Sir Peter Blake's yacht on market

by Ivor Wilkins on 12 Aug 2003 Pippa Blake, widow of Sir Peter Blake, has put his purpose-built expedition yacht, Seamaster, on the market. The sale is being handled on behalf of the Blake family by long-time friend Don Robertson.

Seamaster is currently in Newport, Rhode Island. The yacht was the centrepiece of Blakexpeditions, the environmental-awareness programme launched by Sir Peter after his successful defence of the America¹s Cup in 2000.
Sir Peter and his crew took Seamaster to the Antarctic in 2001, venturing further south down the Antarctic Peninsula than any previous yacht. The next expedition was to the Amazon, where Sir Peter was tragically murdered by river pirates at the successful conclusion of a 2400-mile exploration.

The Blakexpedition mission was to spread environmental awareness, focusing particularly on water quality around a slogan, Good Water, Good Life, Poor Water, Poor Life, No Water, No Life.
Designed by Luc Bouvet and Olivier Petit, Seamaster was originally named Antarctica. She was built in France in 1989 for French doctor adventurer Jean Louis Etienne, who completed two major expeditions, one to Antarctica and one to Spitzbergen. The dish-shaped hull and retractible appendages are designed to prevent the yacht from being crushed should it be caught in ice. The concept is that the hull will pop up and sit on top of the ice. This was tested and proved extremely successful when the yacht wintered in Spitzbergen in 1995-96.
Sir Peter took it over in 1999. Under the Blakexpedition ownership, the yacht had a refit in 2000 and has been maintained ever since.

Contact Don Robertson at dlrobertson@xtra.co.nz

SEAMASTER

36m LOA
10m Beam
27m equal height masts
Two 350hp engines
400m2 sail area
two rudders each assembly weighs 1.5 tonnes
two centreboards -- 3.5m draught blades down
ice tunnel props
plating 16mm thick up to 50mm in places
Displacement 70 tonnes