New book on the life of Syd Fischer

by on 23 Nov 2016 A new book on the life of legendary Australian yachtsman Syd Fischer details some of the most dramatic moments from his extraordinary sporting career.

Titled Ragamuffin Man: The World of Syd Fischer, the biography was launched at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia by Sir James Hardy OBE.

More than 60 copies of the book were immediately snapped up by those attending the function.

The author, David Salter, told Sail-World that the project took two years to complete, partly because Fischer was such a difficult man to interview.

“Syd is a wonderful, authentic Australian character”, he said, “but he spends his words almost as reluctantly as his money.”

Fischer’s life story is interwoven in the book with an account of the recent re-building of his super-maxi Ragamuffin 100 and its final two tilts at Sydney-Hobart line honours with Syd aboard.

Readers may be surprised to learn that sailing was the last sport Fischer took up after competing in soccer, rugby league, tennis, boxing, water-skiing and surfboat racing.

“I thought it was a stupid sport”, he told Salter. “You spend an hour, at least, rigging up the boat, go out sailing, come back, and spend another bloody hour putting it away!”

Nevertheless, he was hooked after being invited to crew on Caprice of Huon and was soon skippering his own boats.

Fischer’s first Sydney-Hobart was in Malohi, in 1962, and – 54 years later – that yacht was alongside at the CYCA as a nostalgic backdrop to the book launch function.

Ragamuffin Man includes first-person accounts of Syd’s triumph in the 1971 Fastnet Race, and of his courageous seamanship in the tragic 1979 Admiral’s Cup when Ragamuffin led the Australian team to victory through a storm that took 19 lives.

As well, the book covers all five of Syd’s America’s Cup challenges, all of which failed, an unwanted record he holds with team baron Sir Thomas Lipton.

Ragamuffin Man: The World of Syd Fischer by David Salter is published by Nero, RRP $49.95