About the Mirror Dinghy

The Mirror is an ideal family boat because of its stability and ease of handling but it can be very exciting to race, especially with its spinnaker up. It was designed to race with 2 people but can be sailed single-handedly (with or without its jib) and you can comfortably cruise with three people in it. There are 6 Cup Events for the Mirror, one of them for Under-16's (The Junior Commodore's Cup).

The Mirror was designed by Jack Holt and became an International class in 1989. It is a strict one-design class. There are now more than 70,000 Mirrors world-wide. It is 3.3 metres long and 1.4 metres wide with a sail area of 6.5 square metres plus a spinnaker of 4.4 square metres. It has a Portsmouth Yardstick of 1382. To find out more about the Mirror, visit the official Mirror Site. Another really good site is Mirror Fun Sailing, set up by a former president of the Netherlands Mirror Association.

Apart from Sunday racing for the club's Mirror sailors, the boats have also been used in the Sailing Camp which takes place in the summer. This is a week-long event for the under-16s in the club, where the younger sailors learn the skills of racing and the older ones improve their skills. The Camp ends on the day of the Junior Commodore's Cup, so the kids get some real racing experience.

It may sound like only the kids sail the Mirror in our club, but in fact many of the regular sailors are middle-aged men! A lot of the adults start their racing in a Mirror, and then move on to the club's main class, the Enterprise, for more challenging and exciting racing with more boats and competition. Mirror, Topper and Enterprise races happen at the same time, which gives something for everybody on a Sunday afternoon. And of course, some of the members prefer just to sail the Mirror at leisure, especially when the weather is at its best!

In July 2002, the Club hosted the Mirror Scottish Championship.

If you are interested in having a go at the Mirror events at St Mary's Loch, have a look at the events on the calendar.

Tuning Guide

There is a lot of competition in the St. Mary's Mirror fleet! So, a lot of care is taken in setting up the boats. There are a few key elements to setting up the Mirror dinghy. So, here they are, for anybody wanting to get that little bit of extra speed out of their boat....

RIG

The rig must have the correct tension and rake to get the best performance out of the sails. The best way to do this is to pull forward on the mast while pulling on the tack line with the other hand. But, when it is windy and more tension is required in the rig, it is worth getting the crew to pull on the mast, while it is all being tightened up.

FAIRLEADS

If the Mirror is used (or has been used) in big regattas or when it is important to get all the power possible, the fairleads may be found, or can be moved to the buoyancy tanks. It is recommended that they should be 96-100 cm across the boat and 200 cm back from the bow on either side. When positioned properly, on an upwind course there should be a parallel slot all the way up between the jib and the back of the mainsail. If it is not, then the fairleads should be moved backwards or forwards to make it that way. When the boat is luffed up and the jib is set correctly, then all the telltales on that sail should lift together. The best way to get this perfected is to experiment on land on the trolley (when it is not too windy!), then it is possible to try lots of positions to get it right. As a general rule, if the bottom telltale breaks first, then move the fairlead back, and vice-versa.

JIB

The jib must be pulled up far enough to take all the creases out of the front of the sail but not so much that there is a big vertical "valley" running down the luff. When there is a lot of wind, the halyard should be pulled tight to prevent jib sag and so you will be able to keep the boat pointing on the upwind sections.

CONTROL LINES

Another way to set the boat up properly is to mark all of your control lines so that the correct settings can be reproduced. The easiest way to do this is to mark numbers, for example, on the boom beside the outhaul track so that the runner can be set at the same, correct position. This can also be done for the other main sail controls.

HELM BALANCE

The boat is controlled from the helm. Therefore it is a definite advantage to have the boat correctly set up for maximum performance here. The main way to control the feel of the helm is by adjusting the mast rake. To get some feel, it is necessary to have a little bit of mast rake, but, if there is too much rake then the boat will get a lot of weather helm upwind. To get this right, it takes a bit of experimenting, by moving the shrouds up and down on the chain plates. Sail the boat up wind absolutely flat as if there is even a tiny amount of leeward heel, weatherhelm will be created and windward heel will create lee helm. This should also improve your upwind sailing! If, when you let go of the tiller, the boat goes very slightly towards the wind. If it heads upwind quickly, then rake the mast further forward, and vice-versa.

ANYTHING ELSE???

You still want to get more out of your boat? Then other things can be done to squeeze every bit of speed out of it. A lot of the above fittings can be expensive, but may be worthwhile. If you have new sails and have an old gaff, it is often necessary to purchase a new, stiff one to get the sails to work at their best. Another thing is to make sure the centre board is stiff, and not bent.

Hopefully you will benefit from some (or all) of this but for further guidelines and about racing the Mirror, have a look at Fernhurst Books for books on the subject you are interested in.

This page was written by Martin Fox