Sir Peter Blake: An Amazing Life

The late Sir Peter Blake is known to all New Zealanders as the world's most celebrated and honoured yachtsmen/adventurer, the man who seized the America's Cup. In recent years, of course, Blake turned away from international yachting to embark on a plan with the yacht Seamaster to draw attention to threats to the world's environment. Tragically, as we know, in late 2001 Blake was murdered by pirates aboard Seamaster at the mouth of the Amazon. In this first-ever biography, Alan Sefton, a close friend and colleague, traces Blake's extraordinary life, from the small boy crazy about the sea, to the rigours of ocean racing and the America's Cup triumphs, to the decision to devote his life to saving the world's oceans, and to Blake's sad end on the Amazon. Among many details never before revealed will be the true story of what happened behind the scenes at Team New Zealand as the crew broke up and Coutts and Butterworth jumped ship. The biography is written with the full backing of Pippa, Lady Blake, who has made Sir Peter's files and papers available to Sefton.