By Matt Wachowicz, Navigator
While Dorade has had an external refurbishment and refit geared at maintaining her Classic status, she has undergone an equally serious refit in the area of navigation, safety and electronics. With the thought of campaigning her in the most competitive manner possible, Owner, Matt Brooks, has mandated the installation of the highest level of electronics, navigation, and safety equipment on the market, and Dorade is glittering down below with a new suite of high performance electronics fit for any grand prix racing yacht.
She has been fitted with a frontline Satcom system, replete with backup units, to maximize weather routing and analysis. She has received an new performance instrument processor and a data acquisition system to better gather, analyze, study, and improve the sailing performance of the yacht. She has been loaded with several of the top-of-the-line software packages for both tactical navigation and weather routing. She even has an internal WiFi network with several linked-in iPads for crew emails and creature comforts on the long passages. Several new computers are currently spec’ed to complete the package and provide an integrated solution for the electronics, weather, and tactical navigation efforts for the program. The bottom line? Dorade is a beautiful, one-of-a-kind Classic, and she can be proud of her new systems which will guide her to success.
The systems are undergoing their final installations and checks with the hopes that all electronics gear will be online for the start of the training regattas leading up to the Transpac, and the data collection and analysis effort is underway. The future is as bright and shiny as the new array of gear Dorade proudly displays down below.