Obituary: Ted Turner, America’s Cup icon and founder of CNN (1938-2026)

Ted Turner has passed away at age 87. The CNN founder was also an America’s Cup victor, a four-time winner of the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award, and a colourful character in American yacht racing.

One of the biggest characters in yacht racing – and particularly the America’s Cup – Ted Turner, has died aged 87.

Robert ‘Ted’ Edward Turner III was born on November 19, 1938 in Ohio, USA, and spent his childhood sailing in Savannah, in the Southern state of Georgia, going on to win class championships in the Flying Dutchman amongst others.

After military school he headed to Brown University, where he represented the Ivy League institution in sailing, but was expelled for being caught with a female guest in his dorm room.

He joined his family business, Turner Communications, which specialised in advertising hoardings, as an account executive. But his father took his own life shortly after, and Turner III took over as the company’s president.

The young Turner swiftly proved to have an aptitude for the media business, diversifying the company into radio, television, and sports, with enormous success.

Ted Turner photographed with sailing trophies in his office at Turner Broadcasting System. Credit: Tom Hill via Getty

In 1964, aged 26, Turner trialled for the US Olympic Team in the Flying Dutchman class, but was not selected to represent USA at the Tokyo Games.

However, he won the Flying Dutchman World Championships the following year, and also won the 5.5-Metre Worlds in 1970.

He then moved into big boat racing and bought the 12-Metre American Eagle in 1969. American Eagle was designed for the 1964 America’s Cup, but Turner had it converted to IOR racing.

After competing in SORC races and the Annapolis-Newport Race, it sailed across the Atlantic on its own bottom to race in the Fastnet Race.

Officially a ‘reserve’ for the US Admiral’s Cup team that year, Turner skippered American Eagle to win line honours and set a monohull race record time in the 608-mile offshore race in 1971.

He then shipped the boat to Australia and won the 1972 Sydney Hobart Race on both line honours and handicap.

Turner went on to win both races again. He won the tragic 1979 Fastnet Race in his own 61-footer Tenacious.

He is quoted as saying during the race: “Looks like there’s some heavy weather coming. Put up all the canvas, we’ll let God take it down.”

He also won line honours in the 1983 Sydney Hobart as skipper of the Maxi yacht Condor.

His sailing successes led to him skippering the Challenger Mariner for the 1974 America’s Cup Defense Trials, but Mariner – which had a radical hull design – was swiftly knocked out, and Turner was dismissed.

Describing the boat, Turner famously noted that ‘even a turd is pointed at both ends’.

Determined to get to the Cup, Turner partnered with sailmaker Ted Hood of the rival Courageous syndicate, which had won the 1974 Cup, with Turner appointed as Courageous’s skipper for the 1977 defence.

The American yacht ‘Courageous’, captained by Ted Turner, sailing at Newport during selection trials for the America’s Cup, Rhode Island, August 9th 1977. Credit: UPI / Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

In 1977 Courageous and Turner won first the US America’s Cup trials – for which Cup reporter Bob Fisher gave him the moniker of “Captain Courageous” when he came from behind to defeat the newer 12-Metre Independence, skippered by Hood, and Lowell North on the much fancied Enterprise.

He then successfully defended the Cup in the Match against the challenger Australia, winning 4-0, and celebrated famously.

He was a four-time winner of the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award, and is thought to have won over 500 major sailing trophies.

Turner at the official CNN Launch event at CNN Techwood Drive World Headquarters in Atlanta Georgia, June 01, 1980. Credit: Rick Diamond via Getty Images

Success on the water was mirrored in his business life, with Turner founding the CNN news network in 1980.

CNN became a leader in breaking international news, covering seismic events such as the protests in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Gulf War in Iraq.

Turner was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for CNN’s groundbreaking coverage in 1991. He later bought the MGM film library for $1.6bn, and created the Cartoon Network, before selling his multi-billion-dollar business in the Time Warner merger.

A passionate environmentalist, Turner was a major charity donor and passionate about sustainable development – much of it on his own land, and until 2010 he was the largest private landowner in the USA.

He gave $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation charity, and lobbied to reduce the global proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

He created the ‘Goodwill Games’, after several Olympic Games in the 1980s were impacted by political boycotts, and invested heavily in various sports including baseball and wrestling.

Turner is reported to have had a long-running feud with fellow media magnate Rupert Murdoch – which founded, not in a ratings war, but when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Condor during the 1983 Sydney to Hobart Race.

Condor ran aground but held the race line honours win after protest. At a boozy post-race dinner, Turner and Murdoch exchanged heated words – legend has it that Turner later challenged Murdoch to a televised fistfight in Las Vegas.

Outspoken and at times controversial, he was variously nicknamed ‘The Mouth of the South’ and ‘Captain Outrageous’, though the latter often applied to his ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on the water.

His private life was also at times in the headlines: he married three times – the third time to actor Jane Fonda.

He is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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