Infidel was launched in 1964. Yet before modern communications New Zealand had yet to become a force in international sailing so this light and narrow design did not make it beyond the local sailing news. The hard chine shape, designed for sheet plywood construction, is evident (above) while upwind (left) this narrow design enjoys conspicuously more stability than her sled cousins, which did not appear for another 10 years. By the time she returned to Auckland in 2008 Infidel/Ragtime had logged over 100,000 blue water miles, mocking the ban on her entry to the 1969 Hobart for being insufficiently seaworthy
mockery of that 1969 Sydney Hobart ban. During her modern New Zealand sojourn
Ragtime won the 120-mile Coastal Classic from Auckland to the Bay of Islands on IRC before continuing on to Australia. Forty-four years after her launching Spencer’s design was finally admitted to the Sydney Hobart and confirmed her pedigree by winning Division 2 IRC handicap honours – and the 18th yacht over the line. She is still going strong today. If Infidel is widely recognised as Spencer’s
crowning glory in the big boat arena he impacted many more lives with more modest, but no less impressive, offerings. His easy-to-build plywood dinghies are arguably his greater legacy. Plywood became his medium while study-
Breeze. ‘Both were completely obsessed with speed… And both were endowed with an impish sense of humour. ‘They delighted in the displeasure and
discomfort of a diehard establishment that recoiled in horror at their ideas – light- weight, hard-chine, super-fast yachts which they painted black and gave male rather than traditionally female names.’ Infidel was all of those things and was
clearly a match for the local big-boat divi- sion. Clark had wider horizons in mind than Auckland, however. He wanted to win the 1969 Sydney Hobart, but was thwarted when the Australian authorities, citing safety concerns, hastily issued a rule banning yachts with plywood topsides and setting scantling rules that Infidel could not possibly meet. Clark promptly sold Infidel into the USA,
where it was based in California and renamed Ragtime. But for Tom Clark the Sydney Hobart remained urgently unfinished business, as we shall see a little later on.
While Bill Lee is generally hailed as the
inventor of the long, narrow so-called Califor- nia ultra light-displacement sleds, by the time his 68ft Merlin famously won the 1977 Transpac Spencer’s Infidel/Ragtime, with very similar characteristics, had already won it twice in 1974 and 1975. After a succession of owners and refits Ragtime came under the ownership of Californian Chris Welsh, who made further modifications, while leaving the fundamental hull shape undisturbed. When the boat made its Auckland home-
coming in 2008 these included a new keel and carbon fibre rudder, plus a new carbon mast, new winch package and increased sail area. Some 1.5 tons of weight had been stripped out of an already light boat and sail area had been considerably increased. By then she had logged more than 110,000
offshore miles, setting records and winning multiple long-distance events, including those back-to-back Transpacs and the 2008 California-Tahiti race. All of which made a
ing architecture as a young man. It was put to practical use when he needed transport to get to and from his studies. Unable to afford a decent car, he bought a beat-up Austin 7, stripped the body off and built an open tourer complete with fold-down windscreen out of plywood. Do not imagine an unsightly beer crate on wheels. It was all voluptuous curves and finished in eye-catching yellow paint. ‘The shape was reminiscent of the first
Humber Ten,’ wrote Peter Tait, ‘radical in its day for being similar at both ends, the boot shape elegantly mirroring the bonnet.’ Spencer’s early forays into boats featured
sailing dinghies and multiple outboard run- abouts, all capable of being built in the garden shed, or the lounge for that matter. The big breakthrough into performance sailing came with the 12ft Cherub, followed by the 10ft Flying Ant, the 14ft Javelin and the Jollyboat. He also designed and built several 18ft skiffs. Spencer’s Cherub, in 5mm ply, embodied
all his hallmark characteristics: a hard chine running forward from the trans om but then merging forward into a fine, deep-V bow shape with the angle of entry at about 15°. With the maximum beam aft of the mid- point, the underside featured a flat run progressively curving into a sharp twist into
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