Peter Milne was one of Britain’s most prolific and innovative designers of small boats. He is best known for the 4.93-metre dingy Fireball, a two-man performance scow.

In 1962 he took the prototype and technical write-up to Yachts & Yachting magazine and the editor, Bill Smart, was so impressed by both that he asked him to join as assistant editor. He took over as editor seven years later and carried on with his design work alongside the editorship.

There are now more than 15,000 Fireballs around the world and the class has remained popular and competitive for more than 45 years. He designed Fireball while working for Norris Bros, the design engineers based at Haywards Heath, responsible for Donald Campbell’s car Bluebird which broke the land-speed record.

It was here that he picked up the commission for the water-jet-powered Jetstar powerboat design for Campbell. The prototype was sold last year by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Jetstar was designed as a commercial spin-off for Campbell’s water speed record attempt with his jet-powered three-pointer Bluebird K7, but the day that Campbell and Milne chose to launch the boat at the 1967 London Boat Show, Campbell was killed when Bluebird flipped during her second run across Coniston Water.

Milne was born in Stockport, Manchester, but the family moved to Chichester soon after he was born. He was an avid reader of the Arthur Ransome stories, including Swallows and Amazons. These seemed to shape many events during his childhood and he emulated the charmed life of the Walker children.

Upon his acceptance at St John’s College, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, his father Cecil, an engineer, bought him his first boat, a Snipe. The boat was kept at Dell Quay, Chichester Harbour, and here he set about learning the art of sailing and, more significantly, sailing fast.

On joining the Royal Navy for his National Service, he was seconded to submarines and spent much of his time racing yachts in the Mediterranean and northern Europe. He was asked to crew the royal Dragon Bluebottle in a series of international regattas in Britain and Scandinavia. The yacht was a wedding present to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh from the Island Sailing Club at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

On completion of his National Service in 1954, Milne began an apprenticeship at Thornycroft in Southampton. In 1957 he put his skills to the test and built himself a Finn dinghy, Sea Wolf. He raced her against his lifelong Olympic friends Charles Currey and Keith Musto. The boat was a near-perfect example of craftsmanship and it was Milne’s pride and joy. His friends have always joked that she was sold when he married Margaret MacDonald in 1962 as he felt it was time to give up his mistress.

He produced more than 40 class dinghies, production cruisers and powerboat designs and in 1972 designed Bullett, an innovative 4.42m junior trainer for the Fireball, for which he was awarded the Duke of Edinburgh Design Prize in 1975.

He was also an accomplished offshore yachtsman, and was a member of one of the few crews to complete the gruelling 1979 Fastnet Race during which a storm resulted in the death of 15 people.

He was not only a talented designer and sailor but a respected journalist. As technical editor of Yachting World and latterly editor of Classic Boat he was in demand to report on new yachts on the market.

Milne’s love of design continued until he became ill, and he managed to fulfil a childhood dream of designing and building a 7.2m lifting keel cruiser built with his oldest schoolfriend, Terry Turner.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Peter Milne, boat designer, was born on September 20, 1934. He died on May 23, 2008, aged 73