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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
29 place for the 1986/87 championships: It turned out to be a great success for the following reasons. 1. It made the racing much closer. 2. The sails, made by Rick Royden, appeared to be identical. Racing results showed that no one boat had an advantage due to sails. 3. Very little damage was done to the sails. Two additional sails were ordered at the same time and rotated through the pool. The entire pool of sails was still in excellent condition at the end of the season, perhaps due to good care as well as not being used for cruising. 4. Sails were more economical because by buying in bulk the price savings was 25%. The sails also lasted a full three years. Previously, owners were replacing sails every 18 months at a cost of $1950. For three years that would mean an average cost of $1300 per year for sails. With this scheme, the cost for three years was just $467 per year. The sails were paid for by the championship entrants, but other non-racing owners also bought sails to take advantage of the volume discount. In normal use the sails might last ten years or more. After three years, the sails were handed back to the owners who used them for many years in Rum Races and for cruising. The second series of pooled sails were actually used for seven years, bringing the average cost per year down to $229.!! 5. The draw organiser maintained the option to repeat the previous weeks draw, which would discourage anyone from abusing a sail with the thought in mind that someone else would get it the following week. Further, if a sail was damaged and not reported, in accordance with the rules, the sail went back to the boat it was damaged on the previous week. All in all, the scheme was quite innovative and successful for the one-design racing. To our knowledge, it has not been used by any other one design fleet for ordinary keel boat class racing. The primary disadvantage was logistical, with storage and handling being a constant issue. This eventually proved to be the downfall of the scheme, as there was no longer a place to store the pool sails. Some Auckland sailmakers did not particularly like the scheme and made their dissatisfaction publicly known. From the point of view of the Stewart Association, they had no basis to complain. First of all,Rick Royden Sailmakers submitted the lowest tender in both series. In the second series,four other sailmakers were invited to build a specimen sail and then bring their own crew and test them against each other. Roy Dickson on Playbuoy and Bill Miller on Pionnier went out with the fleet as observers. Six short windward/leeward races were sailed in a light easterly breeze. Rick Royden’s sails won five of six races. Bill Miller, unable to resist, joined in on the last race and won it wearing one of Royden’s sails from the last series. This proved that not only were Royden’s sails the fastest,they were also being replaced too soon! Some time later,Dave Schmit of Sobstad Sails wrote an article which appeared in Breeze,the Squadron magazine,asserting that the lack of sailmakers on the crews on the Stewart’s was affecting their performance. Backing his claim were results for one race. A couple of months later when the season’s results were tallied, they showed in fact that the Stewart Class had defeated their rivals by an even larger margin than the previous year. The principal sail makers used over the years were: Bouzaid’s and Hood’s from 1960-1978 North Sails and Rick Royden from 1978 to present Lidgard Sails from 1984 to present Doyles from 2008 to present Some owners including Roy Dickson, Bill Miller,Wayne and Mark Taylor felt there was no point buying from Rick Royden as he was a top sailor,building his own sails,and racing against them. Over time though,many Stewart owners including all of the above have opted for Rick Royden sails due to their low price and high performance. Rick estimates he’s built more than 400 sails for Stewarts to date. In the eighties Ross and Jones made some winning sails for Tim Snedden’s top performing boat Pahi. It is hard to say whether