Paddling Single Sided

The one sided paddling technique is one which has always eluded me. Perhaps I should give it another try. I really liked Joe's video and it seems you have worked out a good method for the Mirror. The jib cleat tiller adjustment looks ideal. It's all too tempting to go adding all sorts of gadgets to a boat to solve problems but often they will create problems of their own. A little skill and a bit of string solves this with no boat modifications required. Definately a better way!

I would have no qualms about the strength of the forestay in this sort of situation. Close hauled in a stiff breeze the forestay carries a very considerable load. If it survives this it will almost certainly be fine when rowing or paddling.

As you suggested, the Mirror is a bit awkward to row as the boom, gaff and sail are obstructive and there's a lot to detatch from the mast. My early experiments with rowing resulted in a line looped over the masthead which came down to gunwale level with the shroud. This formed a "topping lift" which could be tied to the gaff and boom to keep them up. I would then tie boom and gaff to the shroud. A few sail ties stopped the sail hanging down and blocking my view.

Yes it's a pain in the butt to set up. It creates a lot of windage. Apart from getting under low bridges I don't use this method very much any more.

If the boat has slab reefing, the problems with boom bashing rower around the head can be solved by slackening the kicker and tensioning the reef pendant. This hauls the boom up. It's not perfect but in certain situations works OK.

The sailing club I belong to is called the Dinghy Cruising Association. It's members tend to be very traditional boatmen and some of them are very adept at sculling a boat over the transom. I started trying this mainly because it looks SO COOL but I found it to be very useful and it solves the problems of boom and gaff in one. Like riding a bike it takes a bit of commitment to learn. I use this method quite a lot especially if I think people are watching. There's a photo in "Setting up the cruising dinghy" on page 15 http://www.solentsoundings.org/files/Setting_up_the_Cruising_Dinghy_by_C...

I will be the first to admit I take my Mirror out into waters where such small craft don't often venture. There are usually sailing yachts, rod fishing boats and other power craft about. So long as the sails stay up everyone is happy but as soon as they come down and the oars come out, boats point in my direction, close in on me and crew brandishing coils of rope start shouting. No I'm fine. I dont want a tow and nor does my boat. It used to taint an enjoyable day.

So I left the sails up, rowed with one oar and steered with the tiller extension. This method works like magic. Below is Cliff's theory on why and how.

I used to sail in a mixed fleet on an inland lake. I noticed that with a good wind everyone did fine. The Mirror was a bit slower than other boats but the handicap system sorted this out. As the wind fell lighter the boats would slow then "stick to the water" The GP14s and Enterprises seemed to keep going longer than the Mirror.

What I think was happening is that there is a minimum effective speed for every boat. Once the boat falls below this speed the centreboard and/or rudder stall which creates a lot of turbulance. The boat slows and any apparent wind created by forward motion falls off. The boat has "stuck".

This is the point at which many people who carry outboards say "There was no wind so I had to motor". How very wrong! The saddest part is that with the engine howling they often don't notice when the breeze has returned.

A few strokes from an oar will get the boat moving again. At first nothing much happens and the boat will try to turn and a lot of helm is required to straighten it out. Half a minute later it's going a lot better and straighter. Less helm is needed. The sails fill, the centreboard works properly again and all is well. The sails are doing more than half the work even though there's "no wind". For the most part I think other water users don't even notice the oar.

I use the oar on the same side as the boom. Once the wind returns I put it away and pour a coffee.

Cliff

By chance I found this picture of me and Daydream on someone else's website. And they didn't even ask. Tut

http://www.pixstel.com/mirror-dinghy-daydream-_urlt333.php

Anyway it shows paddle sailing mode, I've done hours and hours of this. I have a feeling this occasion was on the way to the Bembridge rally. I had confidently proclaimed Eling to Bembridge would be a breeze and just to prove it launched from Eling for the rally. A very light south easterly persisted all day and I arrived 9 hours later trembling with exhaustion.

This led to me getting up late the next day and I missed my tide for Southampton Water and ended up spending the night up the Medina where I lost a footrest screw when the boat dried out on a lump and leaked all the next day.

I made a really good job of fixing it back on and added a big fillet of epoxy all the way around. It stiffened up the cockpit floor no end.

It also shows what happens when you leave the jib halyard tension on in light winds and the effects of a shrunken luff rope in the mainsail.

The luff tabling can be opened up between the lacing eyes, the luff rope cut and a piece added, sewn in with needle and palm and the whole lot sewn back up.

3 years later it had shrunk again so I got a newer sail.

