Design and Construction
Fox created one of the early planing keel boats, giving the Flying Fifteen a long, light, narrow hull with shallow, flattish sections, a fin keel, and spade rudder. The original design weight was 285 lb for the hull with a 400 lb keel, and the boat weighs approximately 700 pounds overall, 400 of that being the keel. Early boats were wooden, some built by amateurs, with original construction using a 1/8in diagonal inner skin and 3/16in fore-and-aft Honduran mahogany outer skin over closely spaced ribs, while the deck was 3/16in marine plywood; early construction methods ranged widely, including traditional carvel, moulded ply, aluminium, Tufnol, and glassfibre. The vast majority are now fiberglass, and polyester fiberglass has been supplanted in recent years by vacuum-bagged epoxy E-glass foam construction and carbon. The latest hulls settled on an epoxy foam sandwich with carbon used in high stress areas, which gives a significantly stiffer structure and long competitive life. Modern Ovington Flying Fifteens are built of epoxy resin and carbon fibre. The cast iron fin has a very short chord at the top, getting longer with depth as it rakes aft until it merges into the bulb at the bottom.
Rig and Handling
Under a rig similar to that of the International 14 dinghies, with the original sail plan and mast height exactly as for that class, the Flying Fifteen is a fractional rigged sloop carrying a mainsail of just over 100 sq ft, a jib of about 41 sq ft, and a spinnaker near 215 sq ft for a total around 142 sq ft. The boat planes—and you get wet—and sails exceptionally well under just the mainsail, with an overlapping jib that rolls up quickly. With low freeboard and wide decks, it is necessary to hike out, and the decked hull has a small cockpit which could easily be bailed. The ballasted fin keel gives the righting capability of a yacht, so the boat should self-right like a ballasted yacht. She is well suited to racing at sea, estuaries, and inland waters, and is small enough to trail to open meetings. Her Primary Portsmouth Yardstick is 1028, with Silver and Classic ratings of 1051 and 1079.
Class Structure and History
The class has active divisions by age: early boats are called Classics (sail numbers 2700 and below, with a very active classic division), later boats fall in the Silver fleet (2701–3400), and the newest are Gold, yet older boats remain permitted to race with newer boats tricked out with the latest go-fast gear. The first world championships were held in Perth, Australia in 1979, and the first European Championships took place in Spain in May 2004. After introduction, the boats became widely popular across the then British Commonwealth, spurred by Britain’s Prince Philip, who was an avid racer. Uffa Fox agreed to modernisation changes toward the end of his life to improve the design specification and sail plan.
Known Issues
Her only disadvantage was launching and recovery with that deepish fixed keel, and you can’t launch this boat from a beach. The deep fixed keel makes trailer handling at ramps a chore compared with a centerboard dinghy, and one owner reported she valued keels over centerboards because the type suited dangerously cold water precisely because it was not a board boat.
The Verdict
The Flying Fifteen remains an attractive, self-righting and popular fixed-keel dinghy that sails brilliantly, blending dinghy responsiveness with yacht-like recovery. Its long competitive life across wooden, glass, and carbon epochs, open to old and new alike, is rare among planing keelboats.
Pros
- Planing performance with dinghy feel yet self-righting like a yacht
- Active class with Classic, Silver, and Gold fleets racing together
- Stiff modern epoxy-carbon hulls from a continuous builder
- Easily bailed small cockpit and quick-reefing jib under main alone
Cons
- Deep fixed keel prevents beach launching and complicates recovery
- Low freeboard and wide decks demand active crew hiking
