Amanda, a Dragon Class yacht designed by Bob Stewart. Stewart represented New Zealand at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Red Dragon. The Olympics campaign introduced the Dragon Class to New Zealand, where it continues through the efforts of the late Allen Smith.

Photographer unknown, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa / Portrait photograph reproduced courtesy of Jack Cropp

Two Stewart 34s – Pahi and Precedent. The Stewart 34 evolved from Bob Stewart’s prototype Patiki. This racer–cruiser was a revolutionary ‘light-displacement’ design in 1959 and was instantly successful.

Photographer unknown, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa

Camelot, a 39-foot (11.89m) Camelot Class motor sailer designed by Bob Stewart in 1960.

Photograph by Louis McGuire, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa (17372)

BOB STEWART

(1906–1988)

Bob Stewart was renowned for fast, light-displacement designs like the Stewart 34, and was also a top-class sailor.

No amateur

Aucklander Bob Stewart was an ‘amateur’ yacht designer only in that designing wasn’t his main job and he never charged clients for plans. He worked for his family’s stationery business. He asked his yachting clients to make a donation to charity in lieu of payment. He also willingly gave free advice to those who asked.

Otherwise, he was a true professional. Master designer Arch Logan was his mentor and teacher, as well as friend.

** ‘Emmy’ designer**

Stewart’s first design commission was for his father – the 8.5-metre keeler Anita (1935). But it was with 18-foot M Class yachts that he made his mark.

Stewart was passionate about ‘Emmies’ and designed four of them, one before the war – Manaia II (1939), one of his finest – and three after it.

Auckland’s M Class community respected Stewart so much that they approached him to resolve a 1948 dispute about Laurie Davidson’s unconventional boat Myth. His level-headed solution contributed to the survival and advancement of the class.

BOB STEWART

K Class

In 1947, Stewart came second in a one-design K Class (keelboat) competition run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Despite his placing, it was his design, which became Helen (1948, built by Bill Couldrey at Colin Wild’s yard), that was accepted for the class.

He designed two other K Class yachts, Penelope and Katrina.

At the helm

Stewart himself was a fine sailor. He dominated the M Class in Manene for eight years and was also Auckland’s top K Class helmsman. He competed in the Dragon Class at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics – the first time New Zealand had sent a yachting team to the Games.

BOB STEWART

** ‘New Zealand’s most popular keelboat’**

In 1959, Stewart designed the 34-foot (10.36m) Patiki for Peter Colmore-Williams, who wanted a yacht to win races. This speedy keelboat travelled across rather than through the water. She became the prototype for New Zealand’s first light-displacement keel yacht class.

The design was an instant success – an affordable family yacht that provided competitive racing and comfortable cruising.

Within a few years, an owners’ association was formed, organising racing and drawing up rules for what became known as the Stewart 34 Class. Between 1979 and 1989, Stewart 34s raced with the world’s best in the international Citizen Watch New Zealand Match Racing series.