Drain holes

Most people I know put bungs in the drain holes.
Bung - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bung or stopper is a truncated cylindrical or conical closure to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal.

I assume you mean these openings:

Our local marine supply shop had no spare bungs for these and would only sell me the complete fittings, so I made some plastic bungs which tended to come out when accidentally bumped. By chance, I found that the coloured tops of plastic sparkling wine/sekt/champaign corks fit perfectly and are shaped so that nothing can catch on them. I keep the holes closed when sailing and open during storage so that the boat stays dry and can breath. The tops look like this when you prise them off the cork:

Hope this helps (assuming you have the standard sized bottle corks and the same fittings as my Mirror).

Cheers,
Gernot H.

Hello bob,

I use a quick-and-dirty solution using Microsoft's standard on-board equipment: The office picture manager (part of Office 2003 pro up) has simple cropping, re-sizing and colour/contrast/exposure correction tools and Microsoft Paint (which, as far as I know, is part of all Windows operating system packages) can be used to put texts and line objects etc. in the pictures.
There are some really good freeware picture editors available on the WWW, such as Gimp (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP) but it takes some familiarity with computer graphics to be able to use them. Be careful from whom you download the programs, though, as some malware-distributors attract users by offering downloads of such freeware as Acrobat reader, Gimp, Firefox etc. The official source for Gimp is www.gimp.org - and no one else!

The corks, being made of polyethylene, are part of the vast amounts of plastic garbage infesting our lakes, rivers and oceans. I often collect them off our beaches, slipway etc. to dispose of them properly and it was on an afternoon walk with the dogs that I was idly tossing one of these corks for the dogs to play with. When Benji chewed on it before giving it back to me to throw again, the little red (they come in different colours here in Europe) cap popped off the colourless PE and I realized that this might be just what I needed.
Don't let that put you off drinking the champaign anyway - but dispose of the remant corks properly!
;-{) Gernot

Originally the fairleads were simply screwed onto the gunwales.
When I bought Puffin, the whole assemblies were mounted on aluminium plates screwed to the gunwale, so that the fairleads were about 2" further inboard. I had planned to move them onto the seat/side tank anyway and when I dropped tha boat onto the cradle two years ago, knocking holes in the deck, I had to put patches on the holes anyway so I put the fairleads and cleats on the reinforcing patches.
The class rules state: >>>>
1.7.3 There shall be not more than one port and one starboard jib sheet fairlead the position of
which shall not be adjustable. Roller fairleads are not permitted. Jib sheet jam cleats may be
fitted. The fairleads and associated jam cleats shall be fitted either on the gunwales, the top
of the decking or the top of the thwart. If mounting blocks are used they shall be not more
than 25mm thick nor more than 150mm in length or breadth and shall not overhang the deck
edge or thwart. If backing plates are used, the size is optional, but they shall only be used for
their intended purpose.
<<<<<<
So it depends on whether you prefer to have poorer upwind performance and sail a "traditional" arrangement with nothing on the seat or put up with the fairleads and cleats on the seat and be able to sail a few degrees closer to the wind (I find that important in our narrow confines). I personally believe that placing them on the thwart itself would move them too far inward to achieve a good set of the jib when not close-hauled.

I looked at your FaceBook pictures and was fascinated by your fleet: Snipes (?) and Sailfish/Sunfish remind me of my "salad days" and the catamarans look a bit like Shearwaters, but seem to be a bit smaller.
Hope to see pictures of you all on the water in the coming season!

Gernot H.

There was a thread launched about that on the Wooden Boat Forum recently:
"What do you call a person with a lot of boats ?"
boataholic, nautophilic ....
You should read that ;-{)
I currently rate 1 Mirror, 1 GRP daysailer and one usable folding kayak and two folding kayaks that need new decks ... :.-{(
I'll look up the URL of the thread for you. "Phoenix" (arisen from the ashes ?) is a great name!
Gernot H.

I'm guessing Sewell mountain Sailing isn't in the UK, so not sure if you can order from here, but I think these are the plugs you'd need:
http://www.tridentuk.com/sailing/product-Allen_Rubber_Bungs_5_Pack-AL_A1...

Even if they can't ship to your country, the site is a handy reference for finding out the standard parts on a Mirror.

http://www.tridentuk.com/sailing/Mirror_Parts_Catalogue.html

Cheers

Matt

@bob (soapysails)
Matt's link is worth a million.
I had dithered for months before our messabout this year and finally decided I wanted a new mainsail after all, one week before the event. A telephone call to the UK and my credit card on Saturday was enough. By Thursday, the new mainsail was delivered to my home! Hats off to the friendly people at Trident.
Like my new mainsail ;-{) ?

Gernot H.

http://www.turbogist.nl/index.php?userid=155&userid=155&pageid=1256&cati...

I Use these: 14/18 no hole. A LOT cheaper than the Trident solution ( especially regarding postage )

They are probably a better, more watertight fit than my solution, taken off the tops of plastic champagne bottle corks (as shown several posts above). I had never thought of laboratory/vintner/brewery supplies ( I assume that's what that company makes these bungs for).
Thanks for the tip!
Gernot H.