At its launch in 1962 the Fireball created a stir at many levels, one being that it had been designed by a new name to the sport - Peter Milne. Lacking a background in the development classes that featured in the success of Jack Holt and Ian Proctor, Peter instead turned to the North American Lake boats for his inspiration. This resulted in the Fireball having a long, lean, light flat bottomed scow shape for the hull. The first versions of the boat were built with a simple ridged foredeck that used flat panels, whilst the early rig lacked both trapeze and spinnaker. Even so, this exciting newcomer to the ranks of performance sailing quickly captured the attention of sailors wherever it went. Fleet numbers grew rapidly and the boat soon evolved into the stunning performer it is today.
At the heart of the Fireball's early success was a true performance boat, but one with a construction that offered an easy ‘home build’ option. A winter of woodwork in the garage, together with a suit of sails and a rig in the spring and a new generation of sailors could discover the thrills and spills of high speed sailing at a budget price. The Fireball with its small cockpit, was straightforward to recover after capsizing, making it easy to practise new skills with the spinnaker and trapeze.
Another new skill that also needed mastering was to find ways to achieve good upwind speed from a flat bottomed hull that would compliment the exhilarating downwind performance. Crews soon discovered that by sailing the boat with just a few degrees of heel, the hull would ‘unstick’ allowing the boat to plane away to windward.
Because of the light weight of the hull, the boat was easy to manhandle ashore. The lighter sheet loadings from the narrow aspect ‘blade’ jib, allowed the Fireball to be raced competitively by lighter crews as well as the usual ‘gorillas’ found in the Hornet and 505. The arrival of ‘girl power’ at both ends of the boat ensured that the Fireball fleet was soon enjoying the double attraction of being the place to be, on and off the water. All this added up to the Fireball becoming a runaway success, a position it has maintained until today, thanks to its strict one design policy. Although there have been developments based around variations in the hull shape, courtesy of the design tolerances, the ready supply of competitive boats at an affordable price, has kept the numbers of sailors entering the class growing steadily.
In 1966, just four years after the Fireball’s launch, the UK hosted the first World Championship, proving just how fast the class had spread across the globe. With this boost to the popularity of the class, full international status was granted to the Fireball in 1970. Many saw this, together with the boat’s build options and price, as suggesting that the Fireball was a suitable boat for use at the Olympics, only to see it loose out to the 470. At the recent World Championships in Thailand, competitors from across the globe, from the ever present Brit Team, to the open water sailors of Australia and the skilful lake racers from Switzerland showed just how widespread interest in the class has grown. Top helms and crews are plentiful in the class, with many using success in the Fireball as a stepping stone to further glories elsewhere. Lawrie Smith, Ian Pinnell and Richard Estaugh have all taken the top honours in the class, as did Phil Morrison, an achievement matched by son Steve 20 years later!
In 2012, when the Olympic Regatta is being staged at Weymouth, the Fireball will be celebrating its 50th birthday. There are many that will see the enduring success of this amazing and individualistic boat, as proof of the strength of the sport outside of the Olympic elite.