“I can’t see any point in racing around the world for seven months with someone you don’t like.” – Sir Peter Blake Lion New Zealand was a Ron Holland designed masthead sloop, which gained the nickname the “Urban Assault...
Given Blake’s determination to get this one right, it was a cruel twist of fate that saw Ceramco’s rig come crashing down in the first Atlantic leg of the Whitbread Race. A rigging failure brought down the rig 120 miles north of Ascension Island and, with...
“Disaster struck. And we were 2700 miles from Cape Town as the crow flies. A piece of rigging had broken and the mast was over the side.” – Sir Peter Blake Heath’s Condor, as the yacht was known for this race, was jointly skippered by Leslie Williams...
“The decks hadn’t been caulked so they leaked, forcing one crew member to sleep under a large black umbrella in his bunk. It was a real learning period in those days.” – Sir Peter Blake All this experience stood Blake in good stead for a berth...
“I liked the look of him. He was cheerful and obviously fit and strong and came on board and he was just wonderful .” – Les Williams, Burton Cutter skipper Bandit was often the smallest boat in the offshore racing fleets and Tony recalls one race in winds...
“He was a natural. You just put him on a boat and he knew exactly what he wanted to do and did it. ” – Joyce Blake When Peter was 13 years old, Brian and Joyce sold their land at Mairangi Bay and used the proceeds to buy a 30ft sloop, Ngarangi (a Maori...
