If there’s a smaller 65-footer out there please write in. Ragtime will start the 2019 Transpac more than half a century after she slipped into the water as Infidel in 1965 (opposite) – looking on this flimsy cradle more like a stretched Yachting World Diamond day-racer than a boat that at the time was in length, at least, the equivalent of a modern Mini Maxi. Comparing against the launch shot, the only outwardly visible changes today are a T-bulb keel, newer blocks in that capacious cockpit (left), soon a carbon rig and a stern scoop extending her from her original 62ft overall


boat’s story at this level of detail when visiting Auckland en route from the finish of the 2008 LA-Tahiti Race to the Sydney Hobart of that year. ‘It certainly took them a while to learn the boat before getting any good results.’ At this time Clark was also building his business empire into


what became Ceramco, going on to become the title sponsor of Peter Blake’s legendary 1981-82 Whitbread Race flyer Ceramco New Zealand. In 1971 Infidel was sold to a consortium from California and renamed Ragtime, which competing in the 1973 Transpac got wide attention for beating the legendary Windward Passageacross the finish (by only 4m 31s) and setting a new course record. To prove this was no fluke she delivered the same first-to- finish performance in 1975 to win her second Barn Door Trophy. Perhaps more importantly, Ragtime’s long, narrow and light


were down and again Australia held the inside line to the first mark then extended. The spectator fleet could see Japan sailing fast and steady, closing the gap at times but Slingsby had found his mojo and was on fire, taking his third bullet of the day, winning the first SailGP event in his home town and giving everyone a lot of homework before San Francisco in early May. All the players in all the teams will improve fast, and with two


weeks’ training available before the San Francisco event the racing will get tighter. This was a great start to a brilliant concept, which will see young sailors training in their national squads, all pushing to fill positions onboard as the series moves forwards. Later in the event larger and smaller wings will be available,


allowing the teams to race in a broader wind range, plus another boat is currently under construction. For, well, no announcement has been made, but wouldn’t it be great to see a young team from the land of the long white cloud in the mix… Blue Robinson


USA Welcome back, old friend It’s fitting that the 100th entry to the 50th edition of the Los Angeles to Honolulu Transpac this summer is, at 55 years old, one of the oldest boats in the race yet also one of the most innovative in the past half-century of yacht design. Chris Welsh’s Spencer 65 Ragtime will be making her 17th trip


to Hawaii in July, more than any other yacht in the history of the race. Welsh has been an owner of Ragtime since 2004, and since then has raced three Transpacs, one race to Tahiti in 2008 and the Sydney-Hobart race also in 2008. ‘It’s been 10 years since we last sailed to Hawaii,’ said Welsh, ‘so we’re just looking forward to having some fun again.’ From its beginning this long, narrow, low-freeboard and lightweight


black beauty with the reverse shearline and hard chines has been a recognisable Pacific racing classic. Kiwi industrialist Sir Tom Clark is said to have admired Spencer’s previous 38ft design, but after a crash in his open-wheeled racecar he reckoned that he wanted something larger and faster to race on the water… He commissioned John Spencer to design and build Infidel,


whose overall length at 63ft was determined by the size of Spencer’s shed. Using two layers of 10mm plywood for the hull and deck, Spencer created a long, narrow and light (at 26 tons) rocket for racing around Auckland and beyond. This boat was highly unusual for the pre-IOR, CCA and RORC ratings of the day, which produced boats typically at least twice the displacement for a similar length. ‘Clark’s crew were not yacht racing specialists but composed mostly of his racecar pit crew,’ said Welsh, who got to know the


design had caught the attention of US west coast builders/designers like Bill Lee, helping spark the surge of interest in Ultra Light Displacement Boats (ULDBs) – inspired purely for speed rather than IOR rating. Lee’s 67ft Merlin did in 1977 what Ragtime did in 1973, with a course record that this time stood for 20 years… Since then there have been other owners of Ragtime, each


making tweaks to enhance performance: the addition of a stern scoop to make her now 65ft long, as well as other upgrades including new rigs, keels, rudders, bulbs, deck hardware and so on. And with the new innovations there needed to come new structures to accom- modate the higher and higher loads that came with pushing her faster and faster. Welsh (reasonably) doubts if there are any other monohulls in the world that have been so successfully upgraded to be performing at speeds some 25 per cent higher than when they were first built. Right now Ragtime is getting a new engine that will be more


reliable but primarily several hundred pounds lighter, and more modern winches that mean a reduction in the total number onboard – but critically should improve crew work in this 65-footer’s miniscule cockpit. Welsh plans to race not only offshore but occasionally around the cans too, and after Transpac has his sights set on an east coast tour in 2020. For this programme there will also be another upgrade: a new


carbon mast higher and lighter than the current one. Sadly there is not enough time before the Transpac to complete the additional structural work needed to secure this rig properly so until after the big race it remains safely on dry land. ‘Over the years the mainsail luff measurement on this boat has


gone from just 13.7m to 19.2m (sic) and soon with the new rig up to 20.6m,’ said Welsh. ‘The newest keel is a T-bulb which has the minimum chord length


on the fin reduced by half but increases in weight from 8 to 10.5 tons – however, we’ll be about a ton lighter overall. We have not yet had time to engineer a fixed bowsprit so we are still using a regular pole but with asymmetric spinnakers… But the sprit will be next.’ With these changes Welsh will be disappointed if his boat is not


significantly faster to Hawaii than ever before. Given the conditions there may even be a shot at the King Kalakaua Trophy for the race’s corrected-time winner, something that could be interesting given the huge fleet this 50th anniversary year featuring an amazing spectrum of boat types and ages… Ragtimebeing joined in July by many other of the Transpac greats, including Merlin herself and at least one of the Kialoa family. So Transpac 50 is shaping up to be quite the epic… on the ocean


and for lovers of sailing porn along the dock as well. Dobbs Davis


q SEAHORSE 25


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