Classic Sailboat Dorade Races to Bermuda

The parade came through. Nothing broke. She performed really well. I think everyone on board would agree that she just loves the ocean, loves to swim in it. And I think we accomplished our goal, which is to start the process of repeating all our early races. And here we are, a blast reaching out of Newport, and all the passengers are happy on deck. It's going 19-20. We're doing 18.5 knots. Life is good over here. So we have boats around us, mostly boats in the class ahead of us that we've caught up to. And momentarily here, the raid might just be leading the Bermuda race. Vote for boat. The big boats will catch up to us soon. So, buddy, do you like Northeast? I love Northeast. You'll see how kind she is to us in the stream. But so far, it's the best ride out of Newport I've ever had. It's the interior of the raid. First afternoon out. We have the lee cloths set up so people can stay in these bunks. There are more bunks up in that forward cabin, too. We'll have four people off watch at a time. And in the back of the boat is the galley. Here's the nav station. We have this cloth rigged up here to keep spray from coming down the companionway and getting on the electronics. And that's Jess's cave back there. She's our navigator. We're doing close to 10 knots as we approach the Gulf Stream. The diciest moment was having our leader line for our second reef point part. And so going into a night when we thought we might need a second reef, had to take a journey out to the end of the boom to reeve the second reef line in. Besides that, it hasn't been too bad. You had to go to the top of the mast a few times. Yeah, that's kind of par for the course. One was frustrating, though. The chafe point I was talking about earlier, we did chafe through the starboard spinnaker halyard. And we should have probably been adjusting the halyard a little bit more often. We were letting it up and down an inch here and there, but we probably should have buried that a little bit more. When it finally came time for a takedown, it was the jacket broke over the core, so it wouldn't come down. There was a trip up the rig for that. But I give the crew credit. After I cut the halyard away at the top of the rig, we pretty much got the shooting almost dry. Relatively uneventful for what it could have turned out to be. Dore has a... she's a little bit of a rocking horse. She was designed to cut through those waves. I love to hear the water movement along the hull. But it's a very pleasant sound, unlike some modern boats that are like living in a drum. That would be the sad phone. Yeah, and this thing. Right here. It's unique for us. It's been faster than expected. The breeze held in a lot longer than expected. It looks like we might actually make it there on this prevailing breeze. And relatively easy for the bow crew. We've done maybe a third of the sail changes I thought we would. Learned a couple of things. A couple of chain points that weren't immediately apparent. Spending this long with the sails up teaches you that kind of thing. We call ourselves the optimists. Because we're going to be screaming into the finish. That's our plan. We don't want to take us to the clouds of sail under. Jess, what do you say? What's the latest? I don't know. We don't know. We're on track. We're going straight for the mark. That would be nine hours, which means I'm going to go with the optimists. Because that is two and a half honey badger launches. Overall, I've got to say the boat's been tougher than we have been. Eighty years since she's won her class. Obviously, we hope to repeat that. Amazingly, the boys, when they did it before at 32, did it a few hours faster than we're about to. So I give them a lot of credit. Obviously, the boat's pretty much the same as she was. But the sails and materials are so much better. The cuts are so much better. We've got more gears to go to. But some of those guys somehow still beat us into this thing. So I give them a lot of credit. Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Wednesday morning. Most of the fleet is in. We completed fourth and sixth. That's respectable. We're a little disappointed, of course, that we didn't win. But considering everything, we had some problems with the electronics, the newfangled gear, where we couldn't download current weather or fleet information. Matt, there was some sea sickness in the crew, but you were one of the stalwarts who didn't seem to have any problem with your stomach. Well, I think everyone gets a little queasy, but I don't have a problem, really, with motion sickness or sea sickness. So you're a pilot. Do you think that's an advantage? I think that's probably an advantage. I think, biologically, people are all a little different. I'm probably the least experienced of our very experienced crew. That's a great atmosphere for me to be in. That environment allows me to really learn quickly from the experience of being around these wonderful sailors. We're going to do the Bermuda race again. This was a good race for us. We learned a lot, and we'll be back.