Mirror (dinghy) - Design

Design

The Mirror was designed by Jack Holt and TV do-it-yourself expert Barry Bucknell in 1962. It employed a novel construction method where sheets of marine plywood are held together with copper stitching and fibreglass tape. This is called tack and tape or stitch and glue construction. Buoyancy is provided by four independent integral chambers rather than by bags. It was originally designed to be built with simple tools and little experience, and this meant that the design was quite simple. For example, the characteristic 'pram' front reduces the need for the more complicated curved wooden panels and joinery needed for a pointed bow, and a daggerboard is used instead of a hinged centreboard. The result is a robust, versatile and fairly light boat that can be easily maintained and repaired, and can also be got into the water very quickly from storage or transport. Although most experienced sailors would carry a paddle rather than oars, if necessary it rows well. If the transom is strengthened, an outboard motor can be used for propulsion.

The original rig was a Gunter Rig, but in 2006 the class rules were changed to allow a single mast and an alloy boom. Although a Bermudan sloop rig has now been introduced for the Mirror, the original Gunter rig (with a gaff that effectively doubles the height of the mast) meant that all the spars could be packed inside the hull for easy storage or transportation. This same space saving is still available with the Bermudan rig by using an optional two-piece aluminium mast. Mirrors can be sailed without a jib by moving the mast into an optional forward step and moving the shroud attachment points forward. However, in this configuration it can be difficult to tack, so it would mainly be used to de-power the boat for beginners. Most single handers retain the mast in the standard position and handle the jib as well: because of the Mirror's small size, this is quite manageable.

Mirror class rules permit the use of a spinnaker. This may also be used by single handers as well - although flying a main, jib and spinnaker single-handed sounds complex, it is quite manageable with a bit of practice.

Mainsail controls permitted by the class are downhaul (Cunningham), outhaul and kicking strap (Vang). The Jib tack fixing may also be adjustable while sailing allowing changes in jib luff tension and tack height.

The Mirror is light and stable enough to be sailed safely by two young teenagers or two adults. It is an excellent boat for children or teenagers learning sailing for the first time.

Richard Creagh-Osbourn commented in the Dinghy Yearbook 1964 that the Mirror 'was one of the two best one design dinghies drawn by Jack Holt - the other being the Heron'. Initially the design met with a considerable degree of scepticism from the established boating fraternity due to its unconventional design and construction (actually pioneered by Ken Littledyke for canoe construction) but Creagh-Osbourn and Beecher Moore were two of the highly respected pundits of the dinghy scene who were far sighted enough to see the value of the design, and immediately supported it. Within a few years its dramatically lower cost (only just over half the cost of the Heron or Gull) and massive promotion by the Daily Mirror (under the guidance of a dedicated team headed by Victor Shaw) transformed the boat into the most popular two man dinghy in terms of sales per annum worldwide. This was sadly relatively short lived, and the imposition of 25% VAT in the late 1970s on boats, killed the dinghy market and the sales of the Mirror - it never really recovered, and by the time the economy improved, its franchise of practical post war kit builders had been replaced by kids who had little understanding of the most basic woodworking skills and even less interest - it remains popular but not to the extent and enthusiam that fostered the book 'Mirrormania' in 1976

Read more about this topic:  Mirror (dinghy)

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    I begin with a design for a hearse.
    For Christ’s sake not black—
    nor white either—and not polished!
    Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—
    William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)

    We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful.
    Joseph Addison (1672–1719)