PETER LESTER: 1954-2025
The America’s Cup community is mourning the loss of Peter Lester who passed away on Friday at home in his sleep. Peter, a veteran of three America’s Cup campaigns and a world-renowned sailor across multiple classes was most recently a much-loved broadcaster who brought his insight and well-founded analysis as a co-commentator to millions who tuned into the daily live coverage of the racing in Barcelona. Peter was known by everyone in the Cup community, and his infectious laugh combined with his generosity of spirit will be greatly missed.
Originally hailing from Canterbury and the Canterbury Yacht and Motorboat Club, Peter’s earliest memory was crewing a Z class dinghy before his grandfather purchased an ageing P class dinghy for him to learn on in Lyttelton Harbour. Success came quickly and his father Gordon, an engineer by trade, built many of Peter’s winning boats including the P class and Starling dinghies.
Moving on to the OK dinghy class, Peter was a sensation, winning the Junior World Championship in 1974 before winning the 1977 World Championships when it was held in Takapuna, New Zealand, and being named as New Zealand Yachtsman of the Year – a title he won for an unprecedented second time, ten years later, in 1987.
Peter had long-held ambitions towards the Olympic Games, having been a reserve for New Zealand in Ontario in 1976 before doubling down on his campaign efforts for 1980 and securing the spot for New Zealand in the Finn class with some notable European regatta wins leading up the Games. However, the USA-backed boycott of the Olympics in Russia, saw Yachting New Zealand withdraw its sailing team and Peter was denied the chance of Olympic success.
Grand Prix yachts beckoned, and Peter was in high demand in the burgeoning New Zealand scene. The Admiral’s Cup always held an allure for Peter, having started as a trimmer in 1981 aboard Wee Willie Winkle and then returning in 1984 aboard the Kiwi yacht Epic. However, it was the highly competitive regatta of 1987 where Peter made his mark helming Bevan Wooley’s Propaganda to not only win the Admiral’s Cup for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron as a team, but also secure top IOR boat in the regatta.
The following year, Peter returned home to begin his America’s Cup career as a tactician onboard KZ1 in the 1988 Deed of Gift Match, launched by Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite, that was ultimately unsuccessful with Dennis Conner electing to defend in a fixed-wing catamaran.
For the 1992 America's Cup, Peter joined the Desafio España Copa America Challenge as a coach and it was in San Diego, following the Spanish team’s exit in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Selection Series, that Peter was first heard on air as he joined the broadcast team as an expert analyst. Immediately Cup watchers warmed to his deep inside knowledge and his knack of explaining highly technical details around design and sailing styles in an accessible way, keeping both aficionados and people new to the sport engaged and interested.
Peter was ever-present in the Grand Prix yachting scene, winning two Kenwood Cups (in 1986 and 1990) and then joining the German Pinta Team of Willi Illbruck, winning the One Ton Cup in Cagliari, Italy, in 1993 calling the tactical shots for Russell Coutts, before going on to capture the Admiral’s Cup in the same year as part of the German team.
For the 1995 America’s Cup, Peter joined the under-funded Tutukaka Challenge as both a tactician and part of the management team put together by Chris Dickson that was rescued at the last minute by sponsorship from Tag Heuer and made it to the start line in San Diego for the Louis Vuitton Cup. Peter later commented in typical style saying: “We had some really good people involved, almost the Team New Zealand ‘B’ team, but we had budget issues, and the boat had the wrong shaped bow.”
Gavin Brady, who was onboard what became known as the Tag Heuer Challenge reflected on the campaign saying: “In the 1995 Tag Heuer America’s Cup Challenge Peter was in charge of the sailing team. We were a very young team, and Peter had his hands full at times, as many of us were doing our America’s Cup apprenticeship. Very sad news about his passing.”
As well as being an in-demand sailor, Peter was also the High-Performance Manager at Yachting New Zealand from 1994, responsible for the Olympic Sailing Academy programme, and served as Head Coach for both the 1996 Atlanta and 2001 Sydney Olympic Games. For the Athens Games in 2004, Peter served as Team Manager for Yachting New Zealand.
Alongside his coaching and mentoring, Peter’s broadcast career blossomed seeing him cover not only multiple America’s Cup regattas but the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Extreme Sailing Series, the Red Bull Foiling Generation Auckland and Volvo Ocean Race (with Martin Tasker). From 2007 to 2009 Peter headed up the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar as Head Coach of the yachting team and Olympic pathway programme, encouraging young sailors to notable international success.
Known throughout sailing, Peter made life-long friends with Cup legend Harold Cudmore paying tribute saying: “Peter sustained an infectious enthusiasm for sailing and life over the years. I had a long chat with him in Barcelona. I left with a happy memory of a special sailor enjoying life with future plans now sadly over.”
Stephen McIvor, the anchor commentator throughout the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup also paid tribute to Peter, saying: “You could not find a more giving person. He was the first person I went to when I first got the Cup gig. Made it simple for me to understand over many cups of tea from his glorious wife Susie. He loved the Cup, the history, the sailing and the intrigue. He often said, “Stephen, that's the Cup,” when the rumours and scandals arrived. He was the light in the storm and the happiest when talking about his grandkids and Susie. I will so miss his kindness and his unadulterated humour over large gins. We've lost a good one.”
Grant Dalton, CEO of America’s Cup Event and Team New Zealand, honours Peter’s contribution to the America’s Cup and wider sailing world by saying: "Pete was a very good friend. He had a strong understanding of the Cup, the dynamics round the people and the boats. He loved the technology, and I spoke to him a lot about different boats, what we thought and why we had made certain decisions. He was just easy to talk to, and I always felt that in some ways you were justifying what you had done to him, getting his blessing really such was my respect for him, his knowledge and what he had achieved. Myself, Team New Zealand, and the whole sailing community is shocked and saddened. Our love goes out to Susie, his children and his grandchildren. Our sport and the Cup will not be the same without his constant presence."
Shirley Robertson, double Olympic gold medallist and broadcast colleague of Peter, also added: “Peter was a standout broadcaster. With a wonderful ease he kept the audience on the edge of their seats. He fully understood the history, the meaning and the gravitas of the America’s Cup and with an enviable turn of phrase and inherent sense of fun, everyone watching also knew just what was at stake. Peter Lester was a class act, the Cup and the sport – we were lucky to have him.”
Peter cherished his marriage to Susie and was a devoted father to three grown-up sons. The America’s Cup community sends its deepest condolences to the family.
by Magnus Wheatley