The end of the gunter

At our summer camp this year Simon Jones with his son Sam dropped in. Simon is one of those guys who's sailed everything, owned most of them and his kids grew up as much on a boat as dry land. He used to race a Finn with Sam and little Anna wedged down each side of the centreboard case when they were toddlers. He also always manages to afford decent boats.

I guess it was no surprise Sam did well in the Mirror Nationals. He and his sailing buddy came in 7th in their Winder built epoxy carbon fibre bemudian rigged race boat. What saddened me was that not one boat in the entire fleet set a gunter rig.

In our area there are three common racing classes with traditional sailing rigs, The optimist (Spritsail), The Solent Scows (several derivatives of one basic design, all rigged with lugsails) and the Mirror. The final significant link with gunter rigged racing boats has been severed. 30 years from now middle aged guys will look at gunter rigged boats not with affection and fond memories but as something strange and alien.

For me at least it was a sad day.

Cliff

Our sailing club, the Ontario Mirror Dinghy Association has no Mirrors with bemudian rigs. We are all gunter rigged. If you feel lonesome for gunters com visit us.
Pete

The new rig's fine for racing, but the gunter rig has substantial advantages when taking the boat on holiday or going cruising which means that every Mirror owner should have the old gear too.

beermatt's picture

Bermudan might be OK for boats stored near their launch spots, but the bermudan rig is definitely an advantage for towing. My mast sits neatly under the cover, a bit pokes out the back which helps give the cover a little better aerodynamics, but it doesn't even stick out further than the trailerboard. Don't even have to tie it down.

PuffinInTegel's picture

One of them being sailed by Mirror Guru Martin Egan. He even came second in one event and placed eighth overall. I was very impressed to see his "old boat" with a 15k number with beautifully laid out control lines and a delicate, airfoil-tapered gaff take on all those carbon-fibre fittings. In the picture below he is in the left-hand boat, using the sails of his other boat (69667).
Europeans
Gunter rigs at the front of the fleet, 2016 European championships
Cheers,
Gernot

sail_and_oar's picture

I was really pleased to see this and also the original pattern high clewed jib on 65625 - no sail window needed as you can see under it. Perhaps it's just a fashion thing and neither is significantly better than the other. I really do hope so.

Cliff

Not having used the new kind of jib, I wonder how helpful the window is. It looks as if the crew can see through it (though upwards in many cases), while it's hidden from the helsman by the main. I'm surprised it isn't lower.

As for speed, the new jib shape may simply be designed to allow the boat to point higher by putting the fairlead on the thwart, but it may also be gaining from an "end plate" effect by being closer to the foredeck, this making it harder for air to leak out underneath from the high-pressure to the low-pressure side (although on the latest GRP hulls the foredeck appears to be lower, thereby making this worse rather than better, so perhaps there's still an advantage there for the wooden hulls).

PuffinInTegel's picture

Just cruising around a busy lake (470s & O-Jollen regatta in the middle, lots of power boats and some excursion ships) yesterday, I was reminded that any assistance in seeing what's coming is useful. Here in Germany on inland waterways, commercial shipping has right-of-way over leisure craft, there is no "sail before steam" privilege. Even with my old-cut jib, the helmsman has very little vision to lee and having to duck under the boom from time to time to make sure the way is clear is bothersome. This is particularly the case if one is sailing single-handed. Luckily my son was with me yesterday to help keep a look-out. I'm sure the window helps a little.
Now that I've moved the fairleads inboard, the old-cut jib does not set so well as the angles of the sheet relative to foot and leech are not optimal. I'm debating buying a new jib.
Gernot H.

sail_and_oar's picture

From what I can recall of Puffin the fairleads were in the "normal" place on the side deck or thereabouts although other factors may have dictated where they ended up.

In his book Mirror Racing Guy Wilkins put some figures on the positioning of the fairleads. 2 metres from stemhead eye to fairlead, 1 m between fairleads.

He mentioned raising or lowering the jib up or down the forestay for fine tuning. If the foot is too tight raise it up, if the leech is too tight lower it.

A boat tuning session every 3 or 4 years can show up some errors which have crept in unnoticed. Normally the boat ends up sailing better as a result. It's a bit heartbreaking some of the Mirrors I see. Slack rigging, jibsheets led outside the shrouds. Missing lacing (and occasionally even the tack line around the mast) on the mainsail, improperly hoisted gaffs. All these are easy to put right. The tricky one is the dreaded shrunken luff rope which happens as the Jeckalls mainsails get a bit old. The luff rope ends up shorter than the sail and you can't get proper luff tension. It's not all that hard to unpick the stitching, stretch the sail out and sew it back up. It's about 10 minutes work for a sailmaker. Putting this right will make the boat point higher and revolutionise the way the it feels.

Cliff

beermatt's picture

Only applies to pleasure craft in the UK too. I've never looked it up the official rules, but practically you could never use that as an excuse for getting in the way of a commercial vessel.

Even small fishing boats in fishing villages (at least in the north anyway), they have a job to do and it'd be a bad idea to get in their way!