EXTRAORDINARY BOATS

SEAN MCNEILL ON ICONIC 'ULDB' RAGTIME

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The restoration of an iconic racer, one that was so ground-breaking it helped create a whole genre of yachts, is no small undertaking. But that’s exactly what inadvertent owner Tina Roberts ploughed into headfirst with the two-year refit of Ragtime, the original ultra-light displacement boat from the land of the long white cloud.

Designed and built single-handedly by New Zealander John Spencer for industrialist and racing driver Sir Tom Clark in 1963/64, Ragtime was launched as Infidel and was reputedly the largest hard chine plywood keelboat in the world.

Infidel immediately upset the racing establishment, beating the Tercel brothers' 60-footer Ranger, which had won nearly every race it sailed over three decades. So comprehensive were Infidel's victories that it was reportedly banned from competing in regattas in New Zealand. It was also barred from entering the 1967 Sydney-Hobart Race because it was deemed too light and not seaworthy enough for the notoriously treacherous 630-mile race.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

With nowhere to turn Infidel wound up where many wayward souls are welcomed: California. A pair of businessmen in Newport Beach purchased the yacht for $25,000 in 1969 and renamed it Ragtime.

The yacht changed owners again in 1971 and, 10 years after her launch, benchmarked the performance of the ultra-light displacement genre by defeating the 73-footer Windward Passage in the epic 1973 Transpac Race, winning the Barn Door Trophy for first-to-finish by a mere 4m 31s over the 2,225-mile course.