Mirror Refurb down in South Africa

Good luck on restoring your newly acquired Mirror. I am sure many people on this forum will have good information for you in this project.
Welcome to the Forum.

Personally I would prefer two part epoxy paint. That is what I have on the outside of my hull.
Pete

The holes I have repaired properly in my hull have all been done with this process;

Cut away the splinters to form a square or rectangular hole.

Chamfer the edges of the hole 1 inch (25mm) all the way round.

Cut a piece of 5mm marine ply 2 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the hole as the patch.

Chamfer the edges of the patch 1 inch all the way round.

The patch should fit the hole nicely - hopefully

Glue it in place with epoxy resin. If the fit of the patch is a bit iffy thickening the resin can help

If the area to be repaired is curved getting the patch to sit in there nicely can be difficult.

I prefer to give epoxy a few days to go off properly before painting, up to a week in cold weather.

As an alternative I think it is OK to chamfer the edges of the hole as described above, arrange a backing and mould fibreglass into the hole using epoxy resin. It's a bodge but probably better than using sub standard ply.

I dont think a 7 to 1 is essential for this sort of application but it's easy enough to increase the chamfer to 35 mm.

The Mirror is built from 5mm ply.

I have found the part which flexes to the extent where paint adhesion becomes a problem is the cockpit floor.

Cliff

From the other boats you've sailed, you should be comfortable with a Mirror.
The classic restoration story is on the "wooden boat forum":
(http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?79026-An-update-on-The-Mighty...) .
Quite a lot of links to other peoples' experience in our "repairs and maintenance" section.

Wishing you success.

Gernot H.

I have edited your mail to show the picture. Unfortunately you have to use the "native" html image tag to show your pictures here. Instructions are at :
http://forum.mirrordiscussforum.org/node/35
Your boat looks in good shape, I see no dark spots in the brightwork. Take a piece of wood or a tool handle and knock on the outside painted surfaces of the hull to make sure there is no hidden rot. If there is a dull thud instead of a hard "clonk", press hard on the spot and if it does give way easily, strip the paint and have a closer look - it may be a rotted patch.
As the boat has inspection ports in the side tanks and stern, you can also hold your camera into these and take some interior pictures to determine the condition of the hull, as I have done (see fifth post in thread http://forum.mirrordiscussforum.org/node/230 ).
What's the hull/sail number (embossed into the inner side of the transom, probably on the port side as in my boat)? That would confirm its age to some degree. If you don't mind, we can then enter your boat in the Roll Call.
Cheers and successful sanding!

Gernot H.

My only problem in getting a proper fit is that i couldn't get the matching plywood for patching (the 3-ply stuff with the thicker centre core ply is not available in real marine quality here) so I was using a thinner 5-ply patch. I didn't fair the result very well, so it looks a bit amateurish but has held for years now.
There are two pictures of work in progress in the file
http://www.hirsinger-translations.de/gast/boating/patch.pdf
I had to do a similar operation some years later, including replacing the entire outer gunwale rail. This is what it looks like on the outside:

If you look at the top edge closely, you can detect the different plywood thicknesses and the patch shows around where the boat's name is. I suppose a bit of epoxy filler and sanding could have produced a better result here. You can see the different colours of the plywood in some of the scenes taken aboard in the "JollenFlottille" videos on YouTube.
Wishing you all success!

Gernot H.

I made a video of repairing a hole in the hull using a patch:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JcAB1-RzCY

david

That's a real work of art!

Gernot H.

Perhaps the following advice is superfluous for you, if it is, it may help others all the same.
As Mirrors are kept out of the water most of the time, paint type is not critical. I even had a top coat of water-based acrylic paint as the black bottom of my boat for several years and it held quite well.
Personally I shun 2-component products as I suspect they are wasteful (?) and more difficult to handle. In recent times I have used International 1-component products (Pre-kote primer and Toplac) which are fairly expensive but give a brilliant glossy finish even if applied with a brush and are then fairly scratch-resistant and long-lasting.
However I do believe that any good quality outdoor paint can be used on a boat that is not permanently in the water and kept in a dry and shady place when not in use.
You seem to have sanded most of the hull fairly thoroughly and I would expect that a single primer application and light sanding after that will give a good surface for the finishing coats (I applied 2 coats of Toplac).
If in doubt, do the adhesive tape test: stick some strong adhesive tape (gaffer tape or packaging tape ) to your boat at several points and pull it off a right angles. If that peels the pain off, you need to scrape/sand/burn it off.

Gernot H.

I recently tried Dulux Multi Surface Primer/Undercoat. It is water based paint and will go over existing gloss, bare wood and fibreglass. I give two coats then used International Toplac on top.
David

Very impressive can not wait to see the finished product, especially with you in the Mirror on the water Pete

she is coming on a treat , and that hull patch is an excellent piece of work , well done indeed
interested as to what tool you used to get the join edges ship shape on the patch, or was it pure elbow grease ?

No. But I made mine out of pvc tubing an it has held up since I made it in 1984.
Pete

Great job

Wonderful ... another boat saved!
I've sent a personal mail requesting you to state how much information is to be disclosed on the roll call.

Cheers,

Gernot H.

Judging by the stiff glossy material, those sails look brand new and the number on the jib looks like she's been raced !
Have fun!
Cheers,
Gernot

I'm sorry

I really didn't want to

but I couldn't help it...

There are a couple of creases in your sail and with a couple of little tweaks I think you can make them go away.

I think you are missing a tack line (a line which is tied through the tack cringle and around the mast) and that your main halyard has been tensioned in the wrong order.

Perhaps I'm wrong in which case my sincere apologies.

Slacken off the boom outhaul and tie a line through the tack of the sail and around the mast so the luff of the sail is 20 to 25 mm from the mast.

Slacken off the tack downhaul, the kicker and the mainsheet, pull hard on the main halyard and cleat it off. The gaff should rise up the mast a bit and lie more parrallel to it.

You can now tension the luff with the tack downhaul and the foot with the boom outhaul. If you tension them both quite hard a crease should appear down the luff of the sail and another along the foot of the sail. The luff lacing might need tightening up a touch.

The sails look good, your jib is the type our local racers use. The luff is shorter than mine and the clew lower.

I think you will really enjoy your Mirror. The Mirror has the best manners of anything I have sailed.

And well done for all your hard work.

The stormy weather we've had this winter seems to have ended. I've been plucking up the courage to look under my boat cover and see how many repairs my Mirror will need before I can use it. No doubt with a little love it will be fine.

Best wishes,

Cliff

I'm sure once you get on the water everything will seem familiar. It's very similar to all the other fractional sloops I've sailed. The jib halyard is a nice touch and allows you to adjust the tension of the sailcloth on the jib luff without crawling out onto the foredeck to fiddle with awkward corner lashings.

Enjoy,

Cliff

You have beautiful sailing grounds ...
Is that a bronze-anodized finish on the mast?

Cheers,
Gernot