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Sailing News for May 07, 2026

Sailing lost one of its biggest personalities with the passing of Ted Turner, the 1977 America’s Cup winner who helped drag the sport into the mainstream through aggressive racing, sharp one-liners, and a fearless style that rattled the old guard. Long before foiling and billion-dollar campaigns, Turner and Gary Jobson’s dominant Cup run turned Newport into must-watch sports drama and made sailing feel bigger than itself. Away from the headlines, cruisers are rediscovering practical seamanship like safely drying out on tidal ground, proving old-school knowledge still matters. Meanwhile, a windy RS600 club race reminded everyone that even a casual evening sail can turn into full survival mode when the breeze cranks up. From legendary Cup history to everyday sailors battling gusts and tide, the sport still thrives on equal parts skill, chaos, and personality.

Sail GP/America’s Cup

America’s Cup: Ted Turner, Captain Outrageous, dies at 87yrs (8 min read)
Ted Turner didn’t just win races, he bulldozed through sailing’s old-money rulebook with a grin, a one-liner, and a boat full of hard chargers. The CNN founder and 1977 America’s Cup winner became a legend for his aggressive style, wild press conferences, and habit of beating the establishment at its own game. He won the Sydney Hobart, survived the chaos of the Fastnet, and turned the Cup into mainstream sports drama before that was even a thing. Sailing has lost one of its loudest, smartest, and most entertaining characters.

Ted Turner: From famous to superstar (8 min read)
Before billion-dollar foiling campaigns and data teams, Ted Turner won the America’s Cup with swagger, guts, and a boat everyone thought was past its prime. This deep dive into the 1977 Cup shows how Turner and tactician Gary Jobson absolutely dismantled Australia 4-0 through ruthless match racing and tactical brilliance. The NYYC establishment barely trusted him, the press couldn’t get enough of him, and Newport basically turned into a Ted Turner fan club by the end. One summer, one dominant campaign, and sailing suddenly had a superstar.

Cruising

Drying out: how to safely take the ground (12 min read)
Turns out letting your boat flop onto the seabed is less terrifying when you actually know what you’re doing. This deep dive into drying out covers everything from fin keels and catamarans to dodging hidden rocks, rogue gullies, and embarrassing sideways lean angles. There’s loads of salty wisdom here, including how to scope out the bottom, use legs on a fin-keeler, and avoid getting wrecked by a surprise swell at 3am. Equal parts practical guide and cautionary tale, it’ll either save you money on haul-outs or convince you mud is your new best friend.

Sailing Highlight of the Day

This is less “casual club race” and more “man wrestles angry skiff around a reservoir.” An RS600 sailor heads out expecting 15 knots and instead gets smacked with steady 20s and gusts into the mid-20s, leading to full-send reaches, near death rolls, and plenty of colourful self-analysis mid-race. The video is packed with proper dinghy-nerd gold too: rig tension tweaks, grip tape obsession, tactical mistakes, and the eternal struggle of getting smoked downwind by boats with spinnakers. Exhausting to watch in the best possible way.