8 minute read
dorade down under
PHOTOS ROLEX / STUDIO BORLENGHI
TUNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED his year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Race had the usual fanfare we expect Dorade competed in a number of to see at such a prestigious event. Big, prestigious Atlantic races, including carbon-fi ber boats blasted across the the 1931 Fastnet, which she won, and 628-mile race course, records were the Transatlantic Race that same year, smashed, and there was a little protest which she won "in decisive fashion," fi ndrama between ishing two days the supermaxis. Taking second in IRC Division 4 was the oldest boat in the regatta, the JENS LANGE / DORADE ahead of the next boat. Dorade went on to win the 1932 Bermuda Race, the Fastnet again in 1933 and the 86-year-old Do- Farallones Race rade, a Spark- in 1936, as well man & Stephens as the Transpac wooden yawl. that same year. While such a We can't think feat for such a of a modern boat boat might seem that's boasted extraordinary, such domiDorade is no nance (perhaps stranger to the 'Dorade' owners Pam Rorke and Matt Brooks. Phaedo3). podium, and owner Matt Brooks is laser- Dorade's record includes just two focused on his unique ocean-racing races in the 1940s and one in the '50s. program. She was raced again in 1997, but was "I'm interested in a beautiful clas- just an Another Old Boat when Brooks sic boat, and making it compete in the and Rorke bought her in 2010. modern world against modern boats," "Matt and I had not been together said Bay Area native Brooks, who co- very long, and we were trying a whole owns Dorade along with his partner, Pam bunch of activities together," Rorke told Rorke. us in June, when we met her and Brooks But Dorade was on a tear long before at the St. Francis Yacht Club. "He had Brooks and Rorke took ownership; she's taken me to the [climbing] gym a few been burning up ocean racecourses times, and that was . . ." since the 1930s. Dorade was designed in "She's afraid of heights," Brooks 1929 by Olin Stephens as his personal laughed. yacht to be sailed and raced with his Rorke said she took Brooks to the family. She was design number seven. symphony, but "He fell asleep before the curtain even went up. So, we actuBelow: 'Dorade' shows her skinny lines as she ally went out with some friends out on slices through Australian waters in December. the Bay for a little daysail." After their successful jaunt on the Bay, Brooks and Rorke immediately started looking for a boat. "What kind of boat?" asked Chrissy Kaplan of City Yachts, who met the couple at Gashouse Cove. On the walls, Brooks saw several pictures of Fifes in full race mode. "Something like that," he said. Was there ever any thought of a more modern vessel? "No, Brooks told us. "I'm not interested in making it easy." Rorke said that at fi rst, their classic S&S presented a formidable learning curve. "Neither one of us had any experience on classic boats, and neither one of us had any experience with ocean racing," Rorke said. "So we had absolutely no idea what we were in for. It only took a couple of days sailing on Dorade before we realized that she was not meant for Newport Harbor. We could barely get on the mooring, even with an experienced crew. She's not a maneuverable boat; she's not meant for buoy racing. She
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wants to run. She wants to go in a long, straight line. So that's where Matt's crazy idea came from, really, within just a few weeks of buying the boat." That 'crazy idea' was to treat Dorade as if she were a TP52 or other contemporary race boat. They called it the Return to Blue Water Campaign, the goal of which was to repeat Dorade's record in the 1930s by "matching or bettering" her performances in the Transatlantic, Newport-Bermuda, Fastnet and Transpac races. "Of course, what that meant was that she went immediately back into the shed for a refi t." Dorade would spend a year at Joe Loughborough's yard outside of Newport, Rhode Island.
Brooks grew up sailing at summer camp in Monterey, and raced small keelboats on the Bay in the '70s and '80s, but said he wasn't a "serious racer." He was however a serious climber and mountain guide for over 30 years. Brooks co-founded of the American Mountain Guide Association, and in 1995 founded Brooks-Range Mountaineering. Brooks is also a record-setting aviator, and holds world records for distance without landing, and a speed record for distance around the world. "All the records are for going westward, which is, of course, the wrong way," Rorke said. "It's the slow way." "It hadn't been done," Brooks said with the matter-of-fact, gritty climber ethos of "Because it's there." "I think that is a pretty good indication of what Matt is attracted to in terms of challenges," Rorke added.
