White Dolphin has won the Panerai Transat Classique 2012, the spectacular transatlantic race for classic and vintage yachts organised by the Atlantic Yacht Club and sponsored by Officine Panerai. As her prize, the 1967 Marconi ketch takes home the Luminor 1950 Rattrapante 8 Days Titanio – 47mm a Special Edition watch created by Panerai for the event and featuring the Transat Classique logo on its case-back. 

Having started from Cascais (in Portugal) at exactly midday on December 2nd, White Dolphin sailed into Barbados at 15.49 December 23rd ahead of Corto. The latter sloop herself passed out the oldest member of the fleet, The Blue Peter (1930), which finished third.  White Dolphin follows in the footsteps of Stiren, winner of the previous race in 2008, and adds another chapter to the legend that is the Panerai Transat Classique. She ran a perfect race and finished first in real time and corrected time on the leg between Saint-Tropez and Cascais and in the main event from Cascais to Barbados.

These victories owe much to the ketch's magnificent lines — she was built in 1967 at the Beltrami shipyard and finished at the Sangermani yard, both in Italy — but also to the skill, determination and enthusiasm of her crew. Led by Pascal Stefani, the owner, and Yann Delplace, the skipper, Fred, Nicolas, Jean-Fabrice, Arnaud and Jordan demonstrated a spirit of solidarity and ingeniousness as they battled with the technical problems that characterized their passage — engine and generator problems, torn spinnaker, broken boom track. But they also enjoyed some memorable moments with unforgettable night watches, thrilling surfing, spectacular sunsets.

During the prize-giving ceremony, which was held in the superb setting of the Beach House decorated in the Panerai colours for the occasion, the atmosphere was particularly emotional. For some of the competitors, a new voyage begins now as they set sail for the Grenadines, while others head for Martinique. For The Blue Peter the future is the Caribbean racing season which starts on 21 January with the Barbados Round the Island Race — Valteam is also entering — followed by the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, one of the main events of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge. The yachts will be keeping busy until the next edition of this wonderful race.