We’re Back: Ragtime Returns to 2025 Transpac

When you point Ragtime west, she’s ready to go. Doesn’t matter how long she’s been on the hard—this boat was built to race, and she’s done waiting around.

In July, Ragtime will line up for her 16th Transpac. That makes her second only to Grand Illusion in total appearances, but she still holds the longest active racing tenure in the event’s 119-year history. Sixty-two years since she was first built in Auckland, and she’s not done yet.

She’s also not showing up quietly.

When I lost Chris in 2021, I wasn’t sure if I could do this without him. But I knew I couldn’t let Ragtime fade into a memory.

She was built to move. To challenge. To take risks.

So I decided to finish what we started—to get her back on the line, fully restored, fully respected, and ready to race.

We pulled Ragtime out of storage, rebuilt her from keel to rig, and kept every ounce of her DNA intact. Plywood. Hard chines. Fast lines. All still there. Just reinforced with carbon, electronics that actually talk to each other, and a sail plan that doesn’t mess around. She’s lighter and stronger than she’s been in decades, but she’s still ALL heart.

This Transpac, the crew is stacked.

Keith Kilpatrick is back as boat captain. Ernie Richau’s navigating. Will Suto, Katie Pettibone, Bill Menninger, Dustin Durant, and Sophie Ciscek round it out. Between them, they’ve logged hundreds of thousands of ocean miles, and they’ve got the grit and teamwork it takes to sail a boat like this across 2,200 miles of open water.

Ragtime’s always been a rulebreaker. John Spencer designed her in 1963, and people didn’t know what to make of her. Too light. Too flat. Too different. Australia banned her from Hobart. She went on to win the Barn Door at Transpac in ’73 by just 4 minutes over Windward Passage. Then again in ’75. Two Barn Doors. With a whole new generation of West Coast sleds born from that wake.

Now she’s squaring up against Merlin again—the boat Bill Lee built in the ’70s specifically to beat her. Both boats are back in for 2025. Full circle.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Ragtime, it’s this: you don’t bet against a boat with something to prove. And you don’t count out a crew willing to take the inside line when it matters.

We’re ready.

—Tina