First Mate 15 Lug Rig
Description
The Lillistone First Mate (often just called First Mate) is a modern, versatile 15-foot beach cruiser / micro-cruiser sailboat designed by Australian naval architect Ross Lillistone. It's essentially a stitch-and-glue plywood version of his popular Phoenix III design (which uses glued-lapstrake construction), making it easier and quicker for amateur builders while retaining the same excellent hull shape, performance, and multi-purpose layout. This boat is optimized for sailing, rowing, and outboard motoring, with a focus on simplicity, trailerability, and enjoyable solo or small-crew adventures—perfect for day sails, weekend micro-cruises, or exploring shallow bays, estuaries, and coastal waters. Builders and owners rave about its "Goldilocks" qualities: not too big or small, rows beautifully when the wind dies, sails lively in a breeze, and handles well when capsized (self-rescues easily due to low freeboard and positive buoyancy).
Construction Details
| Designer | Ross Lillistone |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 15.000 ft |
| LOA | 15.000 ft |
| Beam | 5.083 ft |
| Displacement | 400 lb |
| Max Draft | 3.000 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.500 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
First Mate 15 Lug Rig - STANDING LUGSAIL
| Luff | 5.495 ft - (1675 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 8.89 ft - (2710 mm) |
| Leech | 14.4 ft - (4389 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 80.85 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 9.679 ft - (2950 mm) |
| Head | 10.797 ft - (3291 mm) |
| Area | * 76.36 ft² |
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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.