05/08/2026
Fair winds and following seas to Ted Turner, who died yesterday. Ted was a controversial figure, but one thing is sure: he was an incredible sailor. As the skipper of our namesake, the 12 Metre yacht Courageous, Ted won the America's Cup in 1977, in a 4-0 shutout--Courageous's second America's Cup victory. Known as Captain Courageous (or Captain Outrageous, on occasion), Turner bought the boat and participated in two more America's Cup campaigns, and won the New York Yacht Club's Lipton Memorial Cup before selling the boat to the Courageous Syndicate. The Syndicate, David Vietor and Leonard Green, continued to race and campaign for the Cup through 1986, and generously donated the boat to a new community sailing center in Boston: Courageous. (If you're wondering, we eventually replaced the Courageous with fleets of smaller boats, and it's still racing in Newport!) Captain Courageous's victory and leadership aboard our namesake were an inspiration to so many, and launched the chain of events that has brought the joys of sailing to countless numbers of kids over the years.
