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Submitted by timg on Wed, 11/20/2013 - 20:40

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Hi All
I bought my 1st dinghy late last year ,( Ragamuffin 32778 ) which is in good condition for its age and after a few pointers from a good friend i have had may hours of sailing this summer ,building up my confidence to take my 4 year son with me , now a permemant crew member controlling the jib sail which is great.

enjoying reading the forum

I will post some pic's soon and put it on the rollcall
cheers
tim

David Cooper

Wed, 11/20/2013 - 21:57

Good to hear. Your son may only be four, but that is not too soon to think about putting him on the helm, obviously starting in lighter winds and gradually allowing him to control the boat in stronger wind conditions (if he proves to be sufficiently responsible) until you end up sharing the helming 50:50 with him. This will not only make it a lot more fun for him, but the boat will also go faster with more of the weight further forward (due to reduced drag).

PuffinInTegel's picture

PuffinInTegel

Mon, 11/25/2013 - 22:12

Looking forward to pictures!

Gernot H.

timg

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 22:29

Hi all
hopefully a few pic's from last summer ,
photo today404_zps285ac7fe.jpg
photo newfujicamera089_zpsf250543d.jpg
photo DSCF0037_zps79ef02e0.jpg

sorry about the size , not sure how to change it

timg

mirrorpete

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 22:51

I can handle the size of the photo ok, buy it would be nice if I could rotate it clockwise 90 degrees.

Pete

soapysails's picture

soapysails

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 23:59

Great pictures of a very nice looking M-11

soapy

62816inBerlin's picture

62816inBerlin

Thu, 01/09/2014 - 11:48

Ragamuffin is definitely a neater build than Puffin!
From your other pictures, I see that you are an adept stitch&glue builder and car-topper. Car-topping definitely extends your range as a small-boat owner.
The trick in fitting pictures to this forum is to set the display width to a given percentage of this page column. I usually set it to width="90%" so that a little margin remains free.
If I apply 100%, i.e. full column width for example, your picture appears as below:

Tim rowing Ragamuffin

Cheers,
Gernot H.

62816inBerlin's picture

62816inBerlin

Thu, 01/09/2014 - 11:54

scaled down to 70%, for example:
Ragamuffin on trailer

Sorry that posting pictures is still a bit laborious here :-{(

Gernot H.

timg

Tue, 01/14/2014 - 23:41

thanks for the comments
i will try and do a better job of posting pics next time ,(might have to wait for a bit better weather),
can any one recommed any books on sailing ?
i do have sailing the mirror by roy partridge
last year was more about just getting the feel for the boat although towards the end of the year pushing it as much as possible without getting wet .
its going to be more about techneque this year...
also looking at joining a club this year

timg

sail_and_oar's picture

sail_and_oar

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 00:11

Roy Partridge's book tells you all you need to know to sail and start racing but doesn't cover the recent developments of the boat.

A good next book might cover a more specific aspect of ownership, whether you want to;

Race
Explore
Go rod fishing
Do boat tuning
Have daysails and picnics
Do repairs,
Make sails
Disappear for days on end with boat and tent and return jubilant and in need of a shower.

How do you plan to enjoy owning your Mirror?

Cliff

timg

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 23:39

Hi Cliff

My main aim is to be abel to sail well.. don't we all ??

take my son away for a weekend sailing?camping and try to teach him to sail (no bad habits that i might have)
carry out my own repairs
not sure about racing
timg

sail_and_oar's picture

sail_and_oar

Fri, 01/17/2014 - 20:56

Hi Timg

A lucky few people seem to have an instictive ability to sail well. I remember an 8 year old at Hawley Lake, 3rd time ever on a boat (a Topper) and there really wasn't a lot you could fault him on. For the rest of us it's mainly down to practice, lots of it. As a general guide I would expect it to take a good sailor 100 hours under sail to get to know a boat.

A poorly set up boat won't help you sail well. There's a tuning guide in "Sailing the Mirror" but it is a bit vague particuarly in terms of rig tension and mast rake. See if you can find the Speed Sails Mirror Tuning Guide on line and try to replicate the settings it suggests. I think you will be surprised how tight they suggest the rigging should be. It isn't necessary to tension it quite that much but my feelings are that if the leeward shroud goes visably slack while sailing the rig is loose and upwind performance will suffer. Sailors who are forever tweaking the rig seem to learn how the boat responds to rig adjustment more quickly. On the Mirror in order of importance the rig adjusters you can use underway are;

kicking strap
outhaul
jib halyard
downhaul

The main halyard should always be tight, tension it with the downhaul, kicker and mainsheet loose.

A few sailing clubs have summer camps. My own club (The Dinghy Cruising Association) uses a waterside campsite every August and we can sail as and when we feel. It's an ideal environment for sailors of all abilities and for families. For expedition sailing with kids I think you have to be an exceptional person but day sails and picnics are much more common. One of my friends is probably the most experienced person at sailing with kids I have met wrote a very good article on this subject for the club magazine. It is in the club archives. Membership is about £20 per year.

For repairs keep a look at what is going on in Duckworks Magazine and the HBBR forum. The Jim Michalak newsletters in Duckworks are (I think) the best of their type and describe boat construction, design and to a lesser extent repair.

Jim wrote a book I reccommend called "Boatbuilding for beginners and beyond"

Unless you have a very good reason not to you should be using epoxy resin for hull repairs. You need to know how to use it as it is toxic and needs mixing properly. The gudgeon Brothers wrote a good guide on use of epoxy.

I've put the links in below
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/GougeonBook%20061...
http://www.speedsails.co.uk/docs/Mirror.pdf
http://www.ukhbbr.plus.com/forum.html
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/

Let me know if the links don't work.

Cliff

timg

Thu, 02/06/2014 - 22:29

Hi Cliff
Thanks for your help/ guidance , more time on the water is needed..
the links work thanks ,and plenty of reading
cheers
timg

David Cooper

Fri, 02/07/2014 - 19:15

I've just bought a copy of "The Mirror Book - Mirror Sailing from Start to Finish" (link below). It is primarily aimed at people who want to race, so those who aren't interested in racing may not think it good value, although if you're fighting against a tide, any knowledge about ways of making your boat just a little bit faster could be beneficial, and there are many significant little adjustments that can be made if you know what you're doing. I also think that if you're teaching children to sail, it's important that you don't limit their potential by not introducing them to ideas relating to racing. In your case it may be worth obtaining a copy to make sure your children learn not just how to sail, but how to sail efficiently and fast. There are many things which if you don't know about, you are throwing away speed for nothing while making things less comfortable at the same time, because a boat raced well handles better, and the skills obtained through racing also make sailing safer. There's a lot to take in, so it's a book that needs to be read repeatedly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mirror-Book-Sailing-Nautical/dp/047051938X/r...