This is a swell bit of videography if you’re into classic racing yachts. The famous Olin Stephens-designed yawl Dorade actually won the TransPac way back in 1936 and set a course record that stood for some time. Her current owner, Matt Brooks, is determined to run her as an ocean-racer again and is particularly interested in campaigning her in events that she has sailed in before. Right now she’s in the midst of racing to Honolulu in this year’s TransPac and is doing remarkably well, particularly given her age, 83, which makes her the oldest boat ever to compete in the event.
As of this morning, as you can see here, Dorade is running well up in the top part of the fleet and is in third place in Division 8. She was running first not so long ago, and there’s still enough miles to go for her crawl back on top.
For a lot more info on Dorade, including more viddies and lots of pix, you can check out her current website.
Dorade racing off St. Bart’s this past winter/Photo by Christophe Jouany
I was lucky enough to spend a day racing Dorade around the buoys in Penobscot Bay several years ago with her previous owner, Edgar Cato. For more on that you can dive into the WaveTrain archives here.
MEANWHILE: Yes, we’re still holding our collective breath wondering what happened to Dorade‘s great contemporary, the schooner Nina, which has been missing in the Tasman Sea since early last month. Kiwi authorities stopped looking for her on July 5 after a 10-day search. More recently, family of the missing crew have managed to continue the search via the good graces of Texas Equusearch, a non-profit organization.
You can visit this Facebook page if you want to learn more about what’s happening and donate to the effort. Personally, this is starting to smell like a lost cause to me. It may be time for everyone to exhale and accept that Nina is gone.
