Argie 15
Description
The Argie 15, designed in 1988 by South African naval architect Dudley Dix for the Argus Newspaper Group—as a tribute to their street-corner vendors, the "Argie Boys"—is a lightweight, versatile plywood sailing dinghy renowned for its simplicity, affordability, and multi-purpose appeal as a build-it-yourself family boat that can be rowed, sailed, or motored, with hundreds of examples constructed worldwide across 60 countries using stitch-and-glue methods from just seven sheets of 6mm marine plywood. Measuring 15 feet 5 inches LOA with a 6-foot beam, 5-inch draft (board up) or 31 inches (down), and a scant 132-pound hull weight, it features a hard-chine hull with a pivoting centerboard for shallow-water access, a balanced lug sloop rig offering 105 square feet of sail area for responsive performance up to 6–7 knots in moderate breezes (SA/D around 24 for lively planning), and ample cockpit space for three to four adults plus gear, enabling camp-cruising with 6-foot-4-inch sleeping length via optional floorboards.
Construction Details
| Designer | Dudley Dix |
|---|---|
| LOA | 15.420 ft |
| Beam | 6.000 ft |
| Displacement | 132 lb |
| Max Draft | 2.620 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.430 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | 15.25 ft |
|---|---|
| j | 6 ft |
| p | 15.91 ft |
| e | 7.25 ft |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.25 ft | 6 ft | 15.91 ft | 7.25 ft | - | - | - | - |
Sails
| Sail Type | MAINSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 15.91 ft - (4849 mm) |
| Foot | 7.25 ft - (2210 mm) |
| Leech | * 17.06 ft - (5200 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 87.98 ° |
| Diagonal | 17.25 ft - (5258 mm) |
| Head (inches) | 4 in - (102 mm) |
| Area | * 59.99 ft² |
| Comments | Loose Footed. |
| Sail Type | JIBSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 14.75 ft - (4496 mm) |
| Foot | 6.25 ft - (1905 mm) |
| Leech | 13.5 ft - (4115 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | * 5.72 ft - (1743 mm) |
| Area | * 42.18 ft² |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.