The man with the red socks
New Zealand born yachting legend Sir Peter Blake is the only sailor to have taken part in the first five Whitbread Round the World races. He also led his country to two successive America’s Cup victories.
"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky, and all I ask...." is written on Sir Peter Blake’s headstone - the words of John Masefield's famous poem, Sea Fever, describing a life inseparable from the marine element.
Born in 1948, Blake grew up in a wooden bungalow in Bayswater on the northern flanks of Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. His father, Brian, was a gunboat captain in the Royal Navy during World War Two. Throughout their marriage, Brian and Joyce Blake owned boats and the Blake children grew up with the sea as their playground.
"No just sitting back when we were cruising, we had to go faster. He liked to win, but he enjoyed himself. It wasn’t all winning, there was a lot of fun", recalls his sister Janet.
Whitbread Round the World Race
Famously, Sir Peter Blake is the only sailor to have taken part in the first five Whitbread Round the World races. Now called the Volvo Ocean Race, named after its sponsor Volvo, it is a yacht race around the world, held every four years. The general route runs south through the Atlantic Ocean, around the tip of Africa, and then around the Southern Ocean.
Blake joined the first race in 1973-74 and in the 1989-90 Whitbread race, Blake skippered Steinlager to an unprecedented clean sweep. His team walked off with line, handicap and overall honours on each of the race's six legs.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1991.
America’s Cup
Brought in at the last minute by Carl McKenzie to manage New Zealand's 1992 America's Cup challenge, Blake led the Kiwi team to the challenger finals with NZL-20. However, Italy emerged from the controversial series with the Louis Vuitton Cup, and went on to face America in the America's Cup match.
In 1995 Blake was back, this time as the syndicate head of Team New Zealand. With NZL 32, "Black Magic", they made a clean sweep, beating Dennis Conner 5-0. Blake also became famous for his lucky red socks (a present from his wife), wearing the same pair throughout the entire 1995 America's Cup Challenge.
After Blake's 1995 America's Cup win, Governor General Dame Cath Tizard said it was New Zealand's proudest day since Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to climb Mount Everest in 1953. The America's Cup was the only major sailing trophy that the self-proclaimed "Nation of Sailors" hadn't claimed, and Team New Zealand under Blake won with one of the most dominating performances in America's Cup history.
In 2000 Team New Zealand, still led by Blake, became the first non American team to successfully defend the Americas Cup, beating Prada 5-0.
After the 2000 defence Sir Peter Blake stood down from the team.
Life after racing
In 1997, Blake became the Cousteau Society's head of expeditions, and skipper of the Antarctic Explorer, which he later purchased from the Society and renamed Seamaster. After leaving the Society he led expeditions to Antarctica and the Amazon aboard Seamaster during 2001. The same year Blake was named special envoy for the UN Environment Programme. He began filming documentaries for Blakexpeditions, a company he founded.
Death and legacy
On 5 December 2001, pirates shot and killed Blake while he was on an environmental exploration trip in South America, monitoring global warming and pollution for the United Nations. The two-month expedition was anchored off Macapá, at the mouth of the Amazon delta, waiting to clear customs. At around 2100hrs a group of six to eight armed, masked robbers boarded the Seamaster.
As one of the robbers held a gun to the head of a crewmember, Blake sprang from the cabin wielding a rifle used to ward off polar bears. He shot one of the assailants in the hand before the rifle malfunctioned; he was then fatally shot in the back. The boarders injured two other crew members with knives, and the remaining seven were unhurt.
Authorities eventually captured the pirates and sentenced them to an average of 32 years in prison each.
Sir Peter is survived by his wife Lady Pippa Blake, and their two children.
Around 30,000 people attended a memorial service held for Blake at the Auckland Domain on 23 December 2001, and included tributes from Blake's family, the Prime Minister Helen Clark, the Brazilian Ambassador, and musicians Neil and Tim Finn.
Sir Peter Blake is buried in an old churchyard, near Emsworth on the south coast of England. Emsworth is where Pippa and Peter settled and raised their two children.
On 23 October 2002, the International Olympic Committee posthumously awarded the Olympic Order, one of its highest honours, to Blake.
In December 2003, the Sir Peter Blake Trust was established, with the support of the Blake family, "to help New Zealanders make a positive difference for the planet through activities that encourage environmental awareness and action, and leadership development."
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