The Flying Fifteen Class
|
The Flying Fifteen is a 20 foot, high-performance, two-person planing dingy. It was designed in 1947 by the famous British yacht designer Uffa Fox and has since become the largest fixed-keel class in the World (with greater than 3850 boats). It gained International status in 1978 and World Championship races are held biennially in alternating hemispheres. The 2007 Worlds will be hosted by the Reial Club Nàutic de Port de Pollença in Spain and the 2009 Worlds will be hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.
|
| Flying Fifteen Specifications |
| Designer |
|
Uffa Fox |
| Overall Length |
20 ft |
6.1 m |
| Waterline Length |
15 ft |
4.6 m |
| Beam |
5 ft |
1.52 m |
| Draft |
2 ft 6 in |
0.76 m |
| Mast Height |
22 ft 6 in |
6.86 m |
| Sail Area |
150 sq ft |
14 sqm |
| Spinnaker Area |
140 sq ft |
13 sqm |
| Hull Weight |
300 lb |
136 kg |
| Keel Weight |
400 lb |
169 kg |
| Minimum Weight |
685 lb |
305 kg |
| Racing Crew |
|
Two |
| Ideal Crew Range |
18 - 28 st |
145 - 185 kg |
|
Fox originally conceived the design to be built by amateurs and allowed a tolerance of one inch. Nowadays, production fibreglass boats are built to 5mm tolerance and yachts must weigh more than 305kg. International class management of the
"one design" concept has gradually sanctioned the moderate use of modern materials, however, it is acknowledged that differently built boats will perform differently. Accordingly, the class has now been split into three divisions to enable the older yachts to compete. Thus, boats with sail numbers up to 2,700 are usually sailed within the Classic division and yachts with sail numbers ranging between 2,701 and 3,200 are sailed within the Silver fleet division. Early yachts are sometimes referred to as "pre-Wiigybank", a reference to the fibreglass boats from Graham Wiig which began to dominate N.Z. racing back in the late-1980s.
|
|
Flying Fifteen yachts are relatively inexpensive to maintain, combine the stability and safety of a fixed keel yacht with the practicalities of a trailer-sailer and deliver exhilerating performance. Off-the-wind under a three-sail reach, the Flying Fifteen easily planes across the water and is capable of some 14 knots without a trapeze and is extremely responsive to the smallest of sail adjustments that helm and crew continually make. It is well-suited to a wide range of crew weights and can be easily sailed by mixed crews. Flying Fifteens are regarded as relatively easy boats to sail, but ones which can be exceedingly difficult to sail well.
In New Zealand, there are presently six affiliated Flying Fifteen fleets scattered around the country: Auckland, Christchurch, Napier, Opua, Timaru and Wellington (with the largest concentration of Classic and Silver fleet boats sailing out of Opua in the Bay of Islands). Due to its nature as an easily transportable class, there is considerable contact between sailors from the various fleets at National events and sailors regularly ship their boats in containers to compete internationally. The last
World Championships (2005) took place in Auckland and the 1994 Worlds were held in Timaru.
Prospective boat owners can either buy brand-new or second-hand boats, or else build. The New Zealand Association has an early fibreglass mould available for anybody interested in building their own boats and full-size plans of the original veneer boat are also readily available from Uffa Fox Online for those more interested in classic wooden hulls and varnish finishes. In all cases, however, boatbuilders should seek advice from the Technical Committee Chairman, Graeme Robinson, on the applicable construction rules for class compliance (since there is an expectation that all new boats will have a similar hull shape, weight distribution and sailing characteristics).
|