The Biography of an Extraordinary Sailor

The Story Of Sir Peter Blake

By Tessa Duder

Peter Blake was a New Zealand hero – sailor, adventurer, leader and environmentalist. 

Competing in ocean races, he clocked up as many sea miles as any seafarer in history, with some epic victories. Then he led his small country to win the America’s Cup (twice!), and gave his last years to helping the environment. 

Award-winning author Tessa Duder tells the gripping story of Sir Peter’s life for teenage readers, revealing what made him an inspirational leader. The book features boxes backgrounding sailing skills, the America’s Cup and other key points, and is richly illustrated with photos from his life (including 8 pages of color).

Author’s Bio: Tessa Duder is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated children’s authors, and has written more than 40 books in genres from junior fiction to adult history. Among her best-known works are the Alex quartet and her biography of Margaret Mahy. A keen sailor, she lives in Auckland.
From Chapbook published by the New Zealand Society of Authors http://www.authors.org.nz

Peter’s Comment

I met Sir Peter Blake once just before his untimely death and felt obliged to tell him about an unusual episode that I was involved in sometime earlier.

There was a sailor’s birthday party in progress at Auckland’s Royal Akarana Yacht Club and the clubhouse was getting a bit noisy when a man joined my table.

I introduced myself as Peter Blakeborough and the new arrival quickly vanished again but returned moments later with a beer for me. We struggled to make conversation in the noisy environment, but before I had finished the beer he had another lined up for me.

“You don’t have to buy beer for me,” I told him.

He replied, “If you are Peter Blake’s brother I’ll happily buy beer for you all night.”

When I related this to the famous sailor he laughed and said, “So you must be saying that you owe me a beer. I’ll take you up on that sometime.”

We never met again and then the unthinkable happened when he was killed by Amazon pirates.

The Story of Sir Peter Blake will be a great book to read and treasure and it comes from one of New Zealand’s best authors.