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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
102 after returning to New Zealand John reported;“I sailed Premier home single-handed and again was blessed with a good trip, fairly hard on the wind for the first three days, winds 20-30 knots SE with one slab in main and No. 3 jib. At night the wind would increase and before dark I would put No. 2 slab in main which made sleeping more comfortable. The wind lightened after the halfway point and then veered into E then NE. Motored from Cavallies to Black Rocks in the Bay of Islands. Got breeze back again and sailed across finishing line off Russell Wharf then up to Opua to clear Customs, six day passage. Wehavedonefivetripstotheislandsandthisoneisthebestsofar. MywifeandIboughtPremierandalteredheraccommodation to give us comfortable living over long periods, she has proved a good passage maker, dry, easy to handle in any conditions and we hope to do another trip in the not too distant future.” A few of the Stewart 34’s have ended up inAustralia.Owing to the new owners sometimes changing the names of the boats,the Stewart records are a bit vague but here is a list that is relatively accurate: In early 2006 Panchax was purchased by Bill Hall for NZ$65,000 and sailed across the Tasman Sea to Australia. In March of 2007 she was seen advertised for AUD $95,000 and has since sold near that price. Rod Holt first built a wooden Stewart called Palmyra in Auckland. After he sold her he built another one in fibreglass called Palmarie, which he sailed to Queensland,Australia. She has apparently been renamed Ratu VI and is owned by a Ken Peterson of New South Wales. Australian Peter Zehnder raced Ratu VI in the shorthanded Sydney to New Plymouth race in April of 1994. The controversial Pendragon is owned by Ken Allen of Sydney. Since taking the boat to Australia in 1985 he has sailed her brilliantly and she is probably still the fastest Stewart 34 ever built. But never has a Stewart 34, let alone any New Zealand keel boat ever matched the exploits of Logan Patullo and Puarangi. Logan Patullo was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 27 February, 1913. From an early age he displayed a love for sailing which continued throughout his entire life. After he finished his studies at Edinburgh and Oxford Universities, he went to Nigeria where he spent ten years there working in forestry management. After this he returned to Scotland where he spent a number of years managing the family farm in Fyfe. In 1963 he moved with his family to New Zealand and purchased a block of land just outside of Tauranga. It was here that he met David“Shorty” Mills and crewed on his yacht Pavo. Logan was so impressed with the sailing performance of the Stewart 34’s that he decided to build one for himself. Construction began in the summer of 1965-66 when the stern and some laminated bends were fabricated, and knocked down frames previously used for the construction of Pahi and Pavo were acquired from David Mills. Building stopped as Logan had to return to Scotland to oversee the running of his family’s farm. He was reluctant to abandon his first attempt at building a keel boat. He managed to arrange a passage to the U.K.from Napier and took the bits of the boat that he’d already built as passenger’s baggage. Construction resumed in Scotland in 1967 and Puarangi was finally completed and launched in 1969. Puarangi is a Maori word meaning flower of heaven or celestial blossom, and was inspired by the 3-cent stamp in the NZ Floral Series, which depicted a Puarangi flower. Her construction was of three diagonal ¼” (5mm) skins of cold moulded red meranti planking. The stem was laminated from African mahogany, the curved tuck on the counter was made from tanekaha and the stringers and gunwales of Oregon pine. Her keel design was slightly altered by having the trailing edge in a straight line instead of being cut away. This departure from the original design was made in the interest of long term cruising, trading a bit of manoeuvrability for better tracking. Patullo was a member of the Royal Highland Yacht Club and sailed on the west coast. Puarangi performed quite well in handicap racing, collecting a cup for an ocean race from the Forth around Fast Isle (latitude 50 degrees and 30 minutes north) finishing in the Orkney Islands. After his first wife died, and with the children grown, Patullo decided to see the world. He started out with summer cruises