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5 Acknowledgements First off, I could not have attempted this endeavour without the loving support of the two favourite women in my life, my partner and intrepid sailing companion Merima, who allows me to pursue my passions in favour of a real job, and my mother Mary: once the greatest critic of my writing, now my greatest fan. She will always be a huge inspiration in my life. Apart from Bob Stewart, no person has had a greater impact on the spirit, success and longevity of the Stewart 34 class than Bill Miller. For 40 years Bill’s passion,determination,foresight and inspiration has nurtured the class,as well as the hundreds of keen sailors he has mentored, allowing them to develop and flourish. Without his support, encouragement and vast wealth of information about the subject, this book could never have come to be. May he long reign as the“Godfather”of the Stewart 34’s and preside over many more Thursday afternoon Rum Races and post-race“de-briefing”sessions. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Christine Lancaster who, as Secretary of the Stewart Association, began tackling this project ten years ago and compiled a huge body of historical information which she graciously passed on to me. Career and family obligations rightfully took precedent over this project. Without the generous support, both financial and otherwise, of the Stewart 34 Owners Association, this project would have been dead in the water. I am most grateful to Betty Black and Helen Craddock, Bob Stewart’s daughters, for sharing their time, photos and family stories with me, giving us all a peek into the life of an incredible man. Much appreciation goes to Warwick Browne,former managing director of Citizen Watch New Zealand,not only for providing me with a wealth of information, but for his staunch support of the Stewarts during the eleven years of the Citizen Watch Match Racing Series. And to his company, Citizen Watch New Zealand, my thanks for loaning me their archive of thousands of photos and press clippings as well as the video footage of the match racing events. Many thanks to my good friend and sailing mate Charles Scoones for the use of his excellent photographs and for the countless hours he spent scanning and organising a mountain of archived photos, newspaper articles, magazine clippings and a host of other documents relating to Stewarts, as well as providing valuable input into the book. To Peter Montgomery, the voice of yachting in New Zealand, thanks for all the information, support and good advice he provided me on this voyage, not to mention gracefully offering the introduction to this book. Thanks to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron who granted me full access to their archives and library and permission to reprint information from their monthly magazine, Breeze. I thank the many Stewart 34 owners and sailors who I have come to know over the past eleven years, many of whom are the characters in this story. I am grateful for their warm friendship,the hundreds of wonderful days we’ve shared together racing on the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf, and for making me feel at home in my adopted country. While every effort has been made to research and correctly report the facts,I apologise in advance for any inadvertent inaccuracy. Unfortunately, a common thread amongst Stewart sailors is that they never let the facts get in the way of a good story.