“Three broad decks or seats run right round the cockpit, making the Mirror the most sofa-like of all small dinghies to sail, and enabling several First Mates, an Able Seaman and Ship's Boy to be deployed in relative comfort around the dinghy” – A J Mackinnon’s "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow", Seafarer Books.

Most people must know of the Mirror Dinghy to some extent because sail numbers are up around 70,000, and everyone I meet tells me they once built one! I just love the boat and its character. The design was by Barry Bucknell and Jack Holt, the boat being built by the stitch-and-glue method with fibreglass seams. The design works well, and is quite safe and traditional, using a foredeck extending back to the mast, forming a forward buoyancy chamber, together with side tanks and stern tank. Bulwarks rise above the deck level all round, giving protection. The hull is a single-chine type, with plenty of freeboard, whilst the bow has a pram transom, giving the little boat a sturdy, snub nose appearance that you might consider either ugly or appealing, depending on your point of view. The bow transom is sloped back at 45 degrees and provides enormous buoyancy and hydrodynamic lift if a wave strikes the bow. The dinghy has a dagger board rather than a centreboard, simple and compact, but if it hits an obstruction the boat will stop sharply (I make considerable use of a 5 ft sounding stick when in an estuary). An advantage of the dagger board is that it can stop you from driving aground. The main dimensions of the boat are given in the following table:-

Length Overall (LOA) = 10 ft 10 ins (3.3m) Beam = 4 ft 7 ins (1.39m) Draft = 4 ins (0.09m) board raised = 28 ins (0.70m) board lowered Mast Height (from deck) = 16 ft (4.9m) (mast and gaff) Mast length = 10 ft 8ins (3.3m) Gaff length = 9 ft 3 ins (2.8m) Boom length = 7 ft 6 ins (2.3m) Sail area = Main 49 sq ft (4.6 sq m) = Jib 20 sq ft (1.9 sq m) Spinnaker = 47 sq ft (4.4 sq m) Rig = Gunter with optional spinnaker Weight = Complete 135 lbs (61.29 kg) = Hull only 98 lbs (45.5 kg) Volume of hull below sheerline = 1.15 cu m Length Overall (LOA) = 10 ft 10 ins (3.3m) Volume of Buoyancy tanks = 0.53 cu m (46% of hull)

(with acknowledgements to the UK Mirror Class Association)

When day sailing, the boat is ideal for an adult and a teenager, but if sleeping aboard there is only room for one person to live. When single-handing, the entire crew area in front of the thwart is available for stores, and it can be assumed that the boat is designed to carry a payload up to at least the weight of a crew, say 100 lbs. Once loaded, with a fair wind and smooth water the boat makes about 3.5 knots. It is very responsive in light airs yet can, with the usual DCA modifications, survive strong winds. John Gray sailed Little Mischief from the Dee to New Quay (near Aberystwyth), over several days, tackling a very challenging coastline. He also circumnavigated Anglesey and sailed out to the Skerries. My own passages in Curlew have included Itchenor to Bursledon (21 miles), Studland to Bournemouth (6 miles) and Itchenor to Bembridge (10 miles). These distances are by no means the maximum that could be covered. Remember that Alan Earl sailed from Poole to Chichester in a 10 ft boat and wanted to return via the Back of the Wight, only weather stopping him.

When the boat is lightly loaded it may feel rather tippy, but once it is loaded with 100 lbs of cruising gear it is nice and steady. Even sleeping to one side of the centre case produces very little heel. However, do not hang your legs over the side because it is important that your CG remains within the waterline. If the boat capsizes it tries to invert, so, as with most dinghies, masthead buoyancy of at least 5 pounds is important - a gallon of air would be ideal. I have tried fenders attached to the shrouds but hope to try the self-inflating Secumar buoyancy device. When the boat goes over it floats very high and will dump any water back into the sea; when it comes up it will be nearly dry. As with all dinghies, capsize at sea is to be avoided at all costs, but as the Mirror is small you have an increased chance of being able to right the boat.

The rig uses a Gunter lug mainsail of 49 sq ft together with a staysail of 20 sq ft and an optional spinnaker. I have never used the latter but I frequently use the spinnaker pole to whisker-out the staysail. The inboard end of the pole can be clipped to the centre case, and there is no need to attach it to the mast or use any guys. The boat will sail under mainsail alone and there is no need to move the mast as envisaged by the designers. Neither is it necessary to lace the mainsail to the mast below the yard. It is important to improve vision by raising the staysail tack with a 9-inch strop to give some forward vision, and staysail reef points are useful for certain conditions. Under staysail alone the boat sails beautifully and will even go slightly to windward. The boat heaves-to successfully, riding like a duck in the waves, and can be sometimes made to self-steer. It can also be rowed quite well, even with one oar whilst sailing, and I have a 2.2 HP Suzuki outboard that is very useful, though not essential.

