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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
13 was always a worry until the boat was seen coming back up the harbour. In his last few years Stewart suffered a series of strokes, and ill-health began to restrict his abilities. Nonetheless, he always maintained his keen interest in yachting, and spent many hours by the window watching his beloved Stewart 34’s and other designs racing, year after year, on the Waitemata Harbour below his Paratai Drive home. Bob Stewart succumbed to a stroke on 28 November 1988. After his passing, on his family’s request, the Royal New Zealand YachtSquadronarrangedatributefortheirlong-timefriendandmember. OnabeautifulFridaysummerafternooninDecember an armada of at least 30 Bob Stewart designed yachts escorted the Squadron’s official boat Dove down to North Head at slack tide. Don Brooke quipped“Only Bob Stewart could sail in the lee of North Head without getting becalmed,”and so it was there that a brief but respectful service was held by Squadron officials,and where Bob’s daughters Helen and Betty scattered his ashes. As an impressive final farewell, one of the officials then gave Stewart a final salute in true Navy fashion. Armed with the Squadron’s official shotgun, he fired both barrels. Bang! Bang! It seemed a very fitting send-off for such a great man. The fleet disassembled and sailed back to Westhaven. It was a little later when someone suggested that according the The Racing Rules of Sailing, a double gun indicates a “general recall.” Were they hoping to bring Bob Stewart back? Stewart’s daughter Helen remembers her father as a very talented man, very gentle, with high integrity. She described him as the most honest man you could find,with a tremendous reputation and great love for his family. He was an excellent dad,a very strong church person and one who would never say anything unkind about anyone. Everyone the author has spoken to that knew Bob Stewart described him as a gentleman. When Bob Stewart designed Patiki, he surely had no idea that for the next 50 years and beyond, thousand of yachties would sail, race and cruise on his splendidly designed yachts. A total of 63 Stewart 34’s were believed to have been built and launched between 1959 and 2006. All of Bob Stewart’s yacht design drawings are retained in the archives of the New Zealand National Maritime Museum on Hobson Wharf in Auckland. The Coveted“Stewart Plaque” From the early 1960’s until the mid 1980’s the Stewart Championship winner at the Squadron Prize giving ceremony would receive a beautiful Silver Plaque. This plaque incorporated a silver lifebuoy surrounded by silver rope, with a silver crown and a coloured Squadron pennant in the centre. These plaques were extremely hard fought over and the winner, by tradition, hung them on the main cabin bulkhead of his boat. They weighed about half a kilo. Bob Stewart, in his whimsical manner, suggested that one shouldn’t win too many of them because the weight of more than a few hanging in the cabin would slow the boat down. The Stewart Secretary was surprised when a couple of years after Bob Stewart’s death the Squadron rang up and said that they were out of Stewart Plaques, and could they please have some more. In those days everybody in the Squadron paid entry fees and still do, and the Squadron supplied the prizes. Apparently, in this case Bob Stewart ordered and paid for these expensive plaques from his own pocket and supplied them to the Squadron in bulk. The Squadron was obviously doing fairly well out of the deal by pocketing the full entry fees and letting gentleman Bob Stewart fork out for the prizes. Unfortunately, after Bob’s death, the mould and patterns used to make the plaques went missing and the cost to replace them were deemed too expensive. Since then,a beautiful kauri half- hull model of the Stewart 34, with the winner’s name engraved each year, has been presented. While it is truly a beautiful trophy, and hotly contested for, it just lacks a bit of the panache of Bob’s original plaques. Unfortunately as occasionally happens this trophy was handed out at a recent prizegiving and somehow disappeared.Anyone knowing of its whereabouts, please contact the Stewart 34 Secretary. The Stewart Plaque George Backhus