Dorade
  • ABOUT
    • Team Dorade
    • Specs
    • Contact
  • HISTORY
    • Past Campaigns
  • RESULTS
  • MEDIA
    • Press
    • Photos
    • Video
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Team Dorade
    • Specs
    • Contact
  • HISTORY
    • Past Campaigns
  • RESULTS
  • MEDIA
    • Press
    • Photos
    • Video
  • BLOG
September 20, 2013  |  By Dorade Team

Dorade TransPac Celebration – Transcript of Toast


Here’s how Olin Stephens described his decision to build Dorade back in 1929:

“The scenario must be as old as sport. Competition builds along certain lines which suit the participants and thus a norm is established. From year to year marginal advances are the rule. Then along comes someone, something of an outsider and more single-minded in his efforts to win, who seizes an opportunity that is obvious to him though unrecognized by the routine participants. The new player exploits a new way that offers a winning margin. I have wondered whether this is good for the sport, yet I recognize it as part of the game. It keeps competitors on their toes. In 1929 I sensed the opening.”

At the time Olin sensed the opening, he was 21 years old.

At that age, it wasn’t reasonable for his parents to give him $28,000 to build the boat he was envisioning… especially as the depression was just beginning.

Not reasonable of him… to think that he knew better than his professors at MIT… how to build a fast boat.

Not reasonable of him to think that he could win the TransAtlantic with that boat, against a fleet of bigger, better equipped boats with experienced crews.

And in 2010, when Matt and I went shopping for a boat… Dorade was a completely unreasonable choice. We thought at the time it would be nice to find a boat to do a little day sailing on the bay. Instead we ended up with a classic boat 3000 miles from home. Completely unreasonable. And it was unreasonable to put her into refit for a year… and unreasonable to race her in the Caribbean… and it was unreasonable of Matt to think that she would ever race in the ocean again.

And so, if this whole experience has taught me anything, it’s that being unreasonable… is the place to start any great endeavor.

So here’s my toast… to Olin… for the wisdom of his youth… his unreasonable pursuit of perfection… and the extraordinary boat that was the result of both… and to my unreasonable partner Matt… for bringing Dorade into our lives… and taking us places I never dreamed of going.

Dorade TransPac Celebration at the St Francis Yacht Club
Transcript of toast given by Pam Rorke Levy 9/20/13

Previous StoryDorade named flagship for state of California – Sept 20 declared Dorade Day in California
Next StoryVintage Dorade

Follow Us

doradesailing1929

192

doradesailing1929

View

Mar 26

Open
“I was lucky: I had a goal. As far back as I can “I was lucky: I had a goal. As far back as I can remember I wanted to design fast boats,” writes Olin Stephens in the opening words of his autobiography, All This and Sailing Too, which we heartily recommend. Today you can read another take on Olin and his brother Rod in our latest blog post, at the link in our bio—a look back at the two-part feature story on the Stephen Brothers written by Morton M. Hunt for The New Yorker's September 1957 issue. In this excerpt, we pick up the story with the publication of Olin’s first design in Yachting magazine and the beginning of the partnership that became the pre-eminent yacht design firm of the mid-20th century, Sparkman & Stephens. A yacht named Dorade was soon to follow…

[📸: Unknown]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #olinstephens @sparkman_and_stephens

“I was lucky: I had a goal. As far back as I can remember I wanted to design fast boats,” writes Olin Stephens in the opening words of his autobiography, All This and Sailing Too, which we heartily recommend. Today you can read another take on Olin and his brother Rod in our latest blog post, at the link in our bio—a look back at the two-part feature story on the Stephen Brothers written by Morton M. Hunt for The New Yorker's September 1957 issue. In this excerpt, we pick up the story with the publication of Olin’s first design in Yachting magazine and the beginning of the partnership that became the pre-eminent yacht design firm of the mid-20th century, Sparkman & Stephens. A yacht named Dorade was soon to follow…

[📸: Unknown]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #olinstephens @sparkman_and_stephens
...

doradesailing1929

View

Mar 22

Open
Racing in rough water at Antigua in 2012. [📸: Racing in rough water at Antigua in 2012.

[📸: Tim Wright]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #caribbeansailing #antigua @sparkman_and_stephens

Racing in rough water at Antigua in 2012.

[📸: Tim Wright]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #caribbeansailing #antigua @sparkman_and_stephens
...

doradesailing1929

View

Mar 19

Open
Team Dorade celebrates winning 1st overall in the Team Dorade celebrates winning 1st overall in the 2013 Transpac at the trophy ceremony. A stunning achievement as part of her "Return to Blue Water Campaign," the crew took to the podium 77 years after Dorade won the race for the first time. 

[📸: @sharon_green_ultimatesailing ]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #transpacificrace #transpac @sparkman_and_stephens @transpacrace

Team Dorade celebrates winning 1st overall in the 2013 Transpac at the trophy ceremony. A stunning achievement as part of her "Return to Blue Water Campaign," the crew took to the podium 77 years after Dorade won the race for the first time.

[📸: @sharon_green_ultimatesailing ]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #transpacificrace #transpac @sparkman_and_stephens @transpacrace
...

doradesailing1929

View

Mar 15

Open
Lucie, a 1931 Six-Metre built for Briggs Cunningha Lucie, a 1931 Six-Metre built for Briggs Cunningham by the Nevins Yard on City Island, was the first of Matt and Pam's fleet of classic yachts. Designed by Clinton Crane, here is Lucie sailing upwind to 2nd place at the Newport Classic Yacht Regatta in 2016.

[📸: @silkenphoto ]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #lucie #sixmetre #ncyr #clintoncrane #classicyachtregatta #IYRS @classicyachtoa

Lucie, a 1931 Six-Metre built for Briggs Cunningham by the Nevins Yard on City Island, was the first of Matt and Pam's fleet of classic yachts. Designed by Clinton Crane, here is Lucie sailing upwind to 2nd place at the Newport Classic Yacht Regatta in 2016.

[📸: @silkenphoto ]

#doradeyacht #classicyacht #lucie #sixmetre #ncyr #clintoncrane #classicyachtregatta #IYRS @classicyachtoa
...

Load More...
Dorade
Web Design by risingT