The Fireball is a recreational racing sailboat, originally designed to be built of wood for the amateur builder. Today most new Fireballs are made predominantly of fibreglass.[1][3]
The boat has a draft of 4.00ft (1.22m) with the centreboard extended. With it retracted the boat can be beached or transported on a trailer or car roof rack.[1]
The design has adopted changes over time. In 1966 construction of fibreglass was permitted. The use of a single crew trapeze was added in 1965. The sails and hull are controlled, but changes to the rigging are permitted and mast chocks and struts have been used in the past.[3]
The design has a North American Portsmouth Yardstick racing average handicap of 85.6, with an RYA Portsmouth of 956. It is normally raced with a crew of two sailors.[3][10][11]
The design is supported by a class club, the International Fireball Class.[12]
The Fireball is raced worldwide, with the largest fleets in Australia, Canada, France, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.[3]
A review in Yachts and Yachting magazine in March 1962 concluded, "she is good for inland water or the sea. Her performance has proved intriguing for expert helmsmen, yet she is stable enough to be kind to the clumsy novice."[9]
In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, the "Fireball is a high-performance dinghy, not as fast as an International 505 or Flying Dutchman, but allowing a great deal of latitude in the positioning and adoption of all gear except sails and hull ... The (usually) high-cut jibs and the small spinnaker require less strength to control, so that many successful racing crews have had women members."[3]
In a 2012 review in Yachts and Yachting magazine, Toby Heppell wrote, "The Fireball might look sticky in light winds, but can skate along quite nicely if the water is flat – predictably, that uncompromising bow will not cope so well with insufficient wind and chop. Best of all, Fireballs love to plane which is the root reason why many people love to sail dinghies. On a smooth surface you should get lift-off from around Force 3 on both downwind and upwind legs. Further up the wind scale, Fireball sailors reckon they are still racing when everyone else has gone home ... That’s what sailing a Fireball is about. A boat for everyday sailors that can provide enjoyable racing from about age 16 to 60 plus. Forty years on our verdict is that the Fireball is still a load of fun to sail."[9]
Writer Paula Irish included the design as one of her 2018 list of "25 Best Beginner Sailing Dinghies". She wrote, "if you want the added excitement of a trapeze boat, with an acceptance that you may find it trickier, the Fireball is a good option with entry-level boats from just a few hundred pounds and flexibility to fit the boat out to suit you, making it good for smaller helms or crews. The class association describes the Fireball as "probably the highest performance dinghy that just about anyone can sail in almost any wind strength.""[13]
The Thistle is an American planing sailing dinghy that was designed by Sandy Douglass as a one-design racer and first built in 1945.
The Flying Dutchman is a Dutch planing sailing dinghy that was designed by Uus Van Essen and Conrad Gülcher as a high performance, one design racer and first built in 1951.
The International 505 is a One-Design high-performance two-person monohull planing sailing dinghy, with spinnaker, utilising a trapeze for the crew.
The Firefly is a British sailboat that was designed by Uffa Fox as a one design racer and first built in 1946. The boat was originally named the Sea Swallow. It was an Olympic class and raced at the 1948 Olympics.
The Laser 2, or Laser II, is a sailboat that was designed by New Zealander Frank Bethwaite and Canadian Ian Bruce as a one-design racer and first built in 1978.
The Buccaneer 18, also called the Buccaneer dinghy and the Gloucester 18, is an American planing sailing dinghy that was designed in 1966 by Rod Macalpine-Downie and Dick Gibbs as a one-design racer and day sailer. The prototype was first shown in 1967 at Yachting's "One of a Kind" Regatta, in which it placed second.
The Snipe is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by William F. Crosby as a one design racer and first built in 1931.
The International FJ is a Dutch sailboat that was designed by Uus Van Essen and Conrad Gülcher as a trainer and one design racer, first built in 1956.
The Sonar is a one design trailerable racing sailboat that was designed by Canadian naval architect Bruce Kirby and first built in 1980.
The International 14 is a British racing sailboat, crewed by two sailors. The class was established in 1928.
The Windmill is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Clark Mills as a one-design racer and first built in 1953.
The Penguin is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Philip Rhodes in 1933 as a one design racer for frostbite racing on the US east coast and first built in 1939.
The Phantom is a British sailing dinghy that was designed by Paul Wright and Brian Taylor as a one-design racer and first built in 1971.
The Laser Vago is a British/American sailing dinghy that was designed by Jo Richards as a one-design racer and first built in 2005.
The Coronado 15 is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Frank V. Butler as a one-design racer and first built in 1968.
The Impulse is an Australian sailing dinghy that was designed by Arthur Caldwell as a one-design racer and first built in 1975.
The Viper 640 is an American trailerable sailboat, that was designed by Brian Bennett for racing and first built in 1996.
The Tech Dinghy is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by George Owen, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as a one-design racer and for sail training. It was first built in 1935.
The Hampton One-Design is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Vincent Serio as a one-design racer and first built in 1934.
The Beneteau First 14, originally the Seascape 14, is a French one design planing sailing dinghy that was designed by Samuel Manuard as a racer and first built in 2017.
References
1 2 3 4 5 McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Fireball sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Peter Milne 1934 - 2008". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Chippendale Boats (UK)". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Nautivela (ITA)". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Rondar Raceboats". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ Weathermark Sailboats (2020). "New Boats". weathermarksailboats.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
↑ McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Weathermark Sailboats". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
1 2 3 Heppell, Toby (12 September 2012). "Fireball Review". Yachts and Yachting. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
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