Brian Rudman: Swap Saint for Sir Peter in memorial

Three years ago, Mayor John Banks and the national museum, Te Papa, proposed to honour murdered yachtsman Sir Peter Blake by building a great glass mausoleum alongside Auckland's waterfront National Maritime Museum. At the time, my question was, when did we New Zealanders start erecting $10 million monuments to each other?

After a storm of public controversy, Te Papa and architect Pete Bossley promised to rework the project. By then, the public had overwhelmingly decided that spending the $10 million on saving Kaikoura Island, off Great Barrier Island, from overseas ownership was a much better tribute to conservationist Blake. Politicians caved in and stumped up the cash.

Notwithstanding all that, Te Papa is now back with plans for a more modest, $8 million memorial instead. On the plus side, the stand-alone glass temple has gone, to be replaced with an imaginative enlargement of the northern shed of the existing museum building.

But my earlier unease about what's to go inside still lingers.

The display is to be called "Blue Water Black Magic - A Tribute to Sir Peter Blake" and will be presented with all the professional and idiosyncratic panache that Te Papa is famous - or infamous - for. Which is all well and good, until you realise that the existing sailboating resources of the museum are being drafted to help tell the story.

What hasn't changed from the original project is the intention to present a Blake-centric version of the history of New Zealand yachting. There'll be P-class yachts and their history, stories of earlier and later triumphs in the Olympic Games, the One Ton Cup, Admiral's Cup and so on, but all the roads seem to lead to and from Sir Peter. And not just as far as yachting is concerned. It'll be about life as well. There'll be storylines directed at children, for instance, on how to be a leader, Blake-style.

There'll even be a little inner sanctum, with precious relics, like Blake's lucky red socks, carefully preserved in climate-controlled storage boxes. For a born sceptic, it's all a bit spooky.

Dominating the whole space will be Black Magic, the victorious cup-winning boat, suspended from the ceiling and visible from all three levels of the display space.

Don't get me wrong, I think mounting a display telling the story of New Zealand yachting, and in particular, the great battle to win the America's Cup, is great. I think obtaining the professional and financial backing of the Government-funded Te Papa to help mount the exhibition is good too - and only fair, given that Te Papa is supposed to spend a proportion of its funds on "regional" activity.

But I do baulk at the antiquated idea of history as being the story of kings and queens and assorted other "leaders". Sir Peter Blake was obviously inspirational, but he was Sir Peter, not Saint Peter, and he is not the sun around which New Zealand yachting, past, present and future, rotates.

It's over four years now, since he died. Surely it's time to drop the hyperbole and do him the honour of a more balanced portrayal.

Of course, just as three years ago, the whole project remains a vision until someone comes up with the cash. So far the Government's initial pledge of $2.5 million is the only money firmly in the bank. A divided Auckland City Council agreed three years ago to pay $2 million over four years if the rest of the money was forthcoming. This decision is to be relitigated on June 22 by the present council. Presumably the earlier decision will be endorsed, though finance committee chairman Vern Walsh says he will be arguing for free admission for Auckland City residents as a condition of this grant. This because, once more, it's unlikely any other local council will join Auckland City in contributing to this new regional asset.

That leaves $3.5 million, which Te Papa is hoping will come from "Blake's Mates" and the ASB Trusts. Of course, if that falls short, there's always Te Papa. On its budget, the shortfall is mere petty cash.