SAN DIEGO: Bob Fisher, the worlds preeminent yachting journalist and one of the top Americas Cup historians who also was a champion sailor, has died. He was 85.
Fisher died of cancer Monday at his home in Lymington, England, daughter Alice Davies confirmed in an email to The Associated Press.
Davies said that shortly after INEOS Team UK clinched a spot in the Americas Cup challenger final on Saturday in New Zealand, Sir Ben Ainslie called Fishers wife, Dee, to say he was dedicating a thrilling victory over Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team to Fisher.
INEOS Team UK represents Englands best chance yet in its 170-year quest to win back the Americas Cup, which it lost to the schooner America in 1851 in a race around the Isle of Wight. Lymington is across the Solent from the Isle of Wight.
In a statement, Ainslie, the most-decorated Olympic sailor in history who helped a U.S. team win the Americas Cup in 2013, called Fisher the doyen of yachting correspondents and a very good…