Cliff

The forestay should be more than strong enough as it takes much more force than the jib does, so with the jib down it should be able to support the weight of boom and gaff without trouble. It is a little surprising though that wire turnes to rope for the last bit though - I don't know how often that part needs to be replaced. I imagine that while sailing, the lift generated by the sails is always driving them forwards, so the forestay shouldn't be pulled hard by that kind of load. What will put a strong force through it will be sudden front-to-back rocking of the boat while the mainsail's up, but it's clearly designed to be able to cope with that. I've had the mast fall down twice while sailing a Mirror, the first time due to rot and a shroud fitting ripping out (we were racing in a gale at the time and keeping up with the Wayfarers who were having to spill wind - I think I pulled in the mainsheet a bit just before it gave way), and the second due to the same kind of fitting on the forestay being corroded and failing, the thing giving way again in a strong wind and when I had just pulled in the jib sheet a fraction. The former case is most dangerous as the mast could fall on a boat to leeward during a race, so it's something anyone with an old Mirror needs to keep an eye on, and the original type of fittings should not be used because they can corrode over time. If the forestay fails while sailing, the mast will fall almost directly backwards. Ours just missed the tiller and rudder, so no damage was done. (Our mast is wooden, by the way, so it's much heavier than most). I've just been thinking about how you could try to make things safer by using the jib halyard as a second forestay while rowing, but what would you attach it to other than the same fitting the forestay is attached to? If that fitting fails, it fails for both at once. However, it's most likely it would fail under much higher loads while sailing.

The Mirror fits into the fleet of assorted dingies I sail with in terms of performance. It does remarkably well compared with a lot of the 13 and 14 footers. Reasons include operator error on the part of others, poor maintenance (yes I'm also guilty here) poor boat preparation and inadequate crew weight in the larger boats. A lot of us singlehand and something like a Wayfarer carrying a 12 stone crew is likely to be slow in medium or strong conditions.

A couple of years ago we had a daysail to Bembridge from Chichester which involves an 8 mile crossing in the English Channel. It blew a genuine force 5 and the wind was dead on the nose on the way there. I sailed in company with one of our best skippers who has an unmodified Enterprise with a cruising rig. It seemed a foregone conclusion who would get there first but funny things happen. Both boats took on a lot of spray. My little automatic bailer gurgled away and kept the bilges mostly empty. The guy with the Ent had a lot of bilge water which inevitably lay on the lee side of the boat, slowing him. He had to stop to bail 4 times. The Mirror got there first although I had to work mighty hard to carry my working jib as well as reefed main. I could have changed the jib for the little one, calmed everything down and sat on the side bench. Obviously we weren't racing.

I'm a great fan of the Wayfarer. I think of it's type it remains the finest boat available. These generally manage about one knot more boatspeed in most conditions than the rest of us and point well too.

Our sailing club holds the "Hayling Challenge" each Summer. It's a timed event from Cobnor (Chichester Harbour) and involves going round Hayling Island which means passing under Hayling Bridge which has about 6 feet of clearance at the top of a big tide. Wayfarers have to drop their masts, Mirrors can often just dip the gaff.

Despite the delay for the Wayfarer it holds the record (4 hours 18 minutes, Me and Sarah) I don't think anything but a Wayfarer has ever done better than 5 and a half hours.

Rigging loads, a really complex subject. Anybody who is interested in this sort of thing will probably enjoy the articles in the Classic Marine website

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/Articles/Reference%20start.htm

If a mast comes down it usually happens close hauled. A properly designed boat will be knocked flat before anything breaks. The strength of the rig is determined mainly by the stability of the hull.

Cliff

I remember a race at Findhorn where a Mirror without a spinnaker had the crew lie on the foredeck while running. The bow dug in deep and must have generated a fair bit of drag, but it reduced so much drag from the rest of the hull that they were able to keep up with the rest of the fleet (who were all using spinnakers).

Even so, that doesn't apply to sailing into heavy chop. Perhaps a bow extender with a sharp front end could be attached to the front end of a Mirror for non-racing purposes, providing a little extra storage space at the same time. You wouldn't want to access the contents while sailing though as it's dangerous climbing that far forward. Perhaps a store for drinking water, accessed via a long straw.

The faster kayaks have a very deeply vee'd hull section. They capsize when you stop paddling. That's OK for a race application.

Davids experience downwind seemed to be that "the other boat" took advantage of the deeper vee towards the front of the boat and it worked.

About the same time as the Mirror came out another plywood dinghy arrived. It was designed to be easy to build at home and the hull tollerances were pretty slack so a poorly constructed example would still be in class. The racers loved it and after a while started tweaking the hull shape (but keeping within the class rules) to see what happened. The shape evolved and moulds were taken off the fastest boats for fibreglass construction.

I wonder if this sort of thing isn't quietly going on with the Mirror and a fast hull has a bit more vee in it than on the original drawings. Perhaps it's common knowledge within an enlightened few.

Anyway dinghy racing is a bit of an arms race. I gave up racing shortly after my friend Ian (who like me raced an Enterprise singlehanded) spent a small fortune on a re rig. Before he re rigged he was a bit better than me. Afterwards I couldn't get close. I didn't see a lot of point in that sort of game so I gave my boat to the sailing club and waved goodbye. It was a nice club and a good sailing school but we all have to move on.

