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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
42 boats that are involved in Class racing. This did little to reduce the controversy, not to mention the comments in the yachting media indicating that the Stewarts were not as equal as they had always claimed, particularly as the annual Citizen Match Racing Series approached. Efforts were made to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Stewart 34 Owners Association. Not surprisingly, the Chairman and committee managed to delay the meeting. What is surprising is the fact that the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron actually allowed Pendragon to be selected as one of thetenboatstobeusedintheCitizenMatchRacingSeries. Itwastheonlytimeintheelevenyearsof thissuccessfuleventwhere every effort was not made to insure that the boats were as identical as possible. While numerous skippers invited from overseas had commented on Pendragon’s obvious speed advantage, they graciously chose not to illuminate the situation. Nonetheless, it certainly did not in any way enhance the prestige of the event nor the reputation of the Stewart 34’s as a true one design class. Many people in the class felt that Pendragon should have never been permitted to sail in the 1984 Citizen Match Race Series. Canadian Terry McLaughlin, who drew the boat, duly won the series. World renowned yachtsman and sailing commentator Gary Jobson said that he could not believe Pendragon’s extra speed, calling her“a real rocket ship.” At the Annual General Meeting of the Stewart Association in 1984, the Pendragon affair finally came to a head. Thirty-seven members were in attendance, by far the largest number in the history of the Stewart Association. Both sides squared off. The first order of business was to elect a new Chairman,Vice-Chairman and Secretary. With a full compliment of voting members present, the three incumbents were summarily discarded. Despite this action, a motion to withdraw Pendragon’s racing certificate was defeated. A second motion requiring the new committee to“take professional advice and eliminate any advantage that Pendragon had”was carried. The unfortunate result of Ken Allen’s shenanigans was that battle lines were drawn. Yachting friends of more than 20 years stopped talking to each other. Threats and nasty comments, never before heard within the Stewart Association, were muttered in anger and disgust. Amazingly, Ken Allen managed to steer himself clear of the controversy. He never uttered a harsh word, and seemed to await the outcome of the situation with stoic calmness. Unfortunately this was not the case with his accusers or supporters. The new committee immediately engaged Mr. Alf Lock of Healing Industries, Ltd., a technical marine consultant, well known yachtsman Geoff Smale and Mr. Ross Tilsed, a reputable naval architect. The trio was commissioned to inspect Pendragon and compare her to other Stewart 34’s. Upon completion of their inspection they responded to the Stewart Association with a letter dated 24 September 1984. In it the consultants recommended that“the current and valid certificate of measurement for the yacht,Pendragon be revoked by your committee until such times as the owner or his representative can satisfy the committee the yacht (Pendragon) has been brought to comply with the current class rules in all respects.” Both Lock and Smale further commented in the letter that“frankly we are amazed that a boat with a list of anomalies as long as this could ever have been passed in the first place.” They further recommended the use of swing testing to determine the best placement of the weights to equalise the Stewarts. Having fully accepted the recommendations of the consultants that inspected Pendragon, the committee sent a letter to Ken Allen advising him as such and that he was required to add 1150 pounds of weight in specified locations in order to bring his boat into compliance. He requested a meeting with the new committee which was held on 12 November, 1984. At the meeting, Ken suggested a slightly different placement of the lead equalizers. The committee accepted his proposal, but only for the 1984/85 racing season. He further offered to organise and implement (and presumably pay for) the swing test measurement and incline test recommended by Alf Lock. All of this was to be completed by the end of the racing season. It appeared that at long last, there was finally closure on the Pendragon affair. Not exactly. KenAllen went away from the meeting and apparently had second thoughts about the inevitable results of the swing and incline tests. Pendragon never submitted to the testing nor was she ever raced again inAuckland waters. One can only assume that from the very outset, Ken Allen’s intentions were to build a Stewart 34 that had a distinct speed advantage over the remainder of the