Former OK Dinghy World Champion Peter Lester died suddenly on Friday 8 August, aged just 70, a week after suffering a heart attack.
He won the OK Dinghy World Championship when it was sailed in his home waters in Takapuna in February 1977. This set the stage for an illustrious career in yachting on and off the water including an Olympic campaign, three America’s Cup campaigns, offshore and inshore keelboat racing including Admirals’ Cup wins, and three One Ton Cup wins.
He also moved into high performance coaching, and then became a TV and media commentator covering multiple Olympic regattas and America’s Cups.
In ‘Completely OK’, the story of how he won the 1977 world title is described in detail.
“Initially you’ve got to keep your eyes open. Sort out the guy who is going fastest, look at his boat, his gear and his rig, and copy them. Watch how he sets up his boat and copy him. After all, he’s the guy who is doing it. That’s all I used to do. When I first got into an OK, I was about 15, 1 copied Clive Roberts. It was bad news really because I was very light and Clive was so big and strong. But I copied the best, then gradually, as I began to understand and learned more, I adapted things to the way I wanted them. Pretty soon the boat was totally different – it was my own thing. If you copy close enough to start with, and then can be critical, you’ll pick out what you want and gradually change the boat to suit you.”
He briefly returned to the class in 2013. “Wakatere Boating Club held a ‘Try an OK day’ and Pete came back for the day. Three informal races were held in borrowed boats and in the first race he came in second and the then commodore of the club asked him “if that was more fun that just talking about it.” To which he agreed and then proceeded to order a new boat. Matt Stechman, a long-time friend of Pete from Lyttleton, set up Unitech in Auckland to build Pete a new Leech boat as part of their apprenticeship scheme. This was duly complete by Alistair Deaves and Pete sailed for 3-4 years before selling to concentrate on the Masters Games in the Laser which was held in Auckland in 2017.”
If any OK Dinghy sailors would like to remember Peter with an anecdote, please send to publicity(at)okdia.org and we’ll post them here.
OKDIA send its condolences to his many family and friends. He will be much missed worldwide.
Here are a few of the reports on Peter Lester.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/569536/peter-lester-decorated-former-sailor-and-broadcaster-dies-aged-70
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/10/new-zealand-sailing-great-peter-lester-dies-aged-70/
https://www.sail-world.com/news/288902/Cup-sailor-and-commentator-dies-suddenly
Michael Nissen – Pete and I met in the OK Worlds of 1973 in Nyköping Denmark, the OK Worlds 1977 in Takapuna and during the Admirals Cup 1983 in Cowes. Later I recognized his voice in lots of knowledgeable and humourous comments to international sailing series, Olympics and Americas Cups.
The OK Worlds 1977 – which he won – started with beautiful sunshine, a northerly seabreeze with very small windshifts and big waves. Pete won the first three races with his fantastic downwind speed and layed the foundation of winning the title.
I will remember him as a fair competitor, good friend and open, friendly person. Farewell Pete.
Above: Sailing in 2013
Below: Winning the world championship in 1977
