Yachting: America's Cup winner killed by pirates

Double America’s Cup winner Peter Blake has been killed by pirates in the Amazon, his race sponsors said today.

The agency which represents the Paris organisers of the Louis Vuitton Cup, said Peter, 53, had been on an exploratory trip when he was killed.

Bruno Trouble, organiser of the America’s Cup and a friend of Peter’s, said he ‘‘went through life like lightning. Peter was an extraordinary leader of men ... he had an amazing charisma. I think that he was actually hiding his shyness.’’

In March of last year, Blake revealed that he’d received letters from someone threatening to kill him and harm his family.

‘‘We’ve always got crank mail, but it has been going beyond that recently,’’ Blake said at the time.

‘‘So we have taken all the precautions we were advised to take.’’

Peter announced earlier this year that he was relinquishing control of the New Zealand team. He was knighted in 1995.

He also won the prestigious Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989 and captured the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994.

In November last year, he embarked on a three month study of wildlife in the South Pole. He then travelled to the Amazon for eight months’ sailing.

Peter Blake was born in Auckland. He is survived by his wife, Pippa, and two children.

In July the United Nations Environment Programme appointed him a goodwill ambassador.