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ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
90 and the name Citizen Watch is indelibly etched into New Zealand Yachting history, if not in the minds of most New Zealanders. It is regrettable that there were not more direct communication between Citizen and the Stewart Association in the later years. While both groups wanted the best for New Zealand yachting,the StewartAssociation’s desire to protect the owner’s boats and the sponsor’s desire to control costs unfortunately were often in direct conflict. While the Stewart Association enjoyed the publicity that the Citizen gave to the class, and the owners enjoyed the opportunity to race with and against the world’s best, the damage issue began to cast a shadow over their enjoyment and willingness to participate in the event. Not only was there insufficient compensation for wear and tear on gear and sails,there was a continuous problem with the time it took to repair or reimburse owners for damage that had occurred during the match racing series. Clearly, the Squadron Match Race Committee never seemed to develop a proper system for dealing with this issue. In spite of this, the Citizen Watch Match Race Series and the Stewart 34’s will endure as a brilliant bit of Kiwiana for many generations to come. Chris Dickson on the Citizen With three wins as skipper,and one calling tactics at age 16 for his father Roy,Chris Dickson was the most winning skipper in the eleven year history of the Citizen Watch Match Racing Series. Chris reflects on those heady years: Fantastic memories! At that time, although we didn’t know it, we had the world’s best match race regatta and best match racing fleet right hereinourownbackyard!Livetelevisionallday,thousandsofspectatorsonNorthHeadandlongcourses.TheWorld’sbestallcameandwe learned a tremendous amount from them. Roy (my dad) and I used to stay up till all hours using match sticks on the coffee table to simulate pre-starts and starting tactics. We figured out a number of the basic rules for ourselves and started a playbook that became the basis for match racetacticsformanyyears.InmanywaystheseweretheglorydaysofmatchracinginNZandnotrepeateduntiltheAmericasCupwashere 20 years later! Those first few Citizen Series launched a number of careers and were probably the start of the confidence boosters that lead to Americas Cup Challenges in latter years. In any case, we showed we could compete with the best in the game on an equal footing, learn from them and become even stronger. We certainly lacked the finesse and precision against the likes of Cudmore, Deaver, Bertrand, but by sheer grit, hard work, and the Kiwi strength of scrambling better and scrapping it out, we won! Now that was a buzz! The Stewarts were and are a great teacher. Enough displacement to give momentum, responsive enough to teach the rewards of good handling, powerful enough to be physically challenging and feisty enough to throw you into a broach just when you thought you were getting good enough to handle them! They really are a great boat and taught us all skills back then that clearly built a great foundation for taking on yachts of all shapes and sizes in years to come. If you could trim, drive, manoeuvre, and generally sail a Stewart 34 well then you could sail any boat on the planet as well as anyone. That was as true back then as it is today. The Stewart 34 is not only a great boat to race; it is a great teacher and handled well by a good kiwi crew, will still beat the best on any given day, weather that be the Citizen Series of 1979 or the Coastal Classic of 2009! Watch out for the mighty Stewart 34! Chris Dickson, December 2008 Recollections of Match Racing and the Stewart 34 days by Richard Endean It was some time late in 1979 that I was first exposed to Match Racing which in those days was only just beginning to be noticed as a popular variation to the more widely accepted fleet racing.Aside from the Americas Cup there were a handful of events with any profile,the senior member,the Congressional Cup,the event held by Royal Lymington and the Citizen Match Racing event run by the Royal New ZealandYacht Squadron.Others quickly followed. I had very limited background in competitive sailing although many years sailing on family yachts from Mullet boats to A Class keelers gave me a solid seamanship background, particularly on the foredeck where in those days the junior crew were required to spend the majority of their time.How one ever graduated to helm in the 60’s and 70’s still eludes me! Having become one of North Sails customers in their early Parnell days with sails for my various Wagstaff yachts I became good friends with Tom Schnackenberg who was putting a crew together for Dick Deaver and before I knew it I was doing the bow in a styleof racingIhadneverknownbefore.Tosayitwasasteeplearningcurvewouldbeanunderstatement.TheStewart34’sinthose