LONG BEACH, Calif.---Two boats that reveled in the evolution of the Transpacific Yacht Race into the downwind sleigh ride that became its trademark will be spotlighted at the Transpacific Yacht Club's biennial dinner meeting Friday, Jan. 27, at Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

The refurbished Merlin...

Ragtime and Merlin, between them winners of five Barn Doors for fastest elapsed time, will be on display at the dock in front of the club in their restored beauty. They are past their glory days as racers and a long way from their respective beginnings in a New Zealand boat yard and designer-builder Bill Lee's chicken coop in Santa Cruz, Calif., but they have remained serious participants through the 2005 race.

Also docked with Ragtime and Merlin: Westward, the 50-foot sloop that started the 1981 race with seven members of skipper Willard Bell's family and finished it with the addition of six survivors of a catamaran that capsized the first night out.

...and Ragtime, both still going strong

Social hour starts at 6, dinner at 7. The affair is open to Transpacific Yacht Club members and their guests, plus non-members as tickets may be available. Tickets are $45 and may be reserved by contacting Transpac administrator Cathie Nash at (949) 646-5129 or by e-mail at transpacificyc@sbcglobal.net. Reservations are advised because of limited seating. The event sold out in 2004.

Non-members who have participated in Transpac as skipper or crew may join by mailing $35 with an application available on the race Web site www.transpacificyc.org (click "TPYC Info").

The dinner will feature a video of the 2005 Transpac and celebrate the 1981 race, the first in several years without a single IOR maxi boat among the 74 entries---or, as Transpac history recorded it, "less than half a dozen clunkers in the whole lot."

Ragtime and Merlin, at first widely considered as too flimsy for Transpac, by 1981 had dismissed doubters and established their credentials for ocean racing as new lightweight boats called "sleds" took over dominance of the race.

Lee said he didn't coin the term "sleds," relevant to the downwind nature of Transpac, but noted, "I first heard it from [race veteran] Dennis Durgan when they were doing Pandemonium [in the 1989 Transpac]."

Ragtime, a 62-foot wooden sloop, first showed up in 1973 when it beat Mark Johnson's legendary record holder, the 73-foot Windward Passage, by 4 minutes 31 seconds, still the closest Barn Door finish in race history. Merlin came along in '77 when it won the first of its three Barn Doors and set a race record of 8 days 11 hours 1 minute 45 seconds that stood for 20 years---although when under charter to Nick Frazee in 1981 it missed its own record by only 46 seconds.

In that same race Ragtime, chartered by Dick Daniels, Ed Hickman and Bud Tretter, had already won two Barn Doors but made another kind of history as the first boat to finish Transpac without a rudder, breezing last Diamond Head with only a pair of head sails set to opposite sides, "wing and wing"---no main, no spinnaker.

Who would have imagined that a quarter-century later Ragtime and Merlin would still be part of the big show last summer when they sailed in their 13th Transpacs, continuing to share the record for participation? They sailed last year's race under their current owners, Trish Steele of Maui and the Chris Welsh/Alan Peterson/Jon Richards team of Orange County, respectively.

Also attending will be members of the Bell family, including some who were aboard when they rescued the crew of the catamaran that was lost off San Nicolas Island only 100 miles into the race.

In later years Rosey Bell recalled her father Willard telling the multihullers, "I hate catamarans. You can find a way off my boat, or you can sail with us to Hawaii and become part of the crew."

Mike Leneman, L'Chat D'Eau's skipper, replied, "Well, Mr. Bell, I believe we'll join your crew."

The dinner is an off-year tradition featuring men, women and boats prominent in the race's 100-year history. It
also marks the transfer of leadership for the next biennium, this time from outgoing Commodore Jerry Montgomery to Al Garnier. There will be an election and a brief installation of new officers.

01/17/06