Restoring a venerable Mirror

Forums:

I've been lurking around the edges of this site for a long time, but this will be my first post.
Some ten years ago,in anticipation of taking early retirement, I bought a hull of a Mirror dinghy, it was sold as a potential garden ornament, such was its state of disrepair.

It has only been this summer that I have been able to spend some serious time on its rebuild. I am now at a point where after numerous scarfed patches the hull is watertight and I am going to spend the winter making it look a bit prettier.

It has obviously had some work on it before because there is no number on the transom, however there is a feint impression of part of a name, it fades from left to right and it looks like" DOOPRE...." ?

I bought it in N Cornwall in the Padstow- Rock area,. I know its a long shot but if anyone knows anything about my hull I would be grateful if they could share any details,especially its number and yes I am aware there were more than 70,000 kits sold going back more than 50 years.

MHN, Yateley, Hants

PuffinInTegel's picture

Welcome a-online at the Mirrorists hangout!
Possibly old copies of the "Reflections" class magazines or club newsletters could help you on.
Looks like you've really got a very ambitious porject. I wish you success and hope to see pictures of her sailing once more. People have already cut up Mirrors which were in better condition.
Cheers,
Gernot H.

Might the DOOPRE... be DOUBLE? That would seem more likely as part of a name.

You'll probably never know the full history if the number's missing - the transom isn't a weak point, so I suspect most hulls with no number have been stolen at some point in their past, but a bit of piracy would be a fitting history for a Cornish boat if that's the case, and that possibility isn't something you'd need to worry about today anyway. Just take pleasure in having saved a great boat and enjoy sailing her. Someone might know the boat from more recent times under the name that's still half there, so it would be worth posting to the Facebook group "People who love Mirror sailing dinghies" where there are some members from the right corner of the country. If you have photos of the faded name, you could post those there too. Some day when artificial intelligence is able to look through everyone's photographs, we'll probably be able to fill in a lot of the missing history of many boats, but there's a better chance of matching it up to any pictures that might exist if you have photographs that show the hull colour, and the location, colour and size of the name, so make sure you record those before you repaint the boat.