Whitbread 1981 - 1982

At the completion of the second Whitbread Race, Condor was in need of a major refit. Blake spent much of the summer of 1978 based in the picturesque village of Emsworth on the English south coast helping with the refurbishment of the yacht. It was at the Emsworth Sailing Club that he met Pippa Glanville, a local girl who had been studying fine art in London.

Describing her as slim and blonde and "rather pretty", Blake noted that he and Pippa were able to laugh at the same things. She, in turn, described him as "different from anyone else I had ever met." She noticed an air about him - "he was obviously a man of the sea, an adventurer".

The two were married in England in 1979 and spent part of their honeymoon delivering Condor to Australia, where it competed in the Sydney Hobart Race. 1979 was a big year for Blake. Not only did he get married, but he was appointed skipper of Condor and notched up a number of notable successes, taking line honours in the Miami to Montego Bay Race, the Antigua to Bermuda Race (setting a new record in the process) and the famous Fastnet Race in which 15 competitors lost their lives and six yachts sank.

Different from anyone else I had ever met. He was obviously a man of the sea, an adventurer.”

— Lady Blake

By now, Blake had served his Whitbread apprenticeship and was keen to spearhead his own campaign. New Zealand was becoming a sailing force to be reckoned with. Blake was part of a wave of Kiwis taking the sailing world by storm. In 1969, Chris Bouzaid had captured the prestigious One Ton Cup with his famous home-built yacht, Rainbow. Ton Cup racing was the apex of round-the-buoys competition, and New Zealanders were showing their mettle in a number of contests, capturing all the trophies from the Quarter Ton Cup, through the Half Ton Cup to the One Ton Cup one or more times each.

However, for New Zealand to mount a serious campaign in the Whitbread was a massive step up. In the event, two New Zealand entries were mounted for the third Whitbread. One was Outward Bound, a 50-footer designed by Laurie Davidson and skippered by Digby Taylor. The other was Ceramco New Zealand, a 68ft sloop designed by Bruce Farr and skippered by Peter Blake.

To raise the funds for his campaign, Blake was fortunate in attracting the patronage of a local industrialist, Tom Clark, who was a keen yachtsman in his own right. Clark, now Sir Tom Clark, is a delightful character, straight-talking, bluff and jovial with his friends, a tough opponent with his rivals. He became an enduring mentor and touchstone for Blake throughout his sailing career.

At the time, Clark was chairman of the Ceramco Company and he set up a finance deal where the company undertook the principal sponsorship and where the balance was raised through a public share offering. Under Clark’s persuasive charm - and some equally persuasive arm-twisting - some 600 New Zealand companies backed the campaign.

While the aluminium yacht was being built, Blake received over 140 applications to join the crew. Part of his selection process involved taking the final 18 on a rugged three-day mountain tramp to test their character and mettle.

Drawing on his experience of the previous races, Blake was determined to have a fully-prepared yacht in time for the start. Part of that preparation included competing in the 1980 Sydney-Hobart race. Ceramco New Zealand took the coveted line and handicap double in the tough slog down the Australian coast. Not content with this, Blake wanted to further test his crew and they ventured further south for a taste of Southern Ocean conditions.

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 it, any hopes of winning the race. However, Blake and his crew refused to give up and they fashioned a jury rig and determined to make their own way to Cape Town.

The rig was inefficient, however, and they could not sail to windward. Cape Town lay 2,700 miles upwind of their position. So Blake, who was a keen student of sailing history, determined to follow the old clipper ship routes and skirt round the South Atlantic high pressure system. Although this would add some 1500 miles to the journey, taking them almost all the way across to South America before turning east again and making for South Africa, it would keep them in following winds.

The strategy worked and Ceramco made it into Cape Town 24 days later and, incredibly, still ahead of eight of the 26 yachts in the race.

But, the time lost could never the regained. Ceramco was more than 10 days behind the race favourite, Flyer, on corrected time.

Blake and his crew could sail only for pride after that and so they did. After Cape Town, Ceramco won two of the three remaining legs on handicap and built up a nearly 30-hour lead over Flyer for those sections of the race. Blake earned the Roaring Forties Trophy for being the top boat through the Southern Ocean in legs two and three (Cape Town to Auckland and Auckland to Mar del Plata, Argentina). Despite the dismasting, Ceramco was still third fastest round the world.

But, in the overall stakes, these were only consolations. Flyer put together an impeccable campaign under the redoubtable Dutch skipper, Connie von Rietschoten, who took the Whitbread title for the second time in succession. Once again, Blake’s dream was denied.

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