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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
101 up buying their very own Stewart 34’s. Caution, yacht racing can be addictive! A few Auckland charter boat companies offer similar racing experiences at a minimum cost of $140 per person. Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch! Numerous Stewarts also participate in other weekly rum races held on Wednesday and Friday evenings. 8 - Offshore Racing and Cruising Bob Stewart designed Patiki for racing and cruising on the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf with and perhaps a bit of coastal sailing on the North Island along the east coast from Tauranga to North Cape. It soon became apparent that Stewart 34’s were extremely strong and could sail virtually anywhere. Milton Miller who owned Poseidon in the mid sixties decided to take the plunge and entered Poseidon in the 1966 Sydney to Hobart race.To get a better rating for the race he moved the mast back a distance of approximately 18 inches. In those days, the larger the mainsail, the higher the rating. So by moving the mast aft, he made the main smaller and achieved a more favourable rating. John Lidgard was in Sydney when Poseidon arrived and he said“the Sydney yachties were amazed to see that a yacht that had already sailed there from Auckland and was getting ready to sail to Hobart had virtually no bilges!” Poseidon sailed brilliantly in the 1966 Sydney to Hobart finishing ninth over the line in the large fleet of more than 70 yachts. She was one of the smallest boats in the fleet. Amongst the crew was a teenager named Ron Holland, who eventually ended up in Ireland as one of the world’s top big boat yacht designers. Rumour had it that Milton had a few Aussie dollars left in his wallet before sailing back to Auckland and someone suggested that he use them to buy some shares in a new mining company bearing the same name as his boat. This he apparently did and in no time the shares had skyrocketed to at least a thousand times their initial offering price. Nobody knows for sure of how well Milton made out financially on the deal or whether he sold the shares before they subsequently crashed to below their starting price, but it’s still it’s a good story. As a result of the modification Miller made to compete in the Hobart, the Stewart Association would not let him race for the championship upon his return from Australia until he had moved the mast back to its original position. When racing locally, with the mast aft, it didn’t seem to make any real difference to the boat’s speed. Poseidon’s excellent Sydney to Hobart result was not just a flash in the pan. In 1969 she sailed the 1150-mile Auckland to Suva (Fiji) race, Milton was first on handicap in the large A division fleet. Pavo, which was built and sailed by David“Shorty”Mills of Tauranga, was the next to go off shore. Pavo raced creditably in the 1000 mile Auckland to Noumea (New Caledonia) race in 1969. Upon his return, David sold Pavo to Bill Miller. Pavo is still actively raced by her most recent owner,Sean Ellis,who until relocating to Auckland would commute from Hamilton about 40 times a year to race her. Cedric Gow owned the Stewart Phoenecian when long offshore races to the Poor Knights off Tutukaka and down to White Island off the Bay of Plenty were quite popular. In 1971 he sailed her very well in the Auckland to Noumea Race. For many years after Cedric sold her, she was cruised extensively around Northland but is now back in Auckland, thoroughly enjoying being raced by her new owners in the Monday night Hyundai Series windward/leeward races. In the early 1960, Princess with Jim Davern and Ron Neil also participated successfully in many of the local off shore races. In 1976 Bill Miller sold Pimpernel to Messrs...Bean and Austin of Nelson.On the delivery trip which took them over the top of the North Island,hurricane force winds of more than 75 knots were encountered on the west coast near Raglan. A 38 foot yacht caught out in the same storm was lost somewhere off the Rimutakas. Apart from the electronics giving up the ghost, Pimpernel survived relatively unscathed, but all on board were scared stiff! In the late eighties John Cooper purchased Premier and proceeded to restore her in remarkable fashion. In 1989 he and his wife Mary sailed her to Fiji, where they spent three months cruising the islands. They picked up a couple of prizes in the annual Musket Cove Regatta before sailing in a rally to Port Vila in Vanuatu. They finished the cruising season in New Caledonia and