Silver & Classic Fleet     Flying Fifteen     History     FFI     Championships

BIFFA

BIFFA exists to promote the interests of the Flying Fifteen Class in the British Isles, to bring owners into contact with each other, to control and manage Class affairs in accordance with their wishes, to co-ordinate the holding of Championships and other Open events, to be affiliated to and liaise with, ff International on matters relating to the Class Rules or any other matters which concern ff International.

Join BIFFA      Standing Order form - boat owners      Standing Order form - non-boat-owning

(PDF - fill in on-screen, then print)

BIFFA publishes a year book with details of boats and owners, two magazines a year, and maintains a second hand boat list available free to prospective purchasers. BIFFA also has an insurance scheme for class members.  For further information contact :

J. K. Lee Ltd.
Wrendall House
2, Whitworth Street West
Castlefield
Manchester
M1 5WX
flying15@jklee.co.uk

BIFFA also represents the Class at RYA meetings.

Silvers and Classics

As the class has developed, the older boats have become less competitive against the newer boats in stronger winds. To help counter this, two "sub-fleets" have been created, the Classics and the Silvers.
Classics are Fifteens with sail numbers of 2700 and below, but in addition boats built by Copland, Shepherd and Wyche & Coppock with sail numbers over 2700 are also eligible for Classic status. FFI has a list of boats it considers to be Classics.
Internationally, the Silvers are boats with sail numbers in the range 2701 - 3200 (which are not Classics), however as an experiment, BIFFA is using an upper limit of 3400. These limits were chosen as they mark the introduction of the Windebank IV and Windebank IX designs, both of which showed significant improvements in performance on previous designs.
At many events, all boats compete together, at others they race in their own sub-fleets. However, all boats are eligible for the open fleet. When racing on handicap, BIFFA has separate numbers for each group that clubs may wish to use (see above).

The International Flying Fifteen

The Flying Fifteen is a twenty foot long two handed keelboat.  It is suited to a wide range of crew weights, and can easily be sailed by mixed crews.

The Vital Statistics

History

The Flying Fifteen was designed by Uffa Fox in 1947.  Whilst the design has changed little over the years, there has been considerable development in the rig and in the materials that are used in the boat.

From early days the class was sailed around the world.  Early fleets were established in Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa.  These still exist and share the World Championships along with the British Isles.  Other fleets appeared in the Middle East, central and north America and parts of mainland Europe.

In 1978 the class was granted international status by the IYRU (now ISaF).  Since then there have been regular world championships, starting in Australia in 1979.
 

FFI

Flying Fifteen International is responsible for managing the affairs of the Class and for making sure that the one-design characteristic is maintained. To achieve this it must ensure that National Associations are both consulted about and informed of proposals to make changes to the Rules.

On behalf of the Class, FFI makes recommendations to and agreements with the International Sailing Federation (ISaF) on the control of the Class Rules. It also acts as agent for the ISAF in collecting the International Class fees for all new boats built throughout the world. The latter task, together with the issue of sail numbers to National Associations, is controlled by the Treasurer of FFI.

The International Association is also constructive in promoting the Class worldwide and co-ordinates International competitions.

Championships

Every year BIFFA organises a number of championships, which are governed by the class's Championship regulations. Every second year, FFI organises World Championships, at which the number of places is restricted. BIFFA runs a World Championship Qualifying series in the year before hand to select the team to attend. The selection is covered by the qualification system.