Vanguard 15

The Vanguard 15 is an American planing sailing dinghy that was designed by Bob Ames as a one-design racer and first built in 1992.

Production
The design was built by Team Vanguard in the United States and later by LaserPerformance, but is no longer in production.

Design
The Vanguard 15 is a recreational sailboat, built predominantly of fiberglass. It has a fractional sloop rig with aluminum spars, a raked stem, a vertical transom, a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a retractable daggerboard. It displaces 200 lb and is capable of planing upwind.

The boat has a draft of 3.42 ft with the daggerboard extended and 6 in with it retracted, allowing beaching or ground transportation on a trailer or car roof rack.

For sailing the design is equipped with a boom vang and the mainsail and jib have windows for improved visibility. The halyards are external and the mast is of a non-tapered design. The boat is normally raced with a crew of two sailors.

The design has a hull speed of 5.19 kn.

Operational history
In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "the Vanguard 15 is designed for college/yacht club racing fleets. Rig is simple, and the boat is a strict one-design. The deck is rounded, for easy hiking ... With the daggerboard and light weight, the boat may be easily dry sailed — often helpful for fleet sailing."

A 2013 review in Sail1Design noted "the Vanguard 15 boasts one of the strongest class associations of any one-design fleet, running hundreds of events each year. With fleets located across the country, there are opportunities to get involved from the club level to championship regattas. The V15 is a popular club level fleet racer as well as team racer."

In 2014, a Vanguard 15 one-design racer, John Storck III, reported that the boat was falling out of favor with college sailors and that attendance at regattas was declining.