When Genny was preparing to head off for a summer of racing in Europe, but not sure what lay the following fall, a press release went out that informed her and other young sailors in the country about Morning Light—Roy Disney’s plan for a new young offshore racing team who would train for and compete in the Transpac Race, and would be filmed for a documentary feature film about the project. Along with 540 other American sailors Genny applied for the team, and while over in France competing in a World Championships she got a phone call and e-mail inviting her to the Trials, in less than a month’s time. Genny made it home for a one-day turnaround, and flew down to the trials in Long Beach, where 30 young sailors would be groomed through practice on Catalina 37s, team building exercises, and personality tests to gather the final team of 15 people who would get to go to Hawaii and learn to sail their TP 52 Morning Light. Six months of excellent and high-level training occurred before the intense, and very trying weather-wise, Transpacific Yacht race in the summer of ’07. There were cameramen and a film crew following the team’s every move, and the movie Morning Light was released into theaters in October of 2008. The DVD came out this summer (check out the Disney site for more information).

RAGTIME

As watch captain and helmsman, Genny led Ragtime to a win in its division in the Sydney-Hobart race after being involved in a rescue of a sinking boat, and to an overall win in the Tahiti Race last summer after a very quick and exciting trip across the ocean!  She sailed the Transpac aboard Ragtime this year but a Frankensteined mainsail led them to less significant results than they had hoped.

The 44 Yr old wooden beauty is a classic boat, well-recognized in Southern California, but of almost celebrity status down under. Designed and built by John Spencer in New Zealand in 1964, Ragtime was originally known as Infidel, and was part of a line of boats built to beat the best Kiwi boat of the time, Ranger. Ragtime was the first boat to do so consistently, and became the boat to beat, and therefore was essentially outlawed from the 1967 Sydney to Hobart race just two days before the race began for being ‘too light’. The owner was understandably upset, returned the following year with a different boat to win line honors, and in the interim Ragtime was sold to new owners in America.

Arriving in the USA, Ragtime gained instant notoriety for beating Windward Passage for the ‘73 Transpac “Barn Door” by 4 minutes, the closest Transpac Race finish ever. A 24,000 pound bantam weight had displaced the powerful 70,000 pound bruiser that is Passage; the category of Ultra Light Displacement Boats or “ULDB’s” was born. Ragtime repeated with a victory in the next Transpac Race, and her legend status was established. Bill Lee’s Merlin was closely scaled off Ragtime, and arguably, Ragtime was the turning point for boats to be built lighter, faster, and then ever lighter and faster again.

After 12 more Transpacs, more than any other boat, Ragtime set out to do the rarely run Transpac LA-Tahiti Race in June, 2008. Genny was recruited from her Morning Light experience to be a Watch Captain and Helmsman. Two weeks before the race she agreed to help co-navigate when the navigator had to drop out for health reasons.
The race turned out to be a great thrill ride, with a week of squall dominated racing with full cloud cover and no moon, many breakdowns including sail failures, instrument failures and loss of the engine itself. Despite this, Ragtime managed to sail the shortest and fastest route to Tahiti (with only a ten-minute lull in the doldrums) and finished 1st Overall and 1st in Class. Only after getting to the dock did they realize that those pressure systems that had carried them so well through the Pacific had actually been named tropical storms the other boats had avoided!

Ragtime’s owner, Chris Welsh, then continued on with the boat to its birthplace of New Zealand, and after a few successful coastal races there decided it was time to send Ragtime down to Sydney and reclaim her outlawed spot in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart race. Genny flew down to Sydney just before Christmas and rejoined Ragtime, again as Watch Captain/Helmsman (though thankfully not navigator-as esteemed navigator John Jourdane was on board for the race). The race conditions were optimal - a building beam reach to broad reach and running in 20-35 knots of wind. Although a relatively easy ‘Hobart’ year, the race proved very eventful for Ragtime as they were involved in a successful rescue of the crew of the sinking Farr 53 Georgia the first night. They went on to experience fast downwind sailing and some trying 40 knot upwind work in Storm Bay to take 1st in IRC Division II.

Next up was the ‘09 Transpac, and Genny was once again a leading part of the crew for Ragtime’s 15th Transpac Race. With an eye on achieving a victory in Transpac, the trip was plagued my mainsail repairs that led them to ultimately put up a jib in the main’s place for the last four days.  It was a great time and Genny learned a lot about sail repair from sailmaker Harry Pattison, but unfortunately the ultimate win was out of their grasp.