Twenty years without Peter. The sailor who knew how to do it all

Twenty years without Peter and without his red socks. In 2001 Sir Peter Blake was killed while in the anchor with Seamaster on the Amazon River by a pirate. Great all-round sailor: sailor, racer, sea savior. A sailor we want to be remembered (even with his words).

“Never accept a rejection and never give up. If you truly believe in what you are doing And you have the ability, you will succeed. Nothing simpler
Peter Blake

Peter Blake the Immortal

He wanted to win the World Tour: he did it after five successive attempts. He wanted the Copa America: he managed to take it to New Zealand and defend it. He wanted to be the fastest: he set the record for sailing around the globe under sail. A pirate killed him for being watched in the Amazon. Turning it into a legend permanently

The idiot Ricardo Colares Tavares, who got on a Peter Blake boat and shot him in the back, couldn’t even be proud of being a legend. When Blake immediately fell dead on the deck of the Seamaster moored in the mouth of the Amazon, this was indeed a myth.. He was 53 years old.

Convinced to be great
Peter Blake has accomplished countless works and uttered many famous phrases. Together, the Artrevolution Gallery in Queenstown, a small town on New Zealand’s South Island, created a painting that says:To win, you have to believe you can do it. You must be convinced. You should really want the result, even if you have to work for years. The hardest part of any project is getting started“.

Sailing in the seventies with a sextant

Belief in one’s abilities, more than determination, was undoubtedly the trait that led Peter Blake to become one of the most complete sailors of all time: He was a racer, sailor, sailor, navigator, explorer and adventurer.

Born in 1948 and raised in Auckland in a family that has always owned the boatsLike all New Zealand sailors who would later become champions, Blake also started racing as a kid on a small Class P drift. He believed so much in himself, that he called Pont BP, his initials. At the age of 18, he won the New Zealand Marine Sailing Championship at the head of Pandit, a 23-foot tall he built himself in the garden of his parents’ home. Within a few years, this five-foot-tall, blond looking Vikings boy became one of New Zealand’s strongest sailors.

Fever around the world

Peter Blake was barely 25 years old when he was called aboard the 24-meter Burton Cutter English Train. For the role of Shift Manager in the first edition of Whitbread, the World Boat Race 1973-1974. The boat is newly built, it is unreliable and loses its cut step by step. Yet for Blake who declares perseverance as a system for achieving results, this experience is a point of no return.

Party with Robin Knox Johnston to conquer the world’s sailing record

The regatta is held every four years and in 1977 it was back again at first, in Heaths Condor, Alongside legendary English navigator Robin Knox Johnston. The boat was disarmed and ranked last, but Blake never gave up again, and in 1981, he returned at first, this time as captain of a boat he built by finding funding himself: the 68-foot-high New Zealand ceramco designed by rookie Bruce Farr. In this edition of the World Race Tour, Blake explains what “Never Give Up” means.

Blake (second from left) in Whitbread 81/82

In the first leg, from Southampton to Cape Town, you sweep the tree. It also regulates a makeshift excavator and extends 1,500 miles to travel at load-bearing speeds. He crossed the finish line 18th out of 26 boats. In 1985 he was captain of Lion New Zealand, but in the 1989-90 edition, with Kitch Steinlager 2, he finally won: he reached first in all stages and won the World Tour, 17 years after he had won. first attempt. At the time, he was also the only sailor to participate in five successive editions of Whitbread; Everything from the 1973 premiere.

Catch stone warehouse 2

Too early to retire

Meanwhile, Peter Blake settled in Emsworth, southern England, where he met Pepa, He married her and had two children with her: Sarah Jane and James. Now that he’s winning the World Tour, he doesn’t want to leave them anymore, he’s even considering quitting the race, when he gets a suggestion he would never have thought of: becoming the head of the New Zealand team to win the America’s Cup. Once again his success stems from defeat.

Blake family

In 1992, his crew lost the competitors’ choice final against Il Moro di Venezia. In light of the next challenge, Blake returns to find himself in the ocean and with a 92-foot raft Enza, along with the crew seeing Robin Knox-Johnston at his side again, sets what was in 1994 the new record for sailing around the planet: 74 days , 4 days less than the previous record.

