Pete Hill and the Blue Water Medal: Fifty Years of Junk-Rigged Ocean Voyaging
In a world increasingly drawn to carbon fibre, lithium batteries, and satellite-guided autopilots, Pete Hill stands as a quiet rebuke to the idea that bluewater sailing requires cutting-edge technology. The 75-year-old British sailor has just been named the recipient of the Cruising Club of America's 2025 Blue Water Medal — one of the most prestigious honours in offshore voyaging — for more than fifty years of long-distance sailing aboard small, simply built, junk-rigged boats he designed, built, or modified himself.
Hill joins a lineage of past recipients that includes Bill Tilman, Bernard Moitessier, Eric and Susan Hiscock, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. It is telling company, and Hill belongs among them not for any single headline-grabbing passage, but for a lifetime of sustained, self-reliant ocean wandering that has taken him from the Arctic to the Southern Ocean and back again.
A Career Built on Simplicity
Hill's offshore career began in the 1970s aboard a self-built 27-foot Wharram catamaran, which he sailed with his first wife Annie on a demanding North Atlantic circuit in 1975. The couple later built Badger, a 34-foot plywood dory, and cruised widely in both hemispheres — reaching from Greenland and Arctic Norway south to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Gough Island before returning north via Baffin Island and eventually sailing to Cape Town.
Central to Hill's philosophy is the junk rig, the ancient Chinese sail plan that he has repeatedly proven across the world's oceans. Where most modern cruisers invest in expensive roller furlers, electric winches, and high-tech laminates, Hill has always relied on the junk rig's inherent advantages: instant reefing from the cockpit, no standing rigging loads, easy repair with basic materials, and a forgiving character that suits shorthanded sailing in rough conditions.
Building Kokachin During the Pandemic
During the pandemic lockdowns, while many sailors were grounded, Hill and his partner Linda Crew-Gee built Kokachin, a junk-rigged schooner. Her first voyage included a North Atlantic crossing, cruising in the Caribbean, and a circumnavigation of Newfoundland — a shakedown that would have been a lifetime achievement for most sailors but was simply another chapter for Hill.
After a refit in Tasmania, the couple departed for New Zealand in 2025. En route, they were caught in a violent Tasman Sea storm that damaged the boat and forced six continuous days and nights of hand steering. They made it through — as Hill always does — with resourcefulness, seamanship, and the kind of calm determination that defines his approach to the ocean.
What Cruisers Can Learn from Pete Hill
For those of us planning our own bluewater voyages or already out there living aboard, Hill's career is a powerful reminder of several things worth remembering. First, the boat matters less than the sailor. Hill has crossed oceans in plywood dories and home-built catamarans — vessels that most marina dock-walkers would dismiss without a second glance. His success is built on seamanship, preparation, and knowing his vessels intimately because he built them with his own hands.
Second, simplicity is a feature, not a compromise. Every system on a boat is a potential failure point. Hill's junk rigs can be repaired with materials available in any fishing village on earth. His boats carry no complex electronics to fail. When something breaks — and at sea, things always break — he can fix it.
Third, the voyage never has to end. At 75, Hill is still out there, still building boats, still crossing oceans. He has shown that bluewater sailing is not a single bucket-list passage but a way of living that can span decades if you commit to it fully.
The Blue Water Medal recognises not just distance sailed but the spirit and quality of the voyaging. In Pete Hill's case, it honours a sailor who has done more with less than almost anyone alive — and who shows no signs of stopping.
