Ragtime’s Classic Series Finale

The Classic Series has been great already with two days down and one to go. Running Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the fleet is good sized (50 +/-) with five in the “Ranger” Division.

The Classic courses have been what I call “geography” courses – across the bay and down a channel to one buoy, around a headlands to a second, back another direction over the top of an island, etc. The courses are a welcome change from windward-leeward around buoys until you die. Great scenery, shoals to avoid, in and out of 1.5 knot tides, and a premium on local knowledge, starting with being able to pronounce the Maori names each mark seems to have and knowing what the look like and where they are.

For a bit of history, Ranger is a family built sloop that was unbeaten for 30+ years in Auckland. Along the way, a fleet of boats was built to take on Ranger; Fidelis, Ta-Aroa, Northerner, and enough others that a book was dedicated to “The Ranger Beaters”.  Nothing changed until Infidel (Ragtime) came along. Even then, Infidel and Tom Clark’s crew took two seasons to learn the boat well enough to beat Ranger consistently on handicap to take the Season Championship in 1967. According to locals, the actual speed gap between the two boats was narrow.

Four decades have changed things. Infidel has speed and pointing ability to spare amongst her old rivals. It’s akin to the Cavalry getting the machine gun while the Indians still have rifles. Our handicap rates us 9%-15% faster than the others; we appear to perform better than that. On the reaches, we likely are closest in speed – waterline is the dominate factor to a point.

As soon as we turn upwind, the “tightness” of our sails, rig, and forestay loads leave us pointing higher and faster than the hanked on jibs and stretchier sheets. To be fair to us, we aren’t the only carbon rig, and Fidelis has laminate sails, but it seems like the whole package is needed to translate a puff into motion, rather than stretch and strain. I’m sure we are tighter wound throughout than the others, as was evidenced by tearing one of the runner winches out of its base yesterday going upwind. The crew was quite impressed that I did it one-handed while driving; weakening from internal corrosion made me look like the Hulk.

Downwind the size of our rig and chutes give us surging speed in comparison. And within the Ranger boats, we have the only Asymmetrics. Many of the Modern Classics have ASO’s as well, but the Ranger boats are looking the classic part. Some of the older classics are out as well, dating to 1897 and all in great shape.

Conditions have been good, with breeze from 14 to 35 knots, the latter with squally rain. To add to the drama, the finals for the Louis Vuitton are going on within sight around the corner; while trying to keep focused on our race we are all looking west to see if we can tell if Alinghi or Team NZ is ahead.

In the starting order, the “Modern Classics” leave 10 minutes ahead of the Ranger Class. This has made good fun for us knifing through the boats ahead. By mid-race or sooner, we have erased the head start on their entire fleet which includes some fairly modern designs up to fifty feet long or so. Their are smiles everywhere as we go through; it can’t be described how much people have reacted to Infidel coming home. Even the course marshall boats from the LV Series are running over to parallel us, grab some photos, and then squirt back.

Our record so far is 1, 1, 1 for line honors, and 2, 1, 1 for corrected. In the first race, the #4 jib blew out of the luff groove, and we spent 4-5 minutes in irons, drifting backwards with the foils stalled and ended up second with a one minute deficit. The second race we rounded the weather mark the wrong way (the RC set it wrong, but we wanted to comply), set the chute, saw our error a boat length later and swung back, unwound the error, and went the right way, setting a second chute after the first was doused. On raw finish times, we are 15 minutes ahead after a 75 minute race, and we usually finish a leg ahead or so.

Each day ends with a BBQ and cocktails for the Classics in a side building within the Vuitton Village, about a hundred yards from our berth. Great camraderie, and a open mike for gentle ribbing and heckling the mistakes of the competition or even one’s own crew. The Kiwis are great story tellers, plus their colorful local terminology makes it all better. Fortunately, we are far ahead and they seem to think our mistakes were actually part of our plan.

Hubie is onboard, and the rest of the crew are a collection of Kiwis, still including wee Edwin, our 12 year old Kiwi mascot. Everyone has been working their hearts out, can’t thank them enough. It’s hard to have somewhat of a rotating crew and everyone does their best to remember which lines are where as we maneuver. I was proud to hear second hand that one of the crew was surprised by how calm I remained during it all; I guess I should take up poker if I am keeping that straight a face. They also think I am hooked on the internet… I got a few shocked looks when I told them it really is about work and having 100+ emails come in each day.

Last night included the LV Series trophy presentation; Team NZ came back from a one race deficit to win three straight and take the finals. Alinghi is not liked by just about anyone down here, and with the local boys winning, the celebration was on all evening.

Today is the last day of the down under racing that began last June 22nd with the start of the Tahiti Race. On Monday, I’m having lunch with the eight surviving members of the original 1964 crew. They are all bringing their pictures and scrapbooks; I’m touched that they have volunteered I can take what I want home. Age brings grace. After lunch we’re going out for a harbor sail forty-four years after their first outing on the boat. It will be one of the best parts of a memorable trip, and I’m very lucky to have the experience.

Innumerable people have helped make this all go, and I am grateful to all. At home, Mom, Dad, & Doug, in Auckland Simon Willis, James Wallace, Piers Tyler, Ross Masters, Guy Cunningham, John Jourdane and the rest of the Sydney-Hobart crew, Mark Frankham, Latimer Clark, North Sails Auckland, Willis Sails, Fred Henderson, the Tahiti crew of Devin Vaughn, Matt Paskerian, Genny Tullock, Mark Ivey, Erik Berzins, Hubie Laugharn, Daniel Caponetto, US support from Mark Olson, Alan Andrews, Harry Pattison, EP Sails, Robert Kinney/Alcom, Lori Gaylord/Gaylord Sportswear, Dan Nowlan/US Sailing, and Dennis Choate/Dwayne/Charlie of Dencho Boats. This list only scratches the surface of everyone who did things graciously and on short notice so that the whole effort would work out. Simon and Devin deserve special recognition for their tireless devotion to the project.

We’ve been doing this so long I don’t know what a return to normal life is going to be like. It sort of feels like graduation from college looming ahead; I think I might like the way things are better, but there is always another adventure to come. I have to admit, I already am thinking a little about what that might be, plus the Transpac departs in July but somehow that seems routine now.

Late Sunday update. We won the Classic Series, both Line and Corrected in the Ranger Division. Sunday’s race was tough, with strong breeze (12-20 knots) and lake like ninety degree wind shifts. The course ran into several coves and around one island. At times we were well ahead, then we suffered, then opened up our lead again. In the end, it all worked out in our favor.

The final tally:

• 1st Overall, LA-Tahiti, 3600 miles
• 1st Overall, Coastal Classic/Bay of Islands Race, 130 miles
• 2nd Overall, White Island Race, 350 miles
• 1st, Div 2, Sydney-Hobart, 630 miles
• 1st, Anniversary Day Race
• 1st, Millenium Cup Pacific Division
• 1st, Classic Series

Plus sailing around Tahiti, Tahiti-Tonga-New Zealand, Auckland-Sydney, Hobart-Auckland, and starting Thursday, Auckland-Hawaii-LA (without me). Somewhere around 16,000 miles in total, on top of the 140,000 miles the boat has already covered.

The boat abides.