Whitbread 1989 - 1990

One of the enduring qualities about Peter Blake’s sailing career was his ability first to attract excellent sponsors and second to build long term relationships and friendships with them. Sir Tom Clark is a case in point, as is Douglas Myers, the former chairman of Lion Breweries. After the Lion campaign, with all its disappointments, Myers showed no signs of retreating. On the contrary, an ambitious project was proposed whereby Lion, under the banner of its prime export beer, Steinlager, would promote three campaigns.

Steinlager 1 was a high-tech wing-masted trimaran aimed primarily at the two-handed round Australia Race, which was run in 1988 as part of Australia’s bicentennial celebrations. Steinlager 2 was a Whitbread maxi targeted to once and for all secure the elusive round the world title. Steinlager 3 was to be a giant multihull aimed at securing the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation.

Steinlager 1 was 18m (60ft) long and nearly as wide (15.8m - 52ft). Built in carbon and kevlar, she was extremely light, but very strong. With a towering carbon-fibre wing mast, this was an out and out speed machine.

Even in relatively light winds, Steinlager 1 was capable of sailing fast enough to tow a water skier. It was all excitement in the build-up and the family shared some of it too. By now, James had been born and the Blake family of four went cruising on a very high performance multihull built for two. This was an equation that was not without frustration, especially as Blake at 6ft 4in tall had difficulty squeezing into the confined space at the best of times – let alone trying to assemble James’ cot.

For the Round Australia Race, Blake chose Mike Quilter as navigator and co-skipper. Quilter was part of the Lion crew. A former sailmaker, he brought a great depth of experience and talent to the project, as well as being thoroughly good company in any situation.

This was Blake’s coming of age. After all those years of heartbreak and endeavour, everything came together with the striking yacht that gained the affectionate nickname, Big Red.

The pair were severely tested, not to mention scared out of their wits, when they encountered fearful conditions that threatened to engulf, or capsize the trimaran. They survived the experience and won the race by five days, but Blake’s immediate post-race reaction was that he would never race in a multihull again. It was one of those ‘never again’ statements that would later be retracted.

Although Steinlager 1 was a project in its own right, part of the exercise was to test ideas and materials for the next Whitbread. However, early in the construction of Steinlager 2 grim news awaited Blake as he made one of his regular visits to the construction yard. Serious delamination had occurred between the multiple skins that make up the hull. The only remedy was to scrap the hull and start again.

This was to be a campaign where nothing was left to chance and Steinlager 2 very quickly proved to be an exceptional yacht. Blake and his close lieutenants poured their experience and expertise into the design brief to Farr Yacht Design, providing a mass of detail on exactly how they wanted the boat to be. The result was a 25.6m (84ft) scarlet ketch with a fractional rig, an entirely new beast in the contemporary world of maxi racing. (Interestingly, Grant Dalton, a fellow New Zealander who had raced with Blake as a watch leader on Lion New Zealand, was spearheading his debut campaign as a skipper and also chose a ketch, although slightly smaller and with a masthead rig.)

This time, the decision was made to by-pass the Sydney-Hobart race and instead the shakedown race would be the Fastnet Classic. The two New Zealand ketches set alarm bells ringing all through the Whitbread community when they raced neck and neck in the Fastnet, with Steinlager 2 capturing line honours.

The rival skippers, all with sloops, had every right to be alarmed, because the Fastnet result provided a blueprint for the Whitbread result. This was Blake’s coming of age. After all those years of heartbreak and endeavour, everything came together with the striking yacht that gained the affectionate nickname, Big Red. Competing in a fleet of 23 yachts from 13 nations – the strongest group ever to contest the Whitbread – Steinlager 2 won the line and handicap honour in leg after leg. At last, there was only the final sprint across the Atlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton.

Four days into the final leg, disaster was only narrowly averted when, in the middle of the night, the crew heard a loud crack. The helmsman reacted instantly and threw the yacht into a gybe, transferring the strain of the rigs onto the opposite side. It was fortunate he did, because it turned out a chainplate attaching the rigging to the side of the yacht had cracked through. If it had severed, both rigs would have gone over the side and the race would have been over.

Instead, the crew were able to fashion a makeshift chainplate out of metal and bolt it in place to effect a repair strong enough to allow them to race with confidence all the way to England – with the rival Kiwi ketch breathing down their necks all the way. Despite the near-disaster, Steinlager 2 won the final leg into England, achieving an unprecedented perfect record of line and handicap doubles for all six legs of the race.

At last, Blake could claim the Whitbread crown which had eluded him for so long. And, having done so in the most emphatic way possible, he was able to close that chapter of his sailing career and turn to new challenges.

The first of these was the third part of the Steinlager programme, the Jules Verne attempt. By this time, Lion Breweries had fulfilled all its objectives and passed up the record attempt, but the relationship with Blake would be renewed again in quest of another yachting crown in the future.

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