When Ted Turner Conquered the Sea --- The 'Mouth of the South' was a talented sailor who honed his leadership skills -- and appetite for risk -- under pressure

“Ted Turner sure had some sailor swag. Look at him in the photograph here, circa 1977, the year he won the America's Cup helming the 12-meter sloop, Courageous.

 

An impeccable, crisp-collared rugby shirt -- over a polo shirt. A jaunty denim hat that would look silly on pretty much anyone else. Sunglasses that look stolen from a rogue detective. An American flag, draped at his side.

 

He's a J.Crew cover before J.Crew existed. He's a cigarette ad without the smoke. Has the ancient sport of sailing ever looked more dashing? Turner's yachty charisma transformed sleepy Newport, R.I., into Studio 54.

 

It wasn't a mere look. Turner's sailing bona fides were legit long before his mogul ones. When people call Turner, who died Wednesday at age 87, a maverick, an iconoclast, a swashbuckler -- he was all of those things on a boat before he became them in the business world.

 

Everything Turner pulled off in the boardroom, he first did on the sea.

 

"Ted's business acumen and sailing acumen were analogous," his friend and former tactician, sailing Hall of Famer Gary Jobson said Wednesday. "He'd rather take a risk and risk losing than have a safe race. That wasn't Ted. He wanted to go for all of it. If he didn't make it -- at least we tried. That was his method."

 

Like with his media empire, Turner began his sailing career as a noisy arriviste, and finished as a champ. An elite dinghy racer in his youth, he gave the Cup a whirl in 1974 on Mariner, a vessel he claimed would be an innovative breakthrough. It wasn't. Mariner got smoked.

 

"The breakthrough boat was a disaster," said another Turner friend and crewmen, the sailmaker Robbie Doyle.

 

It was Doyle who encouraged Turner to take control of Courageous when it became available for the 1977 Cup. The Olin Stephens-designed vessel may not have been cutting edge, but it remained fast -- fast enough to rout its American competition and sweep the Australians in the Cup.

 

Triumphant Turner and his crew cruised into Newport as rock stars. Sailing groupies piled onto the docks.

 

"I'd never seen anything in my life like it," said Jobson, who was 26 at the time.

 

"He was truly the last amateur to win the Cup."

 

As tactician, Jobson's role was to guide Turner at the helm, to read the wind and set strategy and pace. Turner almost always agreed with Jobson's directions. This was a lesson that would pay off later in business -- hire the right people, and let them do their jobs.

 

Of course, he was also Ted Turner, the guy who briefly hired himself to manage his own Atlanta Braves. He couldn't help himself. He wanted to win, and told everyone he would.

 

"Others called it outrageous, his colorfulness, but people loved him," said Jobson. "'How are you going to do?' 'Well, we're going to kick their ass.' None of the 'we have great respect for the other team.' He was bold that way."

 

"I kind of miss it," Jobson said of Turner's brash style.

 

Sports Illustrated may have deemed Turner "Terrible Ted" on its cover, but on the ocean, the skipper wasn't an Ahab.

 

"He made you happy to be there," said Doyle. "He could be loud, at times obnoxious, but he was always one of the boys. He was never condescending to anybody."

 

As staggering as that '77 Cup victory was, Turner didn't consider it his greatest sailing achievement. That title he reserved for his victory at the infamous 1979 edition of the Fastnet Race, a 600-plus nautical mile competition in which hundreds of boats race around Ireland's Fastnet Rock.

 

That Fastnet was a harrowing, heartbreaking one, as high seas from a late summer storm broke apart boats and capsized crews. Turner's crew remained safe, but 15 crew members from competing vessels died in the race.

 

"It was really a horrific thing," said Jobson, who worked aboard Turner's boat, Tenacious.

 

The storm was so rough and communication so limited that Tenacious was briefly reported missing. The acclaimed sailor and journalist Christian Williams, who crewed as a mainsail trimmer, recalls Turner, a classics major in college, dramatically reciting lines from his favorite poem, Thomas Babington Macaulay's "Horatius" (Example line: And how can man die better/Than facing fearful odds)

 

This wasn't simply Turner trying to inspire his crew to victory. This would be the guiding philosophy of his career, philanthropy, environmentalism and a media revolution to follow.

 

Ted Turner competed to win.

 

"He saw himself as an ancient hero," Williams said. "His whole approach to challenges was like Odysseus, or Achilles, or Napoleon. That explains the romantic self-image that propelled him throughout his whole life."” [1]

 

1. When Ted Turner Conquered the Sea --- The 'Mouth of the South' was a talented sailor who honed his leadership skills -- and appetite for risk -- under pressure. Gay, Jason.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 08 May 2026: A16.