belies the complexity of the thought, engineering, and design details that have been earned and learned through years of experience and evolution.
These boats are expensive to build; there are about 60 different laminated parts and molds for the 36, and nearly everything, from the floats and rigs to interior woodwork and fittings, is built in house. Our optimally kitted test boat came in at about €700,000 (nearly $800,000 at an early June exchange rate). While the builders acknowledge this, they’re not hanging their heads about it; on the contrary really. Instead, they point to the quality and level of detail, evidenced in part in the boats’ strong resale value, and the pride in workmanship and sourcing as much as they can from local Danish or Scandinavian manufacturers. About 60 people work at the factory, and Dragonflys are built to order with about 35 boats built annually, Jens says.
“We have found our niche with folding trimarans in high quality, good design, good function,” Jens says. “Expensive, but they keep their value very well. So people are coming back.” Customers range from racers who like to keep everything as light and fast as possible, to cruisers who simply enjoy the quick, stable platform and ease of shorthanded sailing.
“We love these boats,” Jens says. “I love sailing from the bottom of my heart. So, fast, fun sailing, good sailing, high quality sailing, I would call it, and I like it to work well…People spend a lot of money for this boat. I want them to love it, to have fun.”
Specifications:
LOA/LWL 37’10”/35’9”
Beam 26’8”/12’2”
Draft 2’2”/6’7”
Displacement 9,925 lbs (light)
Mast Height 54’1” (touring) 60’8” (performance)
Mainsail 656 sq ft (touring) 785 sq ft (performance)
Genoa 350 sq ft (touring) or 399 sq ft (performance)
Engine 30hp Yanmar (40hp option)
Designer Olsen Design/Quorning Boats
Builder Quorning Boats, dragonfly.dk
Sail Away Price €554,00 touring ($632,500 at press time), €582,000 performance ($664,500 at press time) less VAT and taxes
August/September 2025
