Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
74 Gary Jobson, USA Sailed on Pionnier,America’s Cup tactician on Ted Turner’s Courageous. Would go on to become the world’s top yachting commentator. Sixth place with 5 points. Rod Davis, USA Sailed on Pua-wai. Defending champion. Seventh place with 5 points. Roy Dickson, NZ* Sailed on Patrician. Won the first Citizen in 1979. Eighth place with 2 points. Ken Davern, NZ* Sailed on Premier. Representing the Stewart 34 Class in his first international series. Ninth place with 2 points. Brett de Thier, NZ Sailed on Psyche. Former Olympic rep and nominee for Olympic team coach for 1984. Tenth place with 0 points. *Stewart 34 owner or skipper. The 1984 Citizen Match Racing Series was another scintillating contest. The calibre of overseas competitors was the best to date, relegating the three New Zealand entries to the bottom three spots on the leader board. Terry McLaughlin of CanadawhotiedwithHaroldCudmoreonoverallpoints,wononacount-back as he had beaten Cudmore in their match up. That said, McLaughlin was sailing on the controversial yacht Pendragon, which showed a definite speed advantage and arguably should have never been selected for use in the event. Also in the field was the legendary U.S. sailor and media mogul Ted Turner of America’s Cup and CNN fame. His young and rather inexperienced team was organised for him by Chris Bouzaid in the USA, but they improved immensely on each successive day of the regatta. On a poorly-laid course, Turner grazed a rock bottom near Bean Rock, damaging Promise’s keel. “That keel must have been bent before we hit the rock”joked Turner,“and we straightened it because we went faster after that.” The damage repair system had failed the owner of the boat, and after making numerous appeals to the Squadron, Citizen Watch and the insurance company, his boat was still not repaired. He was finally advised to contact Ted Turner regarding the issue. While Ted Turner sent a cheque to cover the cost of repairs, he commented that under the terms of his invitation he had fulfilled his obligations. In fact, Turner had given an excellent presentation at the Squadron dinner, gratis. Turner’s pilot told Warwick Browne that he accepted very few invitations to speak,but when he did his honorarium for such a speech was usually US$12,000. The Squadron later commented that the owner was ill-advised to contact Turner directly even though he felt there were no other options. Ted Turner never again participated in the match racing in New Zealand. “The powerful overseas line-up produced the best series yet with Terry McLaughlin and Harold Cudmore dead-heating with seven wins each and the Canadian getting the title on count-back because he had beaten Cudmore in their match ...In the 45 matches sailed, the judges’records showed that in forty per cent of the forty five races sailed the lead changed during the race. Every one of the six Citizen series held so far has been won by a timber boat. This year there were four timber boats competing and six GRP [fibreglass] ones, but next year the organisers expect to have enough glass boats to supply all the skippers to help make them as one-design as possible.” Sea Spray, May 1984. American Rod Davis, who had won the event the previous year, came in eighth. American Gary Jobson, also an America’s Cup sailor, sailed well in the event, and began to show interest in a proposal to set up a World Match Racing Championship series. He did comment to the Stewart Association that organizing clubs all over the world were experiencing some of the same problems that the Stewart Association was due to the use of borrowed boats. He predicted that within a few years there would be an international match racing circuit using boats totally owned by the yacht clubs or by a single sponsor.He felt that clubs not up to that standard would end up with a downgraded event. How right he was. Jobson was and still is a visionary. Legendary America’s Cup skipper Ted Turner made his only appearance at the Citizen in 1984 Academy of Achievement