Saving a pair of Mirrors

Until very recently most of my boats had been large offshore cruising yachts having given up sailing dinghies many decades ago. I have been retired a couple of years so that should give you an idea of my age.

Both of my children sailed dinghies when younger, Optimists, Cadets, 420's etc. so I am well used to dinghy maintenance and repair especially wooden Cadet's several of which I have restored and repaired in the past.

Earlier this year (2021), due to a fairly sever shoulder injury, I decided to sell my last cruising boat as I could not see myself sailing her for quite some time, I had been sailing singlehanded for quite a number of years and with the injury my wife decided it was just to risky. All of this is what lead me into Mirrors.

I still wanted to keep in touch with the water despite my injury so started to look around for a small project that I could do over the winter at home. Having always had a soