Sailing the High Seas

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Born in Wanstead, in the east end of London, Peter Dyer comes from a long line of fisherman based in Brixton in Devon. His father, Leslie John, was the first academic in the family and brought Peter and the rest of the family to London, where he went into the education field, focusing on building schools.

Unfortunately, Peter’s dad died of liver cancer when he was very young, and he and his mom went to live with maternal grandmother in Essex. Next door, lived Peter’s uncle who built a Cadet, similar to a scow and that’s where Peter, at age seven, gained his first sailing experience (Peter’s mother, Barbara by the way, lived until she was 99, and met the Queen of England a few times). Peter was eventually sent away to boarding school, the Royal Masonic School for Boys in Bushey and then he went onto University College London, where he studied economics.

In the mid-60s, Peter fell into the music business; there was no such thing as a discotheque back then. Clubs and concerts just used domestic equipment, which wasn’t very good and didn’t carry sound very well.

Peter's first big gig was The Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park in 1969 where he says you couldn't hear sound 200 feet from the stage as both the speakers and amps were in OverDrive.

So, Peter and his partner Ken sensing a need and seeing a niche started to bring in sound equipment from America where people like JB Lansing had developed a horn-loaded PA system used at Woodstock, which made the sound travel much further without distortion. At that time the two were the only ones with this innovative sound going into clubs and they quickly made a name for themselves.

The world changed in 1973 when OPEC led by Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, raised the price of oil by 30% causing a world recession, so many companies could not afford to buy sound equipment anymore. As a result, Peter and his partner started a company called Tarsin Entertainments where they offered the equipment on rental.

Musicians that Peter provided PA systems for included Madonna, the Stones, Wings, Bob Dylan, U2, Kylie Minogue, Oasis and Lenny Kravitz, citing Prince as the most charming and gracious. Peter says the groups themselves gave him very little trouble but their management teams could, especially when they wanted to use their own touring equipment in venues where it wasn't possible.

Peter eventually bought his partner out and later in 2006 sold the company to SSE, Europe's largest concert system suppliers.

                                    Peter racing on Albin Express, club racing, in the North Sea 

A side note is that Peter had been supplying and providing sound to many venues and he came to know which venues were in trouble financially and he and a few partners took over a number of them including the Pembury Tavern. At another club in Shoreditch, not his own, he once told off Charlie Kray, older brother of the infamous Kray Twins, not realising who he was.

Peter got back into sailing after university at Burnham on Crouch. He owned a Contessa 26, a Mini Tonner, then an Albin Express, before purchasing a half-toner called Harmony, won may races, competing in the East Anglian offshore campaign and Burnham Week, the second biggest sailing event in the UK at the time after Cowes.
In an intense period of 20 years (1985-2993), Peter raced in many regattas in Europe and further abroad. Winning both Cowes Week and Burnham Week and the national championships he went on to do five World Championships in three different events and was part on the winning team in the Patriot’s Cup in Newport, Rhode Island.
During this time, he had the pleasure of sailing with a number of very talented sailors including Ian Southworth, John Brinkers, Gordon McGuire, Greg Peck and Andrew Capes.

Peter first came to Bangkok in 2004 at the behest of Tony Oates of Fusion Limited, to compete in the Phuket King’s Cup on an Oceanis 43 (Tony still owns a sound company in Bangkok that to this day that Peter still utilizes). “I don't think I've sailed a less responsive boat in my life and I can't remember the result,” Peter recalls.

“The following year, however, Tony brought us back and we sailed in the one-design-class; had the team celebrations not been so enthusiastic on the days we won, we perhaps could have won the division. However, their partying proved too much and we came second and so I returned in 2006 with my own boat Madame Butterfly and we proceeded to win some 5 or 6 King’s Cups in Madame Butterfly and the Firefly 850, I purchased later.”

                                     Peter sailing Camp Freddie winning at Burnham on Crouch

In 2005, Peter met May and bought a house in Phuket where May lived but he could not move there permanently until 2008. Ostensibly, to retire, but then the economic crisis of 2008 hit and May became pregnant with Katerina so Peter joined SEA Property as a partner, which is when he bought a Firefly and named it SEA Property, racing it in the racing multihull division. He later sold the boat to Ray Waldron who and it became Surf Patrol.

Peter says the King’s Cup campaigns were greatly assisted by another very well-known sailor John Brenkers, owner of UK Sails, and later a sail designer for North Sails. His advice and sailing ability were a huge contribution.

Later, he was joined by another sailing legend, Mike Rellings of Rellings Sails, and a champion of many regattas and they entered the King’s Cup sailing Madame Butterfly for a last hurrah in 2017, when they placed first again.

After relocating to Phuket, Peter soon joined the Dinghy Racing Club in Ao Yon with the likes of Andy DeBruin, Mick Kealy and Muzza Nordstrand, and they raced Tasers. Peter became the leader by default. The place was eventually taken over and run by Katie Gooch, who she ran a program for underprivileged Thai youth.
Peter first became involved in the Phuket Yacht Club, when Mick Kealy, then the Commodore, asked Peter to set up a regatta called the Multihull Championship, which became the Multihull Solutions Regatta and today is the Yacht Sales Co Regatta, which includes monohulls.

                            Peter crewing on French Beret, Solent Points Champ, seen racing at Cowes 

When Scott Duncanson decided to resign as Commodore after seven years and a dreary and difficult time through COVID he asked Peter to come in and help to run the club.

He’s been Commodore of an eight-person committee for four years now. The club today has three annual regattas (the Sailor’s Regatta; the Yacht Sales Co Regatta; and the Jai Dee Regatta) as well as bi-monthly club racing. There are also a number of events such as wine tasting, trivia nights, and live music. There’s also a very active Junior Sailing Program and a kite-boarding program as well.

The Phuket Yacht Club is the only sailing and keelboat club in southern Thailand. It has good facilities and quality food and beverage at a reasonable price. Situated in a fantastic location, its members are all pretty good friends and enjoy each other’s company (youth and family memberships are available as well).
Today, Peter owns three catamarans that he charters: Aeolos (goddess of wind), Princess Emily, and Prawa Princess, the latter two built in Pattaya by Ray Ringuet and Commercial Catamaran, Co., Ltd. He also still has his racing monohull, Madame Butterfly.

Peter, with wife May below, has lived closed to eight full decades on planet Earth and doesn’t show any signs of letting up, and he has that youthful exuberance that served him so well when he was sailing with Britain’s finest or providing sound systems for the world’s most prominent musicians.