Tina Roberts and ‘Ragtime’ Crew Ready for Pacific Cup
With the 2026 Pacific Cup just around the corner, we’re continuing our Pac Cup profile series highlighting some of the sailors and teams racing to Hawaii in this year’s event. Today we’re featuring Tina Roberts and her 1963 Spencer 65 Ragtime.
This will be Tina Roberts’ first Pacific Cup race, and her first passage across the Pacific Ocean. “[W]e didn’t make Transpac 2025 for unfortunate circumstances,” Tina tells us. “Ragtime, hailing from Honolulu, HI, knows her way home — we just point her west. She’s a hard horse to keep in the barn!”
Ragtime will race under the banners of St. Francis Yacht Club and Long Beach Yacht Club, with Tina and crew Keith Kilpatrick, Ernie Richau, Eric Heim, Dustin Durant, Will Suto, James “Hippie” Clappier and Austin Book. “Together this team has 50+ Pacific Ocean crossings and 80,000+ miles of ocean racing. I am blessed and lucky to have such an amazing crew,” Tina says. “Sailing Ragtime is hard compared to newer boats. On a downwind leg she might have three poles hanging from the mast — spinnaker pole, reaching strut and whisker pole. A lot of hardware to get right — and wrong. At only 11-ft 5-in wide, she’s a skinny boat to move around, and keeping her light is a challenge. The crew are experts at handling all of her characteristics — and still love racing her! They are part of history.”
Tina says Ragtime is best known for sailing the Transpacific Race dating back to 1973, and is proud to have some “fun” in the sun with the Pacific Cup 2026. “The beautiful course from San Francisco to Hawaii, the many delicious stories, and the motivational history of the Pacific Cup are just a few of the inspirations that make us want to participate. We can’t wait to sail with Merlin, [whom] we consider our kindred sister of the ULDB sleds. Special mention and shout-out to Pyewacket and Roy, who stoically are always an inspiration.”
The Ragtime skipper is a pilot, and says the segue into sailing is very natural — “wings, wind and weather.” However, despite having sailed casually since college, Tina has not sailed competitively. “Ragtime was Chris Welsh’s number-one girl,” she adds. “When he passed away unexpectedly in 2021 I couldn’t part with her and have chosen to keep her legacy alive for the next generation by presenting her in action to the world as often as possible.”
Tina is most looking forward to the camaraderie among the crew. “We have lots of serious sailing discussions followed by cracking jokes, all in 10 minutes. I work the runners on the boat and do all the cooking. Food can be a huge motivator on day six or seven.”
And while she’s rarely nervous on the water or afraid of anything, Tina recognizes that catastrophic failure of any kind can change lives. “Redundancy and safety is our motto — from entering the race to bringing the boat safely back to her slip in SoCal.”
We wish Ragtime fair winds and a safe race. Stay tuned for more Pac Cup profiles as we sail toward next week’s start. And if you’d like to try predicting the race winners, take a look at Andy Schwenk’s predictions in this month’s issue of Latitude 38, out now.