Peter Blake escorted Enza to San Diego where he snatched the 1995 America’s Cup from Dennis Conner. This is the year the Red Sox legend was born. Peppa gives him a lucky charm and he wears it every racing day. The Kiwi boat, with Blake on board, never misses the regatta, so the rest of the crew also begins wearing the red socks that all New Zealanders imitate in no time. To feel that he had already won the America’s Cup, Peter Blake decided to stay at the helm of the New Zealand team as well to defend him. In 2000, he succeeded in repelling the Luna Rossa attack.

The new discontinued adventure

After defending the America’s Cup, Peter Blake feels in debt to the sea. He founded Blakexpeditions and with the 36-meter-long aluminum seamaster (now called Tara), set out on a voyage to areas of Earth to be protected in order to protect the global ecosystem.

Blake is in Antarted

First it descends into Antarctica to 70 ° S latitude, where no sailboat has reached; Then he sailed on the Amazon River. But at the end of this campaign, the extraordinary life of Peter Blake also comes to an end. As he was leaving the Amazon, seven river pirates attack Seamaster. Blake tries to defend the boat and crew with a rifle, but is shot dead. The thieves escape from the theft of an outboard engine only and some hours. Whoever killed him was arrested and sentenced to 36 years imprisonment.

Blake E Seamaster

Peter Blake Statement

After the 30th America’s Cup Final, Patrizio Bertelli asked Peter Blake to write the introduction to Luna Rossa’s book. The text became the “manifesto” of the great seas

The America’s Cup is a highly sought-after award, but it has rarely been changed. This is not a sport for the faint of heart. It is not an undertaking of cynicism or whimsy. It’s a battle between yacht club sailors around the world who desperately want the same thing: the trophy. The prestige of the winner deserves more than any other athletic recognition. It is precisely the winning of the invincible and doing the impossible that fascinates sailors, dreamers and billionaires. But victory does not come easy. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t arrive at all. The only way to win is to keep sharing, and coming back again and again, with the inner conviction that you can do so.

Hesitation after the first try is not part of the game. It takes extraordinary people, with an iron drive, great experience, attention to detail and unconditional dedication. It’s a game that cannot be guaranteed to win, no matter how hard you are, whatever your motives, and whatever you’re willing to spend. For some, it becomes a form of drug. It’s a game you can really hate, only to find out you can’t live without it, until you win. Then the transformation happens, or at least that’s what happened to me.

Being part of the crew who won the Copa America once and defended it, free me from that terrible fist in my stomach. I accept. I am cured. I sleep well at night and have other dreams. I generate new emotions. But let’s be clear: Competing for the Copa America is a game of passion, and dreams, where in every waking moment (and sleep) there is always one and only idea, and it’s winning, but victory is uncertain when you don’t. Don’t get it. Disappointment and disappointment hurt even when others suffer, let alone feel it on your own skin.

You are constantly asking yourself “How?” And why? ”For weeks, until you reach the resolve to try again not to repeat the same mistake, to do better than before, to be better than the rest of the world, to be the best. Then the anxiety returns to a dream and a passion. The idea of ​​winning never leaves you, but it is better to leave it aside and focus on a new goal: to be the best in all aspects of the new challenge. Nothing can be left to chance, not even the smallest details.

But that doesn’t happen just because you want it. It takes a team of exceptional people, who share the same dream, the same passion and are not afraid of even the most unfavorable expectations. The difficulty of the challenge drives the adrenaline in the veins weakened by the disappointment she previously suffered. The difficulty of winning is what makes the America’s Cup what it is. This is not an Admiral’s salon game. It is not a game for those who do not want to return. It is not a game for the faint of heart.

Peter’s legendary “red socks” Blake family

It is a game for those who are not afraid to oppose the best that the rest of the world has to offer. It’s a game where winning is almost impossible but not entirely. Which is why it’s worth fighting for. Difficulty gives meaning to any conflict. It is the essence of life. I would like to say to the men of Luna Rossa: I admired your sporting spirit, perseverance and enthusiasm for life. You have given a very positive image of your country.

Your countrymen will be proud of you. This time you didn’t win, but you definitely didn’t lose. You lose when you lack the courage to return. Not winning is part of the learning process that leads to success. For the upcoming challenges, I wish you good luck. Because it is also a matter of luck. But it won’t be easy. Nice things are never like that.

Peter Blake

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