Sparkman & Stephens / Design No. 7
The boat
Designed by Olin Stephens and launched in 1930, Dorade is a 52-foot yawl. Her Return to Blue Water campaign revisited the ocean races she won in the 1930s.
History & restoration
Designed in 1929 and launched in May 1930, Dorade was built at Minneford Yacht Yard on City Island, New York. Rod Stephens supervised construction. Her narrow hull and yawl rig departed from the broad-beamed schooners of the day.
Wins in the 1931 Transatlantic and Fastnet races brought the crew home to a New York ticker-tape parade. In 1936, Dorade won the Transpac.
Restoration & campaign
Return to Blue Water
Matt Brooks and Pam Rorke Levy bought Dorade in 2010 and spent a year restoring her. The goal was to revisit the major ocean races she had won in the 1930s, matching or improving on her original times.
The team bettered those times in all four races and reached the podium in each. The 2013 Transpac overall win, on corrected time, came 77 years after her first victory.
The campaign concluded in 2015 with second in class in both the Transatlantic and Fastnet races. At Fastnet, Dorade also placed seventh overall in a fleet of 356.
Under sail — video
Photo: Sharon Green · Dorade2013
Transpac
1st overall · corrected timeDorade won the 2013 Transpac overall on corrected time and finished first in Division VIII.
Race finishes shown here are Dorade’s team results.
Specifications & sources
The yacht
Principal particulars
- Length overall
- 16.02 m / 52.56 ft
- Beam
- 3.13 m / 10.33 ft
- Draft
- 2.52 m / 8.27 ft
- Displacement
- 16,790 kg / 37,020 lb
- Construction
- Mahogany planking on steam-bent oak frames
- Rig & spars
- Yawl / Sitka spruce
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