Greetings from BC

Hi Folks,
I just picked up a (mostly complete) kit, #51148 up here in Victoria, British Columbia. Thought it might be a fun project to build and sail with my young son. I actually sailed a Mirror with my dad back in the UK about 35+ years ago (#16908).
Anyway, there are some missing bits, and I've never built a boat before so no doubt there will be plenty of questions. Hopefully in the not too distant future, 51148 will no longer be a collection of flat bits in a box as it's been for the past 40 years, and she'll finally be doing what she was made for.
Cheers,
Paul

62816inBerlin's picture

Welcome a-online!
I'm sure you'll find support here.
The only kit "manufacturer" in the Americas is in Canada anyway and can probably supply the missing bits and pieces.
On the WWW, there are several articles and a youtube slide show on building a Mirror, too.
Last, but not least, there are quite a few Mirrorists in BC (e.g. Woodcrafter1372 - his log is at sites.google.com/site/mirror31238 , and Heather Drugge, user name "hdrugge " ) .
Cheers,
Gernot H.

62816inBerlin's picture

duplicate post deleted

Woodcrafter (Dan?) must live very close to me, I checked his blog and he mentions lots of places I know very well indeed, some of them are 5 minutes away from me.

62816inBerlin's picture

If you use the "search" function to locate user "Woodcrafter1372", you'll find a "contact" tab by which you can send Dan an e-mail, if you wish.

Cheers,
Gernot H.

Well, just thought I'd update everyone one on progress. Lorne at Mirror Sailing Developments in an act of amazing generosity made up all of the small missing wooden parts and mailed them to me, so the kit is at least complete now in terms of that. I've been gradually collecting up bits and pieces here and there in terms of hardware etc., but aside from that, zero progress. I still don't have anywhere to build (or store) her, at least with the warmer weather I may be able to do it in a temporary shelter outside now. Or more likely she'll still be in pieces this time next year :)

62816inBerlin's picture

It's good to hear that you're getting the bits and pieces together.
Without knowing how and where you live, it's difficult to give any advice on building locations. There is a Pathé newsreel item about Mirror dinghies in which, I seem to remember, some people are shown manhandling a hull out of the window of a terraced house. It seems that some folks built their boats in their living-rooms!
If you do have a garden/yard, check out the Wooden Boat Forum (http://forum.woodenboat.com/) threads for shed ideas. Some of the members there have quite successfully built fairly large boats in hoop-sheds made of thick polyethylene film, Polytarp or Tyvec. You wouldn't need a very big one for a Mirror project and if you intend only to work in good weather, you could build a collapsible tent affair just big enough to house the boat.
Cheers and wishing you much success.
Gernot

62816inBerlin's picture

On the page http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?201767-Building-Another-Barge...

it mentions "twice the beam and one and half times the length" as a space requirement. That makes it roughly 5m x 4m space that you'd need to cover to work in a dry space. The picture on post #113 of the thread above shows the interior of a huge hoop shed.
Gernto H.