Dorade's Blue Water Campaign has been wildly successful. They've ascended the podium in every race they've entered, and won Transpac in 2013, 77 years after the S&S fi rst took honors in the regatta. Returning to the East Coast the following year, Dorade grabbed fi rst in class in the Newport Bermuda Race, and in 2015, took second in an especially rough Transatlantic Race. "So the next big challenge is that we're taking the boat to Australia and doing all of the races leading up to the Sydney Hobart," Rorke told us in June. Dorade was shipped to Australia, where she entered the Brisbane to Keppel race, and took
Spread: Sailing in Tasmania looks as though a boat has gone back in time (or to another planet). Below: 'Dorade' has made her own unique splash down under, and continues to collect the hardware.
A classic boat that would be coddled by most owners, 'Dorade' is surely one of the prettiest boats on any race course.
third in class. Dorade then headed for the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland for the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week and claimed second in her division. At the Gaffers Day Race in Sydney in October, Dorade took fi rst in the Bermudian 1 PurHC Division before gearing up for the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Brooks told us in June that he didn't think Dorade would do particularly well in the famously grueling regatta. "It's not our race; it's a lot of upwind work. But it's worth doing — if we can fi nish, I think that would be something," Dorade exceeded expectations, which seems to be her MO since coming back onto the racing scene. If you think an older vessel might be 'fragile', think again. "Olin Stephens built this boat as his yacht, and he was campaigning it with his family," Rorke said. "So the frames are on nine-inch centers, as opposed to every other boat he built, which were built on 12 or 15. It was really, really overbuilt, because he wanted it to be sturdy and he also wasn't that experienced, so he wanted to err on the side of safety. So we know that we have a really safe, solid, robust platform." Is Dorade the only 'antique boat' competing on the modern circuits? "There are more and more classics talking about doing these races," Brooks said. "The Transatlantic race is going to be held again in 2019 and the organizers — the Royal Ocean Racing Club, among others — have told me that if fi ve or more classics sign up, they'll have a classic class. That would really be something." Among the many hats that Brooks wears, he's also the president of the International Six Metre Association where his goal has been to build participation in the class. "The meter rule boats all have similar challenges and interests, and the concept was to try to get all the meter sailors together."
The 'Meter' boats include sixes, eights, and 12s, according to Brooks. "And there's the 2.4 Meter," he said. "They're not technically a Meter class, but they're part of the Meter Fest." The 2.4 Meter is a keeled dinghy that looks like a miniature America's Cup 12-Meter. "The 2.4 is actually very interesting. You don't have to be handicapped to sail it, but a lot of handicapped people do sail them, and they're a bunch of really good, enthusiastic sailors. It's a class that needs and deserves to be supported, so I'm very happy to be a part of that." Brooks is also a trustee at IYRS Boatbuilding and Restoration in Newport, Rhode Island. "We've been involved with IYRS since we fi rst got the boat," Rorke said, "since that was our point of entry into the Newport boating community. They have three programs: the wooden boat program, which is what they started with; then they have a composites and a marine systems program." Brooks said that IYRS has seen a signifi cant increase in their enrollment, as wooden boats and boatbuilding are enjoying something of a resurgence. "It's all about restoring boats, maintaining boats, as well as introducing new systems into the boats." A new building — named after Brooks' father, a Rear Admiral in the US Merchant Marines — was recently opened as part of the main campus at IYRS. "This is bringing it all full circle," Rorke said. Will Dorade be back in the Bay anytime soon? "Hopefully in 2020," Brooks said."Because in 2019 we're doing the Transatlantic Race. In the meantime, Brooks and Rorke will race Dorade in the Rolex China Sea Race in March. We asked a longtime climber, why sail in the China Sea Race? "Well, we'll be there, and I've always wanted to do it."
