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"I've really enjoyed my yacht racing over the years," explained Sir Peter Blake in 1999, "and I wouldn't change anything, but I've got to the stage where I don't want to race anymore. So for this next America's Cup, I'm very happy not to be on the boat. Someone less than half my age will do what I was doing on the boat and will do it better."
Blake was born at the water's edge, at Bayswater, in Auckland, in a family of four children that spent its leisure time sailing.
At the age of eight, he competed in his first race aboard the P-Class dinghy Pee Bee, given to him by his father.
He soon graduated to the Z-Class, then sailed on domestic cruisers. At the age of 20, he built a 7.10 metre cruiser, Bandit.
After training in mechanics, he was 22 when he turned to offshore racing. He became acquainted with British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston and raced in the 1971 Cape Town to Rio transatlantic race aboard Ocean Spirit.
From that time on, Blake would become a central figure in the world of ocean yacht racing. In 1973-74 he entered his first round the world race, the mythical Whitbread, aboard Burton Cutter.
He renewed the experiment in 1977-78, aboard Condor, then again in 1981-82 as skipper of Ceramco New Zealand.
He was again on the starting line in 1985-86 at the Lion New Zealand helm and finally, on his fifth attempt in 1989-90, he won the race overall and all six stages with Steinlager 2.
Meanwhile, he had accumulated prestigious wins in the 1979 Fastnet Race (the year of the dramatic storm) aboard Condor, and in the 1980 and the 1984 Sydney to Hobart races.
He won the 1988 Bicentennial Round Australia Race aboard Steinlager I. In 1994, aboard the 28-metre catamaran ENZA New Zealand with co-skipper Knox-Johnston, he won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop lap of the world, taking 74 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds.
A giant of the sea (quite literally, as he was more than two metres in height), Blake clocked up 600,000 nautical miles (about 1.2 million kilometres) between 1973 and 1994, when he became involved in the America's Cup.
In 1992, he had been called in late to assist Michael Fay with New Zealand's America's Cup challenge in San Diego.
He could not, however, prevent New Zealand NZL 20's crushing defeat by Il Moro di Venezia ITA 25 in the Louis Vuitton Cup finals.
He picked up the torch left by Fay and mortgaged his house to pay the bond which sealed New Zealand's participation in the 1995 Cup.
Blake analysed the contest: "In the past it has been full of mystique and dirty tricks, of political maneuvering and espionage. But peel away the cloak and dagger stuff and it is just another yacht race with similar needs to any other long-term campaign that must have the right people if it is to succeed."
Keen to mobilise his country, he added: "I really do believe in New Zealand's yachting industry and expertise."
He enlised the help of the nation with his 'red socks' campaign (inspired by his own lucky charm socks). On the instigation of his team, he was aboard the boat as mainsheet man, but left the helm to Russell Coutts.
Team New Zealand NZL 32 beat the Paul Cayard skippered defender Young America USA 36 by five wins to nil!
The biggest task remained: to defend the America's Cup in 2000.
Blake again galvanized his troops, providing the driving force for Team New Zealand NZL 60's success, while staying ashore (his own decision).
By this time, Sir Peter Blake (he had been knighted in 1995), had worked out his next project after the defence of the Cup: a nobler objective, saving the environment!
His campaign aboard Seamaster was to reveal to the world the necessity of caring for the oceans.
Tragedy prevented him from achieving this ultimate goal. On Wednesday, December 5, 2001, near Macapa on the Amazon River, he crossed paths with the ratos d'acqua (water rats), local pirates intent on plundering his boat. In trying to protect his crew, Blake was shot twice in the back.
The night fell. The dark water of the Amazon slid silently to the Ocean, soon in mourning.
J.T.
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