A memorial service for Sir Peter Blake will be held in Auckland, New Zealand, on Sunday, Dec. 23 and will be attended by Sir Peter's surviving family members, his wife Lady Pippa and two children.
The memorial is a state-sponsored event and will likely be a solemn show of respect to New Zealand's sailing hero. Less formal memorials, like a parade of sail around Viaduct and Waitemata harbors by Optimists and numerous keel boats, should occur with or without official sanction, according to reports from the New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz).
Ideas for a permanent memorial have been flowing into the New Zealand Herald since Blake's death on the Amazon two weeks ago. One plan calls for renaming Auckland's inner harbor, Viaduct Basin, where he learned to sail as a youth, after him — Blake's Harbour, Blake's Basin, Blake's Viaduct, Sir Peter Blake Village or Blake's Haven. The plan would likely include a stone or bronze statue of the man himself in some sort of prominent position on the waterfront. Another plan calls for endowing an environmentalist fund in his name, which would carry on his environmental mission of preserving wilderness and education. Others have suggested putting his likeness on New Zealand's $20 bill.
