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July 22, 2013  |  By Dorade Team

What a great TransPac!

While a new elapsed-time record wasn’t set, the 47th TransPac has proven to be one of the more interesting and exciting races to Hawaii in years.

Overall honors went to the classic S&S 52 Dorade, which was built in 1930 and had previously won overall TransPac honors 77 years ago in 1936. Dorade is owned by Matt Brooks and his wife Pam Rorke Levy of Fremont and the St. Francis YC, who consider themselves "caretakers" of this remarkable piece of American sailing history. The couple are in the middle of one of the more unique sailing quests we’ve ever heard of, which is to sail competitively in all the great events that Dorade won in her early days, including the Bermuda Race, the TransAtlantic Race, the England’s Fastnet Race (twice) and the TransPac.

To that end, Matt and Pam had the yawl rebuilt in the Northeast a couple of years ago, with no expense spared. For the TransPac they assembled a fine crew consisting of Brooks, skipper Eric Chowanski, Ben Galloway, John Hayes, Hannah Jenner, Kevin Miller and Matt Wachowicz. According to Brooks, they spent 30 days practicing for the TransPac. Pop wisdom says success is where preparation and luck intersect, and Dorade and the other boats in Division 8 were lucky to have the best get-away conditions of the three starts. Nonetheless, after leading overall early, Dorade fell to as low as 15th in fleet, then came back to take a comfortable lead.

What really made this TransPac thrilling is that Dorade‘s corrected-time lead of as much as nine hours was being rapidly trimmed, after she finished, by several of the big sleds. Could Roy Pat Disney’s Burbank-based Andrews 70 Pyewacket, with her all-star crew, surf from behind to correct out? She made up a lot of time, but fell 2.5 hours short, which left her in second overall. Also hot on Dorade‘s heels was Per Peterson’s San Diego-based Andrews 68 Alchemy, which corrected out 3 hours back to take third in fleet.

There was also some terrific racing within the divisions. Tom Akin of Sausalito sailed his R/P 52 Meanie to a mere four-minute victory over Isao Mita’s Yokohama-based TP52 Beecom in Division 2. Fellow Northern Californian Chip Megeath of the Tiburon-based R/P 45 Criminal Mischief managed to come from behind to record a similar four-minute victory over Bob Pethick’s Michigan-based Rogers 46 Bretwalda in Division 4. Four minutes is a mightily slim margin after more than 2,200 ocean miles. Frank Slootman’s Pleasanton-based R/P 63 Invisible Hand had a little more cushion, clenching the top spot in Division 1 by just over two hours.

But all those stories are secondary to Matt and Pam’s big victory with Dorade — which, by the way, is correctly pronounced ‘Dor-odd’, as opposed to ‘Dor-aid’. Matt and Pam are class acts, so their victory is not only a credit to them, St. Francis YC, Northern California, but sailing in general. Well done! Really well done!

– latitude / richard

To read the complete article in Latitude38, click here.

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Mar 26

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“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
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doradesailing1929

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Mar 22

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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
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Mar 19

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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
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Mar 15

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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
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