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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
52 2 - Ladies Racing For the first ten years of Stewart 34 racing,women were generally not seen and not heard. That is not to say the wives,partners, daughters and perhaps mistresses did not take part in the sailing. I am sure that in every boat built, the ladies made many sacrifices and gave considerable assistance to the smooth sailing of their male counterpart’s“second lover.” That changed in 1972 when members the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club came from Sydney to Auckland for some friendly trans-Tasman competition. Three of the 16 Australian skippers who showed up were female! This created a bit of mayhem at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which at that time limited its membership to males only. Nevertheless it all worked out well, and the inevitable result was that women slowly but surely began to become an important part of the Stewart 34 racing history. It took till 1980 until there was any“ladies only”racing events. Previously to this, the R.N.Z.Y.S. held an annual race in which a lady was meant to helm the race in all but the first five minutes of the race. Apparently the belief at the time was that a woman could not be trusted to handle the start of a yacht race! Nevertheless,it was not uncommon for a keen female yachtie to crew on the Stewarts, even in the Championship races, performing as well or better than their male counterparts. During the 1980’s, ladies races were eventually incorporated in to most of the keel boat club programs. At one point, the Ponsonby Cruising Club actually created a separate division for ladies on Stewart 34’s, attracting up to eight starters each race. Amongst them, at various times, were Pamoana, Passion, Patrician, Phantasy, Pionnier, Polaris, Princess, Prism, Promise and Psychic. In the ladies races there were usually two spinnaker divisions. In divisionA,no men were permitted on board. In division B one male was allowed on board but not permitted to perform any of the physical tasks unless he was required in an emergency. On occasion there was a non-spinnaker division, but that was looked upon by the ladies as being too easy! In later years the R.N.Z.Y.S. organised Tuesday evening ladies racing during the summer months, and both the Ponsonby Cruising Club and the Squadron held ladies races on Saturday afternoon during the winter months. Over the years,Patrician,with Eric Sugden’s ladies crew,would have competed in more of the ladies racing than any of the other Stewarts. More often than not,Patrician,withWendy Muir,(designer JimYoung’s daughter) as skipper,would win the Princess Cup which was donated to the Class by Gloria Locke, skipper of Princess. Pionnier, helmed by Christine Miller, won many a series in the 50/50 division, where the crew was allowed neither fewer than three women nor more than two men. At the same time, Prism, driven by Christine Webb often showed what the ladies could really do. Not long afterTony and ChristineWebb purchased Prism in 1986,Christine started racing against the other Stewarts in the ladies Tuesday night series. She also decided to take her all-female team into the Stewart Championships and show the boys what they could do. In 1988, Christine skippered an all female crew in the Coastal Classic, the Royal AkaranaYacht Club’s annual 120 mile race from Auckland to Russell. They completed the race in just 16 hours and 50 minutes, the best time ever for a Stewart 34 to that date. In February of 1990 she was the first all female crewed yacht to complete the R.N.Z.Y.S.night race to Kawau. In 1991, Christine and her crew on the Stewart took third place in the New Zealand National Keelboat Championships. Unfortunately,since about 2003,ladies interest in keelboat racing has seemed to wane a bit. As of 2006,the only female crewed Stewart 34 was Patrician, but she was joined in 2008 by Playbuoy. Ladies contributions to the Stewart 34 class have been far more than their involvement in racing. Gloria Locke was the first lady to take on the job of Secretary and Treasurer of the Stewart 34 Association. She worked continuously for five years in the two positions and did a remarkable job, particularly though the tempestuous times of the Pendragon fiasco and the Citizen Match Race Series with the R.N.Z.Y.S. As well as helming Princess in the Ladies Series, she handled the main sheet in the Stewart Championship races. Anyone who has ever had a go on the main sheet of a Stewart, particularly when the breeze gets a bit fresh, can tell you it is no place for the weak and frail. Off the race course Gloria mounted a campaign to contact all the Stewart 34 owners by telephone in an effort