I expect that old Ent is still there. It taught me a lot about handling boats under sail.

The "other" dinghy I mentioned was the Fireball. Plans are still available through the class association.

Cliff

Also a bit off-topic:
Moths are the prime example of what can happen if the design rules are fairly liberal (vide evolution of the foilers - the class has now divided into "regular hulls" and "foilers".
As a one-design class, all racing mirrors must meet the measurement rules.
If the Bermuda rigs prove to be much faster than the Gunter rigs, we may see a handicap being established. Some clubs and classes have established rules for joint racing of "classic/vintage" boats and "new" boats for one-designs and design rule classes which have been around for a long time (Dragons, Folkeboot, H-Jolle, German inland centreboard 15 m² "P", 20 m² "S" and 30 m² "R" cruiser classes).
Gernot.

From what I have read it seems the gunter and bemudan Mirrors still race to the same handicap (certainly they did last year) but the Portsmouth Yardstick system lists the Mirror with different handicaps depending upon how it is crewed and rigged;

1365 singlehanded
1371 singlehanded without spinnaker
1385 doublehanded

Long before I was born a new boat was selected as the Olympic singlehanded class. The Firefly is a lovely little sloop and early types were hot moulded by Fairy Marine who operated somewhere near the waters I sail. It was an interesting concept whereby a piece of plywood was manufactured in one chunk and formed the hull of the boat. I think the deck, transom and centreboard case were glued on later.

Fairy built loads of boats in this way from the 9 foot Duckling, Firefly, Albacore, Falcon right up to the 26 foot Atalanta.

As far as I can remember the Firefly only made an appearance at one Olympics when it was replaced by the Finn and something a bit sad happened for dinghy racing. A belief spread that said if you want to sail solo you can't possibly manage more than one sail at a time. If you sail a sloop and your crew doesn't turn up tough, you can't race.

At Hawley Lake where I learned to sail nobody worried about silly little rules like that. I raced Mirror Enterprise Bosun and Wayfarer singlehanded. I never had a regular crew.

What this meant was that I'd sometimes take others out usually in the Ent. Once I finished a race with one of the girls who started in another boat. We were disqualified of course.

We had a new member turn up. He was into yacht racing but someone told him if he wanted to sail (like sail properly) he should learn in something small. So he turned up and joined me in the Ent. He was awful and we didn't do very well so I suggested he have a go in a Kestrel which Alan sailed. He spoiled Alans race for him. I didn't sail with him for a few weeks. Some time later it was my turn again. I rolled my eyes , gritted my teeth and was nice to him. In those few weeks that young guy had learned to move in a boat, he'd learned to read the wind and trim the jib and we did well until we capsized and the Ent filled up like a bathtub (they do this). Our race was effectively over but I was pleased to have been part of teaching someone to sail.

Isn't that what sailing schools are all about?

The same thing happened with Sarah, she was into Classic boats and had made quite a lot of passages on sail training vessels with an impressive number of sea miles logged. We first met on a blind date organised by one of the women in the Dinghy Cruising Association and went out on Chichester Harbour (in February!) Sarah couldn't sail very well. 3 months later I'd resurrected the Hawley Lake Wayfarer and we sailed it thousands of miles. Sarah has her own boat now, a Lune Pilot which has a lugsail and a long keel (no centreboard) which she adores. She's done some 3 and 4 day cruises on sheltered waters and a circumnavigation of Hayling Island.

Having gained her independance she decided not to abandon me (yet) and we are off on a little cruise in a Westerly 22. This could be my last post for a while. When I return I'll have to find a new job and start saving again.

Gernot, I love your spelling of Folkboat!

Cliff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_boats_with_RYA_Portsmouth_Numbers

The Portsmouth Yardstick value for the Mirror hasn't been recalculated in decades. All they've done is convert it from 146 to 1385 in direct proportion to the old Wayfarer value 116 which became 1101. Values for most other boats appear to have wandered away from their original positions. The PYs for singlehanded Mirror sailing look ridiculous (there's no misprint involved) - I can't see how the boat should be any faster by removing a lightweight child crew and losing the spinnaker, or faster still by removing both those and the jib. More important though, I'd like to know how much of an advantage the latest Mirrors actually have over the old ones, but I suppose there are numerous possible configurations between the two which make things more difficult as you can put the new rig on an old hull and fill in the hole in the skeg, so they've really messed things up. I think losing the gaff takes away a lot of the charm of the Mirror, and makes it hard to launch under trees and power lines. I don't mind the introduction of bigger jibs and spinnakers as it's easy for anyone to change to them, but the Bermudan mast is unnecessary, particularly as they claim it makes next to no speed difference. The main selling point for it appears to be that stupid people are less likely to drop the gaff on their heads when lowering it, but such people are more likely to be killed by the boom. I'm surprised they didn't replace that with a wishbone while they were at it.