Flattie skiff 15
Description
Source: The Dory Book (1977) and Building Classic Small Craft, Volume 1 (1977) by John Gardner, published by International Marine/Mystic Seaport. John Gardner’s 15-foot Sailing Flattie is a direct descendant of 19th-century New England work skiffs used for lobstering, clamming, and inshore fishing. Gardner documented and redrew the lines from a surviving boat in the Mystic Seaport collection (originally built around 1890 in Noank, Connecticut). The design emphasizes simplicity, stability, and shallow draft—perfect for beaching, rowing, or sailing in protected waters. Gardner’s flattie is not a stitch-and-glue plywood boat; it uses traditional lapstrake (clinker) planking over steam-bent frames. However, many modern builders adapt the lines to plywood using epoxy and stitch-and-glue for faster construction.
The standard boat dimensions
| i | 11.50 ft |
|---|---|
| j | 4.50 ft |
| p | 16 ft |
| e | 9 ft |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.50 ft | 4.50 ft | 16 ft | 9 ft | - | - | - | - |
Blueprints
Sails
Flattie skiff 15 - MAINSAIL
| Luff | * 16 ft - (4877 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | * 9 ft - (2743 mm) |
| Leech | * 17.9 ft - (5456 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 88 ° |
| Diagonal | * 18.08 ft - (5511 mm) |
| Head (inches) | * 4.5 in - (114 mm) |
| Area | * 74.897 ft² |
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Flattie skiff 15 - JIBSAIL
| Luff | * 9.88 ft - (3011 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | * 6.2 ft - (1890 mm) |
| Leech | * 8.29 ft - (2527 mm) |
| Percentage LP | * 115 % |
| Length Perpendicular | * 5.18 ft - (1579 mm) |
| Deck Angle | * 12 ° |
| Area | * 25.59 ft² |
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Flattie skiff 15 - SPRIT
| Luff | 8.75 ft - (2667 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 8 ft - (2438 mm) |
| Leech | 12.83 ft - (3911 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 81.97 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 11 ft - (3353 mm) |
| Head | 7 ft - (2134 mm) |
| Area | * 73.14 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.