French honour 'blond Viking' Blake

By CATHERINE FIELD

Sir Peter Blake has been hailed as a top sportsman, a natural leader and an environmental hero in the French media.

His sailing contemporaries paid tribute to him, not just as a man but as a sailor, placing him on a pinnacle beside Eric Tabarly, the French sailing great who died in June 1998.

"He was a blond giant, with sky-blue eyes and a Viking moustache. He was the most popular and most respected sailor of the end of the 20th century," the news agency Agence France Presse said.

Blake was especially admired in France for his record-breaking feat in winning the Jules Verne round-the-world trophy in 1994 at the helm of Enza, beating Olivier de Kersauson in a famously rugged duel.

Blake was also chosen to succeed the late Jacques Cousteau as captain of the marine research vessel Calypso 2.

"A great sailor has gone," de Kersauson said. "He was an exceptional man of the sea. Times change and the yacht races change, but, as a sailor, Blake ranked alongside Tabarly."

Frenchman Marc Pajot, who skippered the Swiss Fast2000 challenge in Auckland, said: "We were sailing rivals and partners during the last three America's Cups. He was a great sailor. In France, we had Eric Tabarly. The Anglo-Saxon world had Peter Blake.

"When I think of him, the first word that comes to mind is 'respect'. Respect for the sailor, for the competitor, for the man himself. He was a man of passion and adventure."

Bruno Peyron, who sailed with Blake in 1993, said he could only think of Sir Peter's family. "It's awful ... I think about everything that we will miss, now that he has gone."

Bruno Trouble, whose company promotes the Louis Vuitton Cup series for America's Cup challengers, said: "I am destroyed, it is like the death of Tabarly. It is strange how this enormous man died suddenly like that. I will feel lost for a long time."

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