Mirror Dinghy



About the Mirror Dinghy

The story of the origins of the Mirror dinghy is a remarkable one. Barry Bucknall, a DIY celebrity from the BBC in the 1960s, started developing plans for an affordable dinghy that could be built at home in order to encourage the spread of sailing. The Daily Mirror newspaper picked up on the story and put up the funds to develop the concept on the condition that the boat was named after the paper, and that the sails were the same colour as their logo – red.

Bucknall teamed up with Jack Holt, and the boat they came up with was unusual. The trademark bow was designed in order to make construction easier for less skilled home builders, and the mast was made in such a way that it could easily be taken down and would fit inside the boat for simple storage and transport.

The boat was a huge success and Mirrormania swept Britain for a few years. The class is still hugely popular now, and the boat is ideal for beginners and competitive sailors alike. Teenagers can race with their friends and parents can race with their children. There’s a really good short video here (hat tip to Proper Course for highlighting this video) that explains it.

The boat is most popular in the UK where it originated, but it has also found success in Ireland, The United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Phillipines. The class has been updated, with a more modern Bermudan Sloop rig, and racing ranges from fun club races to highly competitive international championships. Many sailors have gone on from the Mirror to be hugely successful in sailing, and this is testament to the range of skills that can be learnt from what is a very clever, very simple and very fun boat.



Videos for Mirror Sailing

Accelerating at the start:

Tacking:

Hoisting the spinnaker:

Gybing with the spinnaker:

Dropping the spinnaker:

Footage from the Mirror Worlds in South Africa 2007




Books for Mirror Sailing

Specific for Mirrors

The Mirror Book: Mirror Sailing from Start to Finish
by Peter Aitken and Tim Davison


UK & Ireland
United States


Mirror Racing
by Guy Wilkins

UK & Ireland
United States


Sailing the Mirror
by Roy Partridge


UK & Ireland
United States


The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow:
A Mirror Odyssey from North Wales to the Black Sea
A. J. Mackinnon


UK & Ireland
United States


General Books Useful for Mirror Sailors

The Bestsellers

These three books will help any sailor improve in any class of boat.

Sailing Fitness

You need to be physically fit to do well – even just a little bit of all-round fitness can improve your results a lot. These books are all helpful in designing a program that works for you. My favourite is Sailing Fitness & Training by Michael Blackburn.

Psychology

Getting your head right can be as important as getting your technique right. These books will all help with this area, and the Eric Twiname book, Sail, Race and Win is possibly my all-time favourite book on how to improve your sailing

Books for Self-Coaching by Olympic Coach Jon Emmett

Jon Emmett coached Lijia Xu to an Olympic Gold Medal, and is a multiple World Champion himself. These well written books share the secrets of how to coach yourself and improve your sailing.

Sailing Technique and Performance Books by Frank Bethwaite

Frank Bethwaite is a bit of a legend – relentless in his pursuit to understand high performance race craft. His two bigger books (High Performance Sailing and Higher Performance Sailing) can be quite dense to read while Fast Handling Techniques is lighter and easier to read. All are hugely important.

…and finally, Three Absolute Classics

These three books are nailed-on classics – books that have helped generations of sailors and are still relevant today. Start to Win is a good, relatively basic book that will help get you to the front of the fleet; Winning in One Designs is widely regarded as essential reading for one-design sailors; and Advanced Racing Tactics is more in-depth, is a tougher read, but will help with a lot of in-race strategy.



Links for Mirror Dinghy Sailors

Class Information

The International Class Association

The ISAF Class Page

Class Associations by Country/Region:

The UK Mirror Class Association

The Irish Mirror Class Association

The Australian Mirror Class Association

The Japanese Mirror Class Association

The US Mirror Dinghy Group

The Dutch Mirror Class Association

The Ontario Mirror Class Association

The Mirror Dinghy Discussion Forum

Free downloadable book: Mirror Sailing in AUS


Boat Set-up, Boat Handling and Other Tips

A very good, basic rigging guide

A really nice article on how to crew a Mirror well

Hints and tips for Mirror sailors from the Western Australia website:

Useful stuff on sail set-up and trim from Walker Sails

How to convert to centre sheeting:


Blogs and Blog Posts

Earwigoagin on Mirror Dinghies

A blog about restoring an old Mirror



The Vital Statistics

Suggested (combined) sailor weight range: 80kg-110kg (ideal weight range is 95kg-110kg)

  • Year Designed: 1962
  • Hull Length 3.3 metres
  • Beam 1.39 metres
  • Mainsail Area 4.6 square metres
  • Jib Area 1.9 square metres
  • Spinnaker 4.4 square metres
  • Hull Weight 45.5 kg


Who\’s Who in Mirrors

Ian Walker – A National and European champion in Mirrors, Ian Walker has gone on to win two Olympic Silver Medals (in the 470 and the Star), coached Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb to Olympic Gold in the Yngling, and has won the Volvo Ocean Race too.

Paul Goodison

Stuart Bithell

Annalise Murphy

Lucy MacGregor

Kate MacGregor

Tom King – 470 Gold Medallist in Sydney 2000

Ben Austin

Tessa Parkinson