Son of gun travels as onboard reporter
Multimedia skills showing rigours of ocean racing make James Blake asset to race, writes Andrew Alderson
When the late Sir Peter Blake won the Whitbread round- the- world race in May 1990, a toddler was passed from the Southampton dock to the skipper’s Steinlager 2 boat and enveloped by an almighty cuddle.
Twenty- seven years later, that boy i s about to embark on his maiden traverse of the globe.
James Blake, Sir Peter’s son, will travel as an onboard reporter when this year’s race begins on Sunday night in Alicante, Spain.
He will predominantly report on the feats of Team AkzoNobel, skippered by Kiwi Brad Jackson, but will race the first leg with Vestas 11th Hour Racing.
Reporters are expected to file dispatches from any boat as the race unfolds.
Blake has eked out a reputation as a documentary- maker producing film for the likes of the BBC and Discovery Channel.
The 30- year- old auditioned among 10,000 hopefuls from 126 countries to race the 45,000- nautical mile route across four oceans, five continents, 11 legs and eight months.
He went through a “boot camp” in Alicante, before being anointed raceready.
“The [ onboard reporter field] was narrowed down through interviews. We sailed with some of the teams and had to be signed off by two skippers. We spent a while at sea and basically had to show we could get on with people, because you’re stuck with them for a long time during the race.”
Blake needed no introduction to the nautical world, having sailed on boats since birth. However, his multimedia skills illustrating the rigours of ocean racing are what make him an asset to the race.
“I took a different path from my father and have been working as a cameraman for six or seven years. I’ve been involved in TV for about 12.
“Mum [ artist Lady Pippa] is probably a bigger influence. She encouraged me to do what I wanted more in the art than the sailing or exploring worlds. I’ll take a few of her images with me on the boat.
“I prefer to steer clear of the limelight, but when I walk around and see Dad’s words printed in the race headquarters [ at Alicante], it’s quite moving. Fortunately this is a job that allows us to explore areas where he spent so much of his life.”
Sir Peter was shot and killed by pirates while monitoring environment change on the Amazon River in December 2001.
James Blake is most looking forward to reaching the Brazilian city of Itajai on the seventh leg. That journey will take him from Auckland around Cape Horn where he will experience the Southern Ocean’s most trying conditions.
Blake has an affinity for the region after being sent, courtesy of New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust, to document the centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914- 17 Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition.
Shackleton and his 27 men had their ship, the Endurance, crushed by ice. On a diet of predominantly seals and penguins, they camped on a floe which took them 600 miles north in five months, before launching life boats for Elephant Island, south of Cape Horn. From there, six of the party, including Shackleton, embarked for South Georgia in a gamble to get everyone rescued. They endured gale- force winds, apartment- sized waves and frostbitten temperatures to cover 720 nautical miles of Southern Ocean in a fortnight. All the men were rescued by August, only for many to return home and enlist for World War I. Blake was left in awe. “We went across South Georgia Island which, for us, was a four- day trek. We found that tough. Even after doing it with modern equipment, I’m still not sure how he managed.
Blake might feel similarly about the Volvo Ocean Race when he finishes next June.