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58 the U.S.A. After his overseas sailing success on Waverider, Bouzaid also felt he could convince the fiery Irishman Harold Cudmore and possibly even American sailing legend Ted Turner to come to Auckland to match race. Bill Miller went to work on a sponsorship proposal package. He took the finished product, which had been beautifully printed by Tony Bouzaid, to show to Peter Montgomery. Montgomery was away from his office so Miller placed it on the middle of his desk. Montgomery hurriedly stuffed the proposal in his briefcase as he departed for a sporting event in Hawkes Bay. On the flight he was seated beside Doc Williams who was Executive Producer of Sports for South Pacific Television which would soon merge into TV One on TVNZ. Montgomery pulled out Miller’s proposal and began to have a read of it. Doc Williams snapped the proposal out of Montgomery’s hand and said“What’s this?” Montgomery replied that Bill Miller had dropped him this proposal, promoting commercial sponsorship for the Stewart 34’s in a match racing event. Captive in the plane for the duration of the flight,Williams carefully read the proposal and when he was finished declared“We can cover this you know!” “Really, on live television?”came Montgomery’s reply. “Well I’ll arrange for you to meet Bill Miller.” A few days later Bill Miller was invited to an afternoon meeting at the Mon Desir Garden Bar in Takapuna where he met with Alan Sefton of the Auckland Star newspaper, Peter Montgomery, Doc Williams and his wife, the accomplished Auckland sailor Penny Whiting The decisions they made in the meeting were: 1. Doc Williams would propose to TV One that they cover the Squadron Challenge Cup Match Racing Series in late April of 1979. 2. Bill Miller would ask the Squadron if they were willing to assist with running the event and also try to find ten sponsors, one for each boat, at $1500 each. 3. Tony Bouzaid would contact and invite Harold Cudmore,Ted Hood and Ted Turner and other yachtsmen that had won an international event in the previous 18 months. 4. Alan Sefton and Peter Montgomery would begin to organize publicity for the regatta. On the strength of Doc Williams indications that TV One would be interested, the Stewart Association, a bit presumptively, sent a letter on 18 October 1978 to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron announcing they were going to organise a match racingcontestonthe28th and29th of Aprilof 1979thatwasevenbiggerandbetterthantheStewart34MatchRacingSeriesheld in 1978. It was to be called“The Squadron Challenge Cup Southern Hemisphere Match Racing Championship.” Considering the cup had not yet been paid for, naming the event after it was also a bit audacious. Miller, Montgomery and Williams met down at Westhaven Marina, where they planned to depart for a short reconnaissance cruise down to the proposed race course off North Head to evaluate the feasibility of live television coverage of the match racing. While they were in the marina, Montgomery ran into his old friend Ken Lusty, who asked what this rather odd assemblage of people were up to. Montgomery offered a brief summary wherein Lusty immediately replied“hell,Warwick Browne [Managing Director of Citizen Watch New Zealand] could be interested in that you know.” Montgomery agreed to call him. Out at North Head aboard Pionnier, Williams studied the layout of the race course and then applied his immense skill at televising stadium sports with a basic knowledge of match racing, and worked out just how he would place cameras to cover “the playing field” for a windward leeward yacht race. Montgomery said that this was to become the most expensive outdoor sporting broadcast by TVNZ to date. The Squadron Challenge Cup Charles Scoones