A humble handmade boat that helped launched the yachting career of Sir Peter Blake has a new home at the New Zealand Maritime Museum. Sir Peter, with his brother Tony, built the 7-metre keel yacht named Bandit in the backyard of their Bayswater family home in 1966, when Sir Peter was just 17.
Bandit was one of the vessels Sir Peter learnt his craft on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf as a teenager, winning several Auckland sailing competitions in the summer of 1968 when they eventually got it out on the water.
He went on to have one of the most celebrated sailing careers in New Zealand’s history – including winning the America’s Cup in 1995 and successfully defending it in 2000 and circumnavigating the globe six times.
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