Fox conceived the design while lazing in his bathtub and sketched it on a magazine that was close at hand. He wanted to give older sailors similar thrills in a boat that wouldn’t capsize. The result was a large, self-righting dinghy whose ballasted fin keel provides the righting capability of a yacht.
Design and construction
Fox created one of the early planing keel boats. The Flying Fifteen has a long, light and narrow hull with shallow, flattish sections, a fin keel and a spade rudder. The original design weight was 285 lb for the hull and 400 lb for the keel. Overall, the boat weighs approximately 700 pounds, of which 400 pounds is in the keel.
Early boats were wooden, and some were amateur-built. The original construction used a 1/8in diagonal inner skin and a 3/16in fore-and-aft Honduran mahogany outer skin over closely spaced ribs, with a 3/16in marine-plywood deck. Early construction methods varied widely and included traditional carvel, moulded ply, aluminium, Tufnol and glassfibre.
The vast majority of boats are now fiberglass. In recent years, polyester fiberglass has given way to vacuum-bagged epoxy E-glass foam construction and carbon. The latest hulls use an epoxy-foam sandwich, with carbon in high-stress areas, which gives them a significantly stiffer structure and a long competitive life. Modern Ovington Flying Fifteens are built from epoxy resin and carbon fibre.
The cast-iron fin has a very short chord at the top. It lengthens with depth and rakes aft before merging into the bulb at the bottom.
Rig, cockpit and handling
The Flying Fifteen uses a rig similar to that of the International 14 dinghies; its original sail plan and mast height were exactly the same as that class. It is a fractional-rigged sloop with a mainsail of just over 100 sq ft, a jib of about 41 sq ft and a spinnaker near 215 sq ft. The upwind sail area totals around 142 sq ft.
The boat planes—and you get wet. It also sails exceptionally well under mainsail alone, while the overlapping jib rolls up quickly. Low freeboard and wide decks make hiking necessary. The decked hull has a small cockpit that can be bailed easily.
Its ballasted fin keel gives it the righting capability of a yacht, so the boat should self-right like a ballasted yacht. It is well suited to racing at sea, on estuaries and on inland waters, and it is small enough to trail to open meetings.
The Flying Fifteen’s Primary Portsmouth Yardstick is 1028. Silver and Classic boats have ratings of 1051 and 1079 respectively.
Class structure and history
The class has active divisions based on age. Early boats with sail numbers up to 2700 are Classics, and there is a very active Classic division. Boats numbered 2701–3400 belong to the Silver fleet, while the newest boats are Gold. Older boats can still race alongside newer examples equipped with the latest go-fast gear.
After its introduction, the Flying Fifteen became widely popular across the then British Commonwealth, encouraged by Britain’s Prince Philip, who was an avid racer. The first world championships were held in Perth, Australia, in 1979. The first European Championships took place in Spain in May 2004.
Toward the end of his life, Uffa Fox agreed to modernisation changes intended to improve the design specification and sail plan.
Known issues
The boat’s only disadvantage was launching and recovery with that deepish fixed keel, and it can’t be launched from a beach. Compared with a centerboard dinghy, the deep fixed keel also makes handling the trailer at ramps more of a chore.
One owner reported that she valued keels over centerboards because the type suited dangerously cold water precisely because it wasn’t a board boat.
The verdict
The Flying Fifteen remains an attractive, popular and self-righting fixed-keel dinghy that sails brilliantly. It combines dinghy responsiveness with yacht-like recovery. Its long competitive life—spanning wooden, glass and carbon construction, and remaining open to old and new boats alike—is rare among planing keelboats.
Pros
- Planing performance and dinghy-like handling, with the self-righting ability of a yacht
- Active Classic, Silver and Gold fleets that can race together
- Stiff modern epoxy-carbon hulls from a continuing builder
- Small cockpit that is easily bailed
- Quick-furling jib and good sailing under mainsail alone
Cons
- Deep fixed keel prevents beach launching and complicates recovery
- Low freeboard and wide decks require active hiking from the crew
