RIP Ted Turner (1938–2026)

Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III, the legendary founder of CNN, has passed away at the age of 87. To the world, he leaves a legacy not just as the pioneer of 24-hour news but also as one of the most colourful, controversial, and successful sailors in the history of the sport.

For Ted Turner, sailing was no mere hobby. It was an all-consuming passion that shaped his character and his ruthless business instincts. Turner learned his trade from the bottom up—he started racing at the age of 11 and worked his way through youth classes and dinghies like the Lightning and Flying Dutchman before moving on to keelboats and offshore racing. He was never just another wealthy dilettante who bought a fast boat with a polished crew. Turner was a true captain in every sense: someone who could feel the boat, read the wind and the sea, outthink his rivals, and, if necessary, step into any role in the cockpit.

He challenged not only his opponents and the elements but also the accepted codes of conduct within the yachting establishment. He earned his nicknames—“Captain Outrageous”, “Terrible Ted”, and “The Mouth of the South”—for his aggressive, attacking style, his complete lack of filter, and his habit of speaking his mind, loudly and often.



Turner was the last of a dying breed: the amateur yachtsman who could still win the America’s Cup (a trophy that, from then on, would only be conquered by professionals). In 1977, he steered the 12-metre Courageous to a crushing 4–0 victory over the Australian challengers. That win was a triumph of sheer obstinacy. Just three years earlier, his own boat, Mariner, with its bold but flawed design, had failed miserably, and Turner had been ousted from running the syndicate. So he bought the winning boat instead—and proved his point in the most emphatic way possible.

Yet many sailing historians regard his greatest feat as victory in the 1979 Fastnet Race. During that ill-fated edition, a savage storm blew up, claiming the lives of 15 sailors. While nearly every other boat shortened sail and tried merely to survive, Turner, aboard his 61‑foot Tenacious, made a devilish decision. As legend has it, he said, "Looks like a little breeze is coming. Put all the sails up—and let God take them down.” That insane gamble saw him finish first, while out of more than 300 starters, only 105 managed to complete the race.

In 1983, Turner’s rivalry with another media mogul, Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News, which had become a serious challenger to CNN), boiled over onto the water. During a race, Murdoch’s yacht collided with Turner’s, sinking it. A furious Turner immediately challenged Murdoch to a fistfight.

Turner’s style on the water was anything but gentlemanly. His marriage to his first wife, Julia Gale—a far more accomplished and experienced sailor than he was at the time—fell apart after, during a race, he rammed her boat rather than give way, even though the rules required him to do so. And he never held back in his comments, either. According to some accounts, when reflecting on the failure of Mariner in 1974—whose unconventional underwater design featured a sharp, skeg-like step instead of smooth, rounded lines—he summed it up with a line that remains legendary in sailing circles: “Even shit is rounded at both ends.”



Ted Turner is the only person to have been named “Yachtsman of the Year” four times by Rolex and US Sailing. He won iconic races such as Sydney–Hobart (in 1972 and 1983) and was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame (1993) and the National Sailing Hall of Fame (2011).

Turner forever changed the perception of the America’s Cup as the preserve of bored billionaires in white trousers and club blazers. He arrived as a loud‑mouthed outsider from the business world, turned the whole affair into a rock‑and‑roll show, slammed doors, made enemies, and won anyway—all while building a media empire.



In 1980, he took the helm of Courageous once more to defend the Cup. But by then, the era of larger-than-life characters like him—men who gathered a team around them and somehow snatched victory through sheer stubbornness, instinct, talent, charisma and a dose of outrageous luck—was already giving way to a new age. The professional syndicates had arrived, with unlimited budgets, armies of engineers, tacticians and support staff, and, of course, ever more sophisticated boats.

You will often read that Turner talked too much, drank too much, and rarely appeared in public without yet another glamorous companion. Asked about politics, he would unapologetically take aim at everyone—including the Pope, the Germans, the Jews, immigrants and the financial elite. And in the heat of a regatta, he would literally ram his rivals. But behind that loutish, hell‑raising image stood a truly outstanding yachtsman and an utterly extraordinary character. That is how we will remember him.