Yachting: If he promised, he delivered

Sir Peter Blake's achievements were remarkable, but it was his vision that seduced the sponsors. JAN CORBETT reports.

Yachting has no prizemoney. Not even the America's Cup. Instead, it is a rich man's sport. But in a country with precious few seriously rich benefactors to finance a sailing campaign, our top sailors have no choice but to work the corporate sponsorship circuit to buy the boats and fund their salaries. And no one worked that circuit more successfully than Sir Peter Blake.

To be fair, in the America's Cup he inherited the sponsorship model from his slick predecessor in the battle for public empathy, Sir Michael Fay.

According to Denis Harvey, head of production and sport for TVNZ, when Sir Peter took over he instinctively understood that the secret of America's Cup sponsorship was having TVNZ on board. A broadcaster within the sponsorship family meant guaranteed television coverage. That gave the other sponsors guaranteed national exposure.

Harvey recalls how Sir Peter was "always mindful of our requirements" and "everything he promised, he delivered".

His success at securing sponsorship sometimes aroused jealousy among yachting rivals, because from the start Sir Peter Blake was the sort of sportsman sponsors were drawn to.

During preparation for his first attempt as skipper in the 1981 Whitbread round-the-world race, his syndicate went looking for money and knocked on the door of Sir Tom Clark, chairman of a corporate giant of the time, Ceramco.

Sir Tom, who says he feels like he has lost a son, remembers how "I asked the vital question; who will be running the ship?" and was introduced to Sir Peter Blake.

Impressed with Sir Peter's leadership qualities and grasp of what was involved in the campaign, Clark had to convince a reluctant board that it was worth gambling $1 million on this "untried horse".

When the board refused to back a second campaign, Sir Tom was instrumental in putting Sir Peter together with Douglas Myers, for his next boat Lion New Zealand, followed by Steinlager, the boat in which he finally scored Whitbread victory. The sponsorship relationship between Myers and Sir Peter went on to endure through two America's Cups.

Sir Tom was there when Sir Peter, now without the backing of Sir Michael Fay, mortgaged his house to pay the entry fee for the 1995 America's Cup challenge. This was the sort of personal commitment sponsors like to see.

It certainly impressed Bob Field, of Toyota New Zealand, whose company agreed to stay on board with Team New Zealand at a time many local companies were cutting back on sponsorship.

Like all his sailing sponsors, Field talks of Sir Peter's loyalty - if you backed him, he would never forget it. In return for driving a Toyota, Sir Peter would show up at company headquarters whenever he was asked to, and would regularly address staff training seminars. He never turned down a request, says Field, who was fond of introducing Sir Peter as "the greatest living New Zealander".

He did business the same way he sailed - openly, honestly and as a team player. He didn't suffer fools.

Naturally, sponsors were reassured by his achievements, but mostly they were seduced by his vision. Ross Munro, whose clothing label Line 7 owes its international success to its America's Cup association, remembers how "if he said something would happen, it did". The case in point being the America's Cup village built at the Viaduct Basin which, in 1995, was nothing but a gleam in Sir Peter's eyes.

"He wasn't a great negotiator," Munro recalls fondly. Rather, after talking the talk, he would walk away and leave his managers and accountants to draft the finer details.

Former Team New Zealand tactician Brad Butterworth says Sir Peter's ability to make business people share his dreams was the key. The same could be said of the thousands of people who not only bought the red socks, but wore them.

"He could definitely talk people into doing things they didn't want to do and spend a lot of money on something that in the end was very successful."

The business end of yachting will now follow the Blake model.

People like Ross Munro say Sir Peter has shown them what's possible, how it should be done, and how the success of these commercial arrangements can be measured.

If anything, his example has made yachting sponsors more comfortable. Even rivals such as Grant Dalton admit to following the Peter Blake book on sponsorship.

Sir Peter was certainly considered enough of an expert at it to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Massey University for his pioneering role in sports sponsorship.

He also lived well enough off it himself. In 1998 he appeared in NBR's Rich List with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million.

Fitting, then, that the sponsorship master should die in a boat named for his sponsor. Seamaster is a brand of Omega watches.

Omega, the Swiss company whose "ambassadors" include stars such as Cindy Crawford, Pierce Brosnan and Michael Schumacher, added Sir Peter Blake to their stable in 1995 after taking a spot on the keel of Black Magic.

Omega events manager Patrick Buteux, who was in Auckland when news of Sir Peter's death came through, remembers him as a forceful but also humble man.

"He didn't want to call [his latest venture] Blakexpeditions. I insisted. He gave it credibility, and an aura.

"He was very convincing that he was going to make a difference. We all believed so much in him."

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