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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
64 1. I can understand you ridiculing the venue chosen because you have to sail in an area ten times worse in the Solent. This area was chosen as the only one from which it was possible to get live T. V. coverage (a first of its kind in the world) an item which appears to have been overlooked in your burst of invective. Despite this our conditions were far better than yours. 2. There was not one but four boats with skeg one of which was sailed by Peter Walker who finished 3rd. Peter Newlands (with a skeg) was the only boat to beat the final champion Roy Dickson so there cannot have been too much disparity between boats. I might point out that the skeg concerned is rather minuscule. 3. As the skipper of the oldest boat in the fleet (16 years not 20 years) I did not consider we were materially disadvantaged. The local invitees were notified two weeks before the event. 4. The boats were drawn for one week before. All competitors (local and overseas) were notified of the draw date. As the overseas invitees had their travel expenses paid by the Squadron and were either billeted or accommodated free of charge it was up to them to arrive in time to tune their drawn boats. The series had attracted such widespread publicity there was no shortage of top notch crews available. There is nothing to stop southern Californian yachtsmen from spending as much time tuning a Cal 40 as they wish prior to an event even if they do not draw that particular boat. 5. Sponsorship has always been anathema to you and your fellow English yachting journalists and so you decry it whenever possible. Is it that the landed gentry or wealthy industrialists don’t like the increased competition made possible by the benefit of sponsorship? Is it because with the benefit of such assistance New Zealand “colonials” have been able to travel from the furthest corner of the earth to compete successfully in the little ditch you consider the centre of the yachting world? How also do you think we can raise the money to pay for internationals to come to New Zealand to compete in such an event - they are hardly likely to pay their own way. We may not have achieved the degree of uniformity attained elsewhere but once the boats were drawn no sails were allowed to be replaced, a factor which was not the case with the much touted strictness of the Congressionals. Although sails were allowed to be altered, this is hardly as great a change as allowing sails to be replaced-as on the local California boats. The reason for this was because the sails were of differing ages because the committee has not been able to raise sufficient funds to have ten new genoas built for the series, at the same time as bringing international stars to the event. However it intends to do this as soon as economically possible. Despite this and one race being sailed in over 30 knots there was no sails blow out (even on the visitor’s boats). Jack I do not know where you gleaned all your information and I trust it was not all from Harold Cudmore as if so I have misjudged him. The use of live T.V. coverage made it possible for us to show the public of New Zealand that yachting can be a spectator sport. Surely if we have achieved a heightened awareness of the sport in this way we have achieved more in one day than you and all your fellow journalists will achieve in 10 years. Yours sincerely, Tony Bouzaid The first Citizen Match Racing series was accomplished on a financial shoestring. Ten Stewart 34 owners lent their boats, including the use of all their sails and gear, to the competitors, free of charge. The Squadron also donated the use of all their facilities, without charge and effectively mobilized a small navy of volunteers, both on and off the water, to carry out the regatta and the associated social events. That said, the hospitality takings during the Citizen were huge, and according to former commodore RichardEndean,inlateryearsexceededrevenuesfortheremainderof theyear!! Numerousotherlocalyachtingenthusiastsvolunteered their assistance to the event in countless ways. Citizen Watch got the overseas skippers toAuckland.There was a modest entry fee of $20. The Royal New ZealandYacht Squadron was quite pleased with the publicity created by the Citizen Match Racing Series, and interpreted its supportive role as sort of a de-facto ownership,Tony Bouzaid put the international in the Citizen Watch International Match Racing Series Stewart Association Collection