Fischer to go to electric winches

• NEWS
• 29 Dec, 2005 02:40:00 PM

Fischer to go to electric winches

Ragamuffin skipper Syd Fischer, one of the great characters of Australian ocean racing, reckons he’s been told electric winches are cheaper than conventional ‘coffee’ grinders.

Ragamuffin skipper Syd Fischer, one of the great characters of Australian ocean racing, reckons he’s been told electric winches are cheaper than conventional ‘coffee’ grinders.

So perhaps he’ll look at fitting out Ragamuffin with push-button winches for his 38th Rolex Sydney Hobart next year and replacing his gorillas who drive them

Ragamuffin crossed the line in 20th place at 10.41am today.

“Not bad, a typical Hobart race,” said the laconic Fischer.

“The only damage she suffered was the two spinnaker poles.

“We took the end off one of them and broke the other in half and made one up from both.”

Fischer said he never remembered the detail of his Hobart races.

“I think it’s like women having a baby - they forget after a while,” he laughed.

Fischer said that during the race he and his crew thought about John Bennetto, the skipper of Quest who holds the record of 44 race starts but died just days before the start of this year’s race.

“Johnny Bennetto wanted to come,” said a reflective Fischer.

“The guys were sad to see him go - Kurtsy (Peter Kurts – skipper of Love & War) went the same way.”