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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
100 7 - All for Rum, and Rum for All In addition to the annual Stewart 34 Championship Series, the Stewart 34’s actively participate in the Ponsonby Cruising Club Thursday afternoon Rum Racing series, which is generally about 49 days each year of mixed handicap racing, with bottles of rum given as prizes to the first three on handicap. Six to nine Stewart’s participate every week. Those boats that don’t have regular crew are allocated crew from the average 30 or so willing and eager participants who show up each week on F1 dock at Westhaven Marina. Some are overseas visitors who have learned about the Rum Race in the New Zealand Lonely Planet travel guide or by word of mouth. Others are regulars who have fronted up for the racing each week,some of them for more than 15 years. Regular participants are rotated around the different boats each week and nobody is ever turned away. Since the owner doesn’t pick his crew, it is his challenge to get the best result from the crew he is allocated. The racing is not only fun and highly competitive, the visitors get a chance to see the beautiful sights of Auckland from the water on the Waitemata Harbour. While there are usually an equal number of other boats of mixed designs participating in the rum race, quite often when the wind gets up above the mid-to-high twenty knot range,only the diehard Stewarts are starters. After the race,participants gather on one of the boats to socialize and recap the race,over a tot of rum,for an hour or so before the prize giving ceremony. Everyone is offered a free drink or two, courtesy of last week’s race winners and the generosity of regular participants who contribute a bottle of rum every now and then. More than a few who have showed up as sailing novices, just out for a day’s fun, have become hooked on racing on the Stewarts and become regular rum racing crew. Some also get invited to crew in the Championship Series. A handful have even ended Thursday Rum Race participants gather on one of the Stewarts for a post-race tot of rum Stewart Association Collection Stewarts are regular starters in the Ponsonby Cruising Club Thursday Rum Races Stewart Association Collection