I have provided one mainsail slab reef, in the manner used by traditional boats, the pendants being led to accessibly positioned cleats on the boom. My yard is provided with a second halyard for its reefed position making it possible to reef the mainsail in a few seconds; tying-in the reef points takes longer but is not essential. Twin topping lifts are a great help when reefing and can, for simplicity, be of fixed length. They also catch the yard when it comes down and keep it under good control. In fact you can drop the sail whilst on a run without much problem – an essential sailing technique. It is also possible to provide some lazy-jacks to catch the sail better. The Gunter rig on the Mirror is really excellent and in addition to reducing the "mast" height when reefed it also enables the sail to be dropped in an instant when meeting a squall. The cockpit is long enough for sleeping and I use wooden boards to form a bed at thwart level occupying all the space to one side of the centre case and sloping down to the forward end to compensate for the slope of a beach. It is important to have an area of floor clear to allow you to get out of bed. Once the tent is up it is really cosy inside, although the headroom is only sufficient for sitting at the centre, so it might be worth trying some hoops to give more space. When stowed, the tent "clews up" to a stick attached beneath the boom. On arrival, the straps are released and the tent drops over the crew. It is the work of a few minutes to secure the tent to the gunwale.

There are two stowage compartments forward, for which I have made wooden hatch covers, and I have also made two wooden boxes that go each side at the aft end of the cockpit. I do not store anything except a few flags in the buoyancy chambers. Items such as water bottles and flare box can be placed around the centre case or under the thwart and tied in position with bungees. The anchors are on chocks on the foredeck with warps in buckets on the floor, whilst the compass is on the forward cockpit bulkhead. The forward stowage compartments contain cooker box, batteries, trysail, sea anchor, sleeping bag, polar fleece and clothes. One of the aft stowage boxes I mentioned is the kitchen, containing food and drink for the passage, eating irons, cup, binoculars, camera, hat etc. The other contains a boatswain's box, first aid kit, charts, navigation items and tools. There is room on the aft deck for a chart board, and I have my own idiosyncratic RDF set mounted under the port-side thwart, a good bilge pump being mounted under the starboard-side thwart, for which I think a permanently installed outlet is essential. A VHF set clips to the centre case and cooking is done on the aft deck using a compact Colman gas cooker in a big tin. Meta tablets are also suitable for cooking.

Rigging and loading the boat takes about an hour and it seems better to load the boat before bending on the sails. The equipment more or less doubles the weight, so whilst it is quite easy to trundle the boat on its trolley to the water, recovery is more difficult. I would recommend pulling the boat up the slipway by car. You can tie the trolley to the end of the trailer (forming the world's longest vehicle, to the astonishment of onlookers). Alternatively you will need to unload the boat whilst afloat, when you will find recovery very easy.

Mirror kits, hulls and complete boats are available from Trident at Gateshead, who can also supply all body panels and components. Second hand boats frequently appear, but do be professional in checking for rot or distortion. Repairs are easy so long as you have the courage to be bold with the fibreglass. Ethylene glycol (blue antifreeze) will kill the rot spores, and I am indebted for this technique to Dave Carnell, whose web site is HYPERLINK "http://home.att.net/~DaveCarnell/rot.html" http://home.att.net/~DaveCarnell/rot.html

With a small dinghy (in contrast to something like a Wayfarer) the sheets are light to handle, especially if you use a mainsheet ratchet block, and you will have sufficient body weight when single-handed to keep good control (mostly!). In an emergency you might be able to pull the boat up a beach, lifting each end in turn. You are unlikely ever to be neaped, because the boat can be moved down the beach, given enough sweat. If you are really struggling you could unload some of the heavy gear from the boat in order to move it, or use rollers.

Dinghy cruisers will appreciate that attention to small detail is important, so to avoid taking up too much Bulletin space, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you want to try out new ideas, test them at home in the garden first, because some of them will probably not work first time. As for gaining experience, I suggest taking it slowly, a step at a time, starting on a duck pond if necessary, and getting comfortable with F5 in the harbour before venturing out to sea. Please remember that there are limits to the wind and waves that even a gallant little boat can handle.