Meteoric rise

We speak to new Fireball World Champion, Matt Mee

Recently, the Fireball World Championships took place in Thailand and were convincingly won with a race to spare by Matt Mee and Richard Wagstaff. Wagstaff is a fairly well known name on the dinghy scene, working for Winder boats – who produce the Fireball amongst others - but Mee is another matter. So where did this 21 year old world Champion come from?

The interesting thing about Mee is perhaps not where he has come from in sailing terms but where he has not come from. Through the RYA, Britain has one of the most established youth sailing programmes of any nation and it is fairly rare to find someone competing at the top end of the sport in the UK that has not had some involvement with this. Mee, however, is just one such case. “I did not come from the Youth Squad system,” he confirms. “I suppose you would call me an apprenticeship sailor really as I have never been involved in any youth squads whatsoever. I had always wanted to play football but my dad was always into sailing - he was quite a successful GP14 and Merlin [Rocket] sailor.”

With his dad’s passion and the family being members of Hollingworth Lake SC – a small but successful club between Manchester and Leeds - it was not surprising that Mee ‘started to hang out there a bit.’ At the age of 15 he began to develop an interest in sailing and started to crew for his father in the Merlin Rocket. “I learned quite a bit from my dad and following that I started crewing for Richard Whitworth who is a regular Merlin sailor,” Mee explains. “I then went on and won the Merlin Nationals in 2004 crewing for him. I would say I learned most of what I know from Richard really.”

Certainly, at this point Mee had already made an impressive rise through the crewing ranks, winning his first National Championship with only a couple of years sailing behind him. However, without detracting from this success, it can often be the case that someone fairly new to the sport can crew for a well established sailor and find themselves doing very well. Helming tends to be a different matter. “I did my first GP Nationals helming in 2004,” Mee continues. “I had not really done much up until then and I ended up third, so that was a bit of a surprise for me. I think it was a surprise for a lot of people.” Clearly then, even after only a couple of years of sailing under his belt and maybe a year on the helm, Mee was already showing himself to be a stand-out competitor.

Following this early helming success Mee proved his GP result of 2004 was not a fluke, following it up with a win at the 2005 GP14 Youth Nationals, and a number of high profile GP14 wins in 2006, including his second National Championship title.

It is worth noting that, although the GP14 does not always have the best reputation on the south coast, in the north of England particularly, the boat is sailed on and off by many of the top teams in the country. Due to this, and his membership of Hollingworth Lake where a number of top flight sailors have been bought up, Mee was already starting to mix with a high calibre of sailor. Specifically, he formed friendships with several 470 sailors, including one Graham Nelson, who was at that point crewing for Neil Marsden. “Graham called me in 2005 and said, ‘fancy doing some Fireball sailing?’ He had had enough of the 470 for a bit and wanted to buy a Fireball and was looking for a young small helm,” Mee explains.



So it was that Mee was introduced to the world of Fireball sailing, though with limited success straight out of the box, as he explains. “We did a fair bit together [in 2005], like the Fireball Nationals, but we were always just that bit too light and Graham had other things going on at the time.”

Following this introduction to the class Mee hooked up with Richard Wagstaff in 2006 and it was at this point things really began to take-off with the pair coming fifth at the Fireball Europeans that season. Rather modestly Mee is at pains to note the exceptional abilities of Wagstaff, stating that: “he's been a massive influence with the amount of experience he's brought to my sailing.”

From this success the pair knew they would be able to give the 2007 World Championships in Switzerland a fair shot and really began to train hard for the event. “We did one or two opens in ’07 and a lot of sailing over the winter before. We won a couple of open events at Shoreham and Hayling and were second at the nationals that year.” Following these successes Mee and Wagstaff headed off to Garda to compete in the ‘Grand Nationals Pre Worlds’ in Lake Garda. Although this was not quite officially the pre-worlds, most of the Fireball fleet was viewing it as such and so all the top teams were there. “We won that event, with Chips [Howarth] and all the other top guys there and won it quite comfortably,” Mee comments.

With this success still fresh in their minds, the pair headed off to Switzerland for the World Championships, brimming with confidence. Unfortunately it was not to be and they finished fifth overall in what turned out to be a painfully light wind and tricky event. However, with the World Championships taking place early in 2008 in Thailand Mee and Wagstaff knew it would not be long until they could give the World title another shot.

As previously mentioned, the pair ended the Thailand World Championships in first place with one race to spare. The week had been raced in conditions that were, evidently, more to Mee’s liking. “Thailand was awesome,” he exclaims. “We were expecting a light regatta and all year people had been saying the last time the Fireballs were out there it was very light. When we got out there, though, we got this great sea breeze every day. The first race would start in about 12 knots, then it would slowly build to 16 for the second race. The water was lovely and warm as well. I have never sailed at a venue like it. Garda the previous year was awesome but it made Garda look pretty average to be honest.”

So, in the space of roughly six years, Mee has gone from relative sailing novice to World Champion, but where too from here? Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who sails a single trapeze, symmetric dinghy and whose close friends are 470 sailors, Mee is looking to the Olympic double hander as his next step. “I am going to the Fireball Europeans and the Nationals this year but I will be moving into the 470 as well, as long as I can find a crew,” he comments. Of course between now and then there is the small issue of graduating from Huddersfield University, where he is currently studying Paediatrics. “I finish in June so I will hopefully start a decent 470 campaign then.”



Although he was never a part of their Youth Squad system, his recent success has seen Mee recognised by the RYA and he has been in discussions with 470 squad coach, Steve Irish and Development Squad Manager, Barry Edgington, about his future. Currently Mee is unsure who he might have as a crew in the 470, although he does have a few ideas he is, at this stage, unwilling to share. In fact much of his 470 plans are yet to be fully fleshed out, though he says he is aiming to get to the 470 Junior Europeans and Worlds which are both on in July.

Despite not knowing quite when the 470 process will get fully underway, Mee has been planning his move into the class for a while now. “The Fireball is a good boat and the idea was that it should give me a smooth transition to the 470. That has been my plan for some time,” he confirms.

With these plans having been in place for a while we presume Mee’s goals must involve the Olympics themselves at some point down the line. “The Olympics is a goal in a way. In many respects, though, I am not sure it really can be. When you see Nic Asher has won the Worlds twice in the last three years and not gone, you realise [whether you go to] the Games is not necessarily up to you. To win a 470 Worlds would be my real aim and an actual goal for me,” Mee concludes.

Mee’s rise to success in the sailing world has been somewhat meteoric. To think that just six years ago he had little to no interest in the sport and he is now a World Champion is impressive, indeed. Certainly he will be one to watch as he makes to switch from International to Olympic class racing.