The global legacy of media titan and sailing champion Ted Turner includes an exciting chapter right here in Marblehead. Turner, who founded CNN in 1980, died today at age 87.
Turner trained in Marblehead for the America’s Cup, which he won in 1977. Robbie Doyle (who founded Doyle Sailmakers in Marblehead) was part of Turner’s crew. The two first met in 1966.
“I was 17 years old and we were both sailing in a regatta on Long Island,” Doyle told the Current Wednesday just after attending an online memorial service with Turner’s friends and close associates.
“We were dragging our boats up the beach. I was helping him and he was helping me and we got chatting. We went on to compete over the years,” Doyle said.
Turner came to Marblehead in the 1970s to ask Doyle how he could win an America’s Cup. Skippering the boat, Courageous, Turner spent the early spring and summer of 1977 training and racing against Ted Hood’s boat, Independence, before advancing to the Cup.
Doyle has fond memories from that time.
“In those days, you went to Maddie’s after sailing. We’d go out as a crew, a group of friends and do what guys that age usually do. We were so much at the same level. He was one of the boys. And he maintained that until the end.”
Jud Smith — a competitive sailor who works at Doyle — was a teenager in the 70s. He remembers seeing Turner at the Boston Yacht Club.
“He was a loud and boisterous guy,” Smith said. “He was very much a presence.”
Smith also remembers seeing Turner’s satellite truck and dish parked outside Little Harbor that summer. Turner launched CNN a couple years later.
Staying in touch
Doyle and the Courageous crew have met every five years since their victory.
“He was a creator,” Doyle said about Turner. “He would say outrageous things that would cross his mind at any time. He would test out outrageous ideas on the boat and we’d all discuss them.”
Doyle said when Turner traveled to Moscow to start the Goodwill Games, the KGB assigned him a young chauffeur named Vladimir Putin. Turner also traveled to Cuba to hunt and fish with Fidel Castro. “He was going to make Castro come into the fold and not be our enemy.”
Doyle last saw Turner in person at Turner’s birthday party in Atlanta two years ago. A few years before that, Turner came to Marblehead to present Doyle an award at the Eastern Yacht Club.
“He would do anything for a crew member,” Doyle said. “He wasn’t the world’s greatest sailor. He accomplished things by building great teams.”
