The founder of DDG, Denis Sergeyevich Dontsov, is a hereditary sailor, born in Odessa in 1980. He has been involved in sailing since early childhood, ever since his father, a long-distance navigator and now a teacher at the A.I. Marinesko Maritime College, brought him as a little boy to the Odessa Black Sea Yacht Club “Otrada” and began to teach him about the sea and the correct attitude towards it. Denis still remembers how, as a ten-year-old cabin boy on the old wooden yacht “Grenada” (a Tallinn quarter-tonner), with tears in his eyes, he began his first assignment – to sand down a cracked and blackened oak tiller. This was his first practical experience working with wood. He had to caulk, putty, paint and generally learn to do a lot of hard and monotonous work in order for the boat to go to sea.
A few years later, thirteen-year-old Denis, already as a sailor, managed to get on the beautiful red-wood yacht “Bars” of the Taurus class, built in Poland. Along with carpentry and painting, it was time to learn more complex sailing disciplines: rigging, repair of sails and spars. The yacht “Bars” went to sea a lot and participated in all the Black Sea regattas. Thus, Denis made his first long sea voyage as part of a regatta along the entire Bulgarian coast. This was a wonderful experience for the young sailor. Over time, it was time to replace the entire deck on “Bars”, starting with the teak and ending with the beams. Denis took part in this work with interest along with the entire crew ─ for the young sailor, this was a serious school of yacht building.
The next step was meeting Andrey Genov and his yacht “Blues”, which Andrey built himself in his garden in Chisinau and brought to Odessa for launching. By the time of this meeting, Andrey had already sailed around the entire Black Sea, had wintered in Greece several times, and generally lived on board all year round. The experienced captain of “Blues” invited fifteen-year-old Denis to join his crew. It was on this boat that Denis truly learned how to operate a sailing vessel and mastered the intricacies of navigation. Andrey always had the “Beatles” playing on board, the yacht was imbued with the spirit of distant travels and the salt of the Mediterranean Sea. It was at this time that Denis was ready to realize his long-standing dream – his own yacht. “Blues” was made of fiberglass, and it should be noted that at that time it was a relatively new material. The yacht did not leak, was very durable, but at the same time quite heavy. Andrey passed on to Denis all his knowledge on working with epoxy fiberglass.
Denis’s next mentor was the talented sailing racer Vladimir Viktorovich Kubkov, who at that time was engaged in cruising and racing multihulls, raced in the team of the trimaran “Gulfstream” and was the captain of the magnificent racing trimaran “Khadzhibey” of Australian construction. The trimaran was made of plywood and fiberglass and was a very light and durable structure. It was with Kubkov’s light hand that Denis, at the age of eighteen, designed and laid down his first yacht – the fast Spartan trimaran “Twiggy”. The technology of a composite plywood-fiberglass hull became a favorite for the young designer, and Denis built all his subsequent yachts using this technology, which proved itself from the best side. Kubkov got Denis interested in the ideas of multihulls and showed him the stadiplan of Dick Newick’s small beach trimaran “Tremolino mark IV”.
Based on this plan, Denis drew the hull of a seven-meter trimaran, slightly increasing its habitability and seaworthiness. Despite the young age of the builder, the yacht turned out to be worthy. By the time he graduated from the Hydrometeorological University with a degree in oceanography, the young yachtsman had already managed to test his first boat. In 2003, Denis sailed it to the Mediterranean. Over four years of travel, “Twiggy” always proved its seaworthiness.
During his studies at the university, before sailing abroad, Denis managed to build two more boats: a small trimaran “Solo” for his younger brother and a catamaran “Twix” for his dad. On these boats, he honed his skills as a yacht builder and implemented new ideas. “Solo” was conceived and designed by Denis as a training boat for a growing yachtsman, with the ability to make short cruising voyages alone. Denis drew the catamaran “Twix” inspired by the projects of James Warram.
Subsequently, Denis actively studied the ideas of James Warram. Thus, his next yacht was a snow-white catamaran “White boat” (Tiki 30 project), built according to original drawings. Working with professional drawings made a great contribution to the development of Denis as a yacht designer. In the summer of 2007, the catamaran left Odessa and headed for the Bosphorus. On the “White boat” Denis passed the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. During operation on sea passages, the captain involuntarily compared his seven-meter trimaran with the new catamaran. As a result, Denis was dissatisfied with his new yacht, since it did not meet his requirements and lifestyle. The catamaran’s gaff rig proved itself excellent in long voyages, but the necessary comfort at sea and a spacious cabin were still lacking.
During cruising on his boats in the Mediterranean, Denis had the opportunity to work at a German yacht shipyard, participate in the construction of a modern high-tech catamaran and become familiar with many progressive yacht-building technologies. He had come a long way, twenty years long, until the fundamental ideas for the design of the schooner “Iryna” were formed in his mind.
In the summer of 2016, the schooner “Iryna” left Odessa for a life-long round-the-world voyage. On board were two people – captain Denis Dontsov and his faithful companion Iryna Dontsova, who founded Dontsov Design Group. The schooner “Iryna” proved itself to be such a reliable seafarer that it became the prototype for all subsequent DDG projects.
You can see all DDG yachts in the “Projects” section. In the “History of our yacht building” section you will find many photos of our work. Exploring seas and oceans DDG published three books: “Children of the Sun” (documentary adventure novel), a design book of DDG projects and “Technology of plywood-epoxy construction. Algorithm of building DDG yachts”, which you will find in the “Books” section.
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