The fleet assembled for the 40th annual Newport Classic Yacht Regatta was forced to wait for wind on both days of the regatta, but for Dorade, the racing was successful and the final results extremely close.
In the first race, the sea breeze came in just long enough for the Dorade's class to sail out of Newport’s East Passage and back in. Dorade made a winning move along the western side on the final downwind leg to pass two larger boats—the 12-Metre Onawa and the Sparkman & Stephens yawl Black Watch. Spartan, the impressive New York 50, crossed the finish first, but not far enough ahead to beat Dorade on corrected time.
The next day, however, Spartan showed her heels to the fleet and finished far enough ahead to save her time on Dorade, which was also challenged repeatedly by the 53-foot Sonny. Dorade matched Sonny's moves effectively, maintaining position and finishing ahead of Sonny, yet second to Spartan. Dorade ended the weekend racing tied with Spartan, but lost the tie-breaker; the two boats had identical 1-2 scores, but Spartan had finished first in the final and deciding race.
Team Dorade took consolation in receiving the spectacular Sappho schooner trophy, given to the boat with the best combined corrected time scores. It was also awarded the Mitch Gibbons-Neff Cup for best performance among Sparkman & Stephens entries in the regatta.
The icing on the cake for the team was learning later that their victory over Sonny had been enough to earn first place for the five-regatta Challenge series in the Charter Yacht Owners Association Vintage Division. Read more at the CYOA site on the Challenge Series and see a couple more nice Dorade photos, too!