Peter Blake is a New Zealand sailor, a top-level competitor in sailing. He has sailed all over the world's oceans and won prestigious races, from the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994 on the catamaran Enza New Zealand, to the America's Cup in 1995 on the New Zealand boat NZL 32, to the Whitbread, where he competed in the first five editions, from 1974 to 1990.
Saving the oceans
Now recognized, rich and knighted by the queen, he no longer aspires to competition. At 50 years old, he now devotes himself to environmental studies. His objectif?? Save the planet. Saddened by the degradation of the oceans, he tried to take over the Cousteau Foundation - but failed - and created Blakexpéditions. He then bought Antarctica with the ambition of "protecting life in, on and around water." He then visited the most fragile regions of the world, the poles and the major rivers and obtained the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He was appointed Honorary Ambassador of the NGO.
After six months of work in New Zealand, the boat, renamed Seamaster-Omega, set sail. In December 2000, its first destination was Tierra del Fuego, then the Antarctic Peninsula, before going up along Latin America and sailing on the Amazon in September 2001. Thanks to its reduced draught (3 m to 1.50 m), the boat can easily sail on large rivers.
The assassination
On December 5, 2001, in the port of Balneiario de Fazendinha, south of Macapa, Brazil, Peter Blake was murdered with two bullets by local thugs, for a story two watches and a handful of dollars. He is 53 years old.
The boat was then abandoned in the port of Newport (Rhodes Island) before being bought by Etienne Bourgois, general manager of Agnès B, the fashion company founded by her mother.
