Ragtime Revisited

by Chris Welsh on 4 Nov 2006
Launched in 1965, the John Spencer designed and built, Infidel, quickly became one of the great sights of the Waitemata. She was sold to the US in 1969, renamed Ragtime, and enjoyed a new lease of life as an ocean racer, taking back to back wins in the Tranpac. Her current owner, Chris Welsh takes up the story:

Ragtime (ex Infidel) hovers somewhere between revered and notorious, and as such, there seem to be as many stories as truths out there about her. Even as the owner, the facts are hard to determine for sure, since so much has been changed over the years.

My interaction with Ragtime has two parts. Years ago, following the finish of the Transpac, she was berthed next to the boat I was involved with. She arrived just as our party was wrapping up, and I remember the bow cockpit filled with water as a impromptu public bath, and indecent welcome home activities in full motion in the companionway. I was 17 or so, so it made an impression...

Since then, the boat was bought by Pat Farrah in the late 80's and a seven figure overhaul and modernization completed. He made everything perfect and fast, no expense spared, with a goal of contesting for the Transpac first to finish Barn Door. Since the boat rated well under 70' IOR, anything that could be done for speed was - huge spinnakers with 50' girths, titanium used liberally for lightness, etc.

My ownership started with a note in Scuttlebutt that Ragtime was being auctioned. A series of off the water business events had led to the boat being shackled to a sheriff's dock in Los Angeles in late 2005. I drove up to inspect her at that time, and it was a mixed scene - the graceful boat was squeezed between rusty fishing boats and top heavy cabin cruisers waiting for auction. At the same time, she looked pretty good.

The auction itself was climactic. The price quickly got to $100,000, and then there was only our group and one other left. At about $117,000, our bidder held back; one of our girlfriends bid $118,000 as the auctioneer was saying going, going, and just about gone. We finally won at $120,500, and had to have $12,050 in cash. We had about $11,000 in hand (our agreed maximum was $100,000, don't you love an auction), so I distracted the marshall while someone tore away to a ATM with everyone's cards to get the necessary additional cash. The marshall than told us it would take 7-10 days to get the paperwork released.

We paid the balance the next day, and that clerk told us the boat needed to move by 5:00! Two of us got her going (a jump start) and left on a cold but decent day. Half way home, the motor quit as a squall hit us and visibility went to a half mile. We put up the #3 and continued south, anchor at the ready if we had any additional problems. Eventually, the squall passed and we got the main up too.

The first picture is from entering the harbor that day.

Since then, we have done the '05 Transpac, '06 Puerto Vallarta Race (did not finish, no wind), the '06 Cabo Race, and a host of local races. In June, we did the Coastal Cup from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. It was about a 24 hour race. Around twilight, with 25-30 knots true and steep waves, we were surfing at 14-17 knots. We heard a heavy thunk aft, and looked behind to see if we had hit driftwood.

Nothing appeared, and it was pretty dark. We sailed hard for another
8 hours, and then throttled back a little at 2 AM due to concerns about how far to push the hull in the increasing winds. We finished the next morning and put the boat away, second to finish to the monstrous Magnitude 80, and 4th overall corrected.

Those concerns turned out to be well founded. The bottom diver came later that week for a routine dive. He called immediately to say there was a huge piece of wood missing. I thought maybe the fiberglass layers Farrah had added had delaminated, but I could not imagine wood missing. I went down to see and found a 4' X 4' piece of ply had peeled away just ahead of the prop strut. Immediate arrangements were made to empty all gear and haul the boat.

On hauling, the situation looked grim - 7' long splinters remained where the outer layer of ply tore away. Amazingly, the loss exposed 3' of a butt joint between two layers of 3/8' ply, and although not even reinforced internally, the butt joint had remained water tight.

The cure was to cut away scallops of plywood until we found good wood. This ultimately removed an area 8' by 20', roughly from the aft end of the keel to the prop area. The problem was water from a bad through hull had broken down the glue between the two 3/8' layers of ply. Once we got to good bonded areas, the ply could not be easily removed - the wood tore apart, and the glue between the plies and between the layers was good. New ply was scarfed in with a 12:1 ratio, and the hull built up again with vacuum bagged glass as the outer layer.

We took the opportunity to strip the topsides to the primer layer and repaint, take the cabin hatch dog house off for repairs to water intruded areas, have a new open pulpit fabricated, and send the mast out for full strip and overhaul. A new rudder which had been ordered was hurried up and installed, along with massive self aligning bearings. Finally last week all the pieces came back together and we are in the water again.

Ragtime poses many challenges as so many construction techniques were used along the way. The current keel is steel plate in the upper half and lead below. Floor beams were hugely upsized by Farrah to take the loads from the new deeper keel and 11' taller rig. Spencer originally had minimal binding (1/2' overlap) between the hull underside and the chine log; the shroud loads were tearing this apart, and early on we did both internal and external reinforcing of the chines to beef this up. We also added turnbuckles to take the shroud loads from the attach plates to the floor beams.

Ragtime has taken well to asymmetrical chutes, and we now have exclusively ASO's on board. The new pulpit makes managing the ASO's and the pole easier (at 26', the poles are 4' longer than our J). We are looking forward to Cabo '07 and another run at Transpac in '07, and the obvious lightness of the boat since removing all of the gear for repairs has brought us back to the Spencer pursuit of lightness for future racing.

I would be happy to hear from anyone with information about the boat, stories, or photos. Ragtime@chriswelsh.com