It is also 40 years since the national championships were held at Wānaka, in January 1984.
It returns on February 9.
In 1984, Peter Swale, 68, belonged to Dunedin’s Vauxhall Club and the Flying Fifteen race was his first race attempt ever.
He took the helm of his yacht, Ffalcon II, and enlisted his father Bill, then 55, as crew.
Things did not go well for the novices.
"We knew nothing about racing at all. He [Bill] fell out of the boat, actually, during the race. It was funny. You don’t normally fall out of these boats ... We tacked, changed direction and I got a big surprise and let everything go, the tiller and everything.
"I tried to grab hold of him and the boat swung around and threatened to blow over us.
"Then it rounded back to the original tack and to the day he died [last year] we still don’t know how he fell out of the boat and how he got back in. It will evermore be a bit of a mystery."
Swale recalled as the boat went round, it seemed to pick his father up all by itself, scooping Bill out of the water "as if it were a practised manoeuvre".
Swale went on to compete more successfully in regattas with the Vauxhall club and, from 2016, with the Wānaka Yacht Club. However, until now, he has never raced in another national competition.
Swale has selected Tom Akass as his new Flying Fifteen crew mate. Akass joined the Wānaka club after moving to Wānaka from Glen Affric, Scotland.
He has never sailed at national level before, but thanks to Swale, he has got more experience than Swale had his first time.
"I’ve just showed up consistently every week for the last five years. I learned to sail in Wānaka. Pete taught me all the bad habits I know," Akass said.
Wānaka club stalwart Kevin King, 68, was also at the Flying Fifteen nationals in 1984, as a member of the shore crew.
Despite the Swales’ mishap, they did not finish last.
King said he had "vague memories" of several boats sinking at the 1984 nationals, because the wind was so strong.
In that race, the Flying Fifteen course began at Eely Point and raced across Bremner Bay.
"Lots of other boats broached. There were people bailing out with buckets. The whole thing was terrible," Swale said.
The course for this year’s Flying Fifteen will be determined on the day.
So far, there have been 15 entries, nine from Wānaka.
The Flying Fifteen yacht is the oldest one-design hull boat in the world, designed in 1947 and first raced in 1948.
About 4000 have been built worldwide.
"They are special boats. They have evolved over the years but are still a lovely boat," King said.
"It performs like a dinghy but you don’t spend so much time in the water upside down," Swale said.
Ffalcon II was the 747th Flying Fifteen to be built in the world and was wooden.
After he bought it, he had to rebuild it.
"The whole thing fell apart — all the screw and glue came away."
On February 9, he would race Ffinisterre (No3370) and there was no danger his modern boat would fall apart, Swale said.
It was built in 1994 by Marten Marine in Auckland for a client who ordered the same design of Flying Fifteen built for top Kiwi yachtsmen Roger Craddock and Steve Cunnold.
Craddock and Cunnold used Ffinisterre’s sister boat, Whiffler, to win a gold medal in the Flying Fifteen World Championships in Timaru in 1994.
Swale bought the boat in Auckland about two years ago.
King and Elliott will be sailing in Intergen, a Flying Fifteen built in Australia in 2004.
King said he bought his Flying Fifteen about three years ago.
