‘Ragtime’ — Looking Back to the Future
One of sailing’s most iconic yachts, Ragtime, the 1965 Spencer-designed 62-ft sloop first made famous for winning her first two Transpacs in 1973 and 1975, has a storied history like few others. It began in New Zealand and continues remarkably to this day in Southern California despite significant highs and lows. The passion infused among many owners and crew alike has kept Ragtime alive as she prepares for a new chapter, painstakingly restored under current ownership, smartly updated, and ready to take on the Pacific Ocean once again.
Ragtime‘s DNA was forged before she was even christened Infidel in1965. Sir Tom Clark, a prominent New Zealand industrialist, commissioned yacht designer John Spencer to construct Infidel after having raced the Spencer-designed Saracen, a 36-ft C-Class yacht that became a test bed for the larger and faster Infidel. Although she was initially intended for comfortable inshore and coastal racing, Clark’s perspective shifted after witnessing her remarkable speed — she was considered a scratch boat in the local A-Class Series the day she was launched and went on to beat the iconic Ranger. Spencer’s revolutionary lightweight design — she weighed only 26,000 pounds, half that of typical 60-footers — stunned the racing community.
Built unconventionally, Spencer’s design specified that two layers of 3/8-inch plywood be glued together and fitted to her wood frames; she was nicknamed “Fletcher’s Tram” after New Zealand’s leading plywood manufacturer.
Clark contemplated sailing in the 1967 Sydney Hobart Race. However, as Tom’s son Geoffrey relates, “While the idea of entering Infidel into the Sydney Hobart Race was discussed, it was never seriously considered, never entered, and (she was) never banned. However, there was a lot of comment at the time that she would be banned — active threats to keep her in Auckland.” Clark sold Infidel in 1970 to the Long Beach Consortium, who shipped her far north to California and renamed her Ragtime.
During Ragtime‘s inaugural 1973 Transpac, she faced off against Ken DeMeuse’s 75-ft Blackfin (1969 Transpac winner) and Robert Johnson’s 73-ft Windward Passage (which set a Transpac record in 1971). She trailed Windward Passage for almost the entire race, but only days away from Diamond Head, Ragtime managed to overtake her competition and win the Barn Door Trophy. Her lightweight, long, narrow, hard-chined hull was precedent-setting and ideal for extended downwind surfing opportunities — a precursor to the ULDB designs that followed.
By 2003, after a handful of different owners, Ragtime floated listlessly, languishing unmaintained in Long Beach Harbor with a lien on her title and an auctioneer’s gavel waiting to determine her fate. Fortunately, Chris Welsh and a group of friends raised their paddle and put down $135,000, purchasing the boat in time to campaign her in her 13th Transpac in 2005. This would mark the beginning of an 18-year love affair between Welsh and Ragtime.