Plastic Classic Forum

On eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Flying-F ... e00b#v4-35

Also on eBay, from the pleistocene era of Classic Plastic: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Antique- ... e036#v4-31

I've always thought "Uffa Fox's Flying Fifteen" used too many F's for polite conversation ... oops, off topic again. Sorry ...

A flying fifteen was my first boat (Barring an optimist dinghy), I had the 10th hull built in GRP, build like a brick outhouse they are!

They're very good sailing boats and a blast to sail, I paid £100 for mine with a trailer when I was 15 :) Memories :)

Rich P wrote:...build like a brick outhouse they are!

May be, but she looks more sleek and speed to me, like a greyhound just off the starting block.

Dave.

One Way David wrote:

Rich P wrote:...build like a brick outhouse they are!

May be, but she looks more sleek and speed to me, like a greyhound just off the starting block.

Dave.

Sorry, I mean't in relation to the lay-up, not the lines :)

Okay, how is a 20-foot planing boat that weighs 677 lbs. comparable to a brick outhouse? (That's total weight, including rig; hull alone is about 300#.)

(I'm sure there is a logical explanation, like maybe other 20-foot planing boats are a lot lighter, and it just sounds light to me because I'm used to keel boats; it just intrigued me enough to go look.)

I mean't that because the early GRP ones were built before designers understood the full strength of the material, the hull layup was a lot thicker then on the later hulls which saved a lot of weight with less glass fibre.

Sorry if that doesn't make sense I'll re-write it after I've sobered up :P

Sorry, I was thinking after I wrote that that it probably sounded a bit testy.

It's just that that particular "myth" drives me nuts, personally. I don't know if it's true across the board -- and I'm sure there are some too-thin, cheesy hulls out there -- but when I was boat shopping I can't tell you how many ads or sellers went on and on about how thick and battleship-like the hull was from "back when they did not know how thin they could make fiberglass," and then that justified the high price they were asking for a boat with a moldy interior, bagged out 30-year-old sails, running rigging as stiff as a board, shrouds with a collection of meat hooks, a tired oily engine, saturated deck core, crazed gelcoat, and any number of other flaws. Oh man did I get tired of hearing about the "bulletproof" hulls that apparently justified the price (well, no, since many of them still had not sold years later, but I digress).

And then just to make it worse, the "super thick" hulls from the 1960s that I've had a chance to drill into have had really weak looking layups, with poor saturation, actual DRY laminae, etc.

Not that I'm saying they are not plenty strong enough to do the job, or that it's bad that they are thick -- obviously they have stood the test of time and keep on going today -- but I'll have to admit that "brick outhouse" phrase struck a nerve. So it was that more than (what seemed to me to be) the light weight of the boat (6777# on 20 - but maybe that is due to the different hull form I am not familiar with') that really got to me. Sorry for a peevish sounding post.

Rachel

Don't worry about, there's a chap at my sailing club that had an old classic, in order to make it competitive in the Nationals he had to get the Keel recast into the newer shape, he also had to take the hull thickness right down the equivalent of the newer boats to help with the weight.

Agree with what you've wrote above, either way as I said they're a great boat to sail :)

I guess it wouldn't be too surprising if an older hull was a wee bit heavier than the 667# spec. Shaving it down... dedicated!

I haven't sailed much (really at all) on performance hulls; I bet they are a blast!

Rachel

It would be interesting to take the time and compare the Flying 15 keelboat with other planing or otherwise-thought-of-fast keelboats of her day. Star, 110, 210, etc. 600+ lbs sounds comparable to a Lightning, sorta' planing but with a steel plate centerboard. Also with a Flying Scott, a heavy sorta' planing centerboarder.

Besides exotic materials today, the current crop of planing boats are broader aft and narrower forward, and I mean to include all those offshore large keelboat racing machines.

The old sea-kindly, traditionally-shaped planing boats, like (my favorite) the Flying Dutchman, 5-0-5, Thistle, Finn, International 14s, etc. all are narrower aft where the planing surfaces are.

Anybody heard of a German built class called Pirat? There's a lovely bright-finished Mahogany one that's recently been sailed around Swan Creek. 15-ish feet, 3/8" solid Mahogany planking on a frame, with chines. Looks like a Comet or a Snipe, but sleeker.

Quetzalsailor wrote:It would be interesting to take the time and compare the Flying 15 keelboat with other planing or otherwise-thought-of-fast keelboats of her day. Star, 110, 210, etc. 600+ lbs sounds comparable to a Lightning, sorta' planing but with a steel plate centerboard. Also with a Flying Scott, a heavy sorta' planing centerboarder.

Besides exotic materials today, the current crop of planing boats are broader aft and narrower forward, and I mean to include all those offshore large keelboat racing machines.

The old sea-kindly, traditionally-shaped planing boats, like (my favorite) the Flying Dutchman, 5-0-5, Thistle, Finn, International 14s, etc. all are narrower aft where the planing surfaces are.

Anybody heard of a German built class called Pirat? There's a lovely bright-finished Mahogany one that's recently been sailed around Swan Creek. 15-ish feet, 3/8" solid Mahogany planking on a frame, with chines. Looks like a Comet or a Snipe, but sleeker.

Yes. German web site. This is a boat that really is mostly sailed in Germany.
http://www.piraten-kv.de
rb

Reminds me of the mind game "count the F's":

Finished files are the result
of years of scientific study
combined with the experience
of years...

How many did you get???

Scroll down for the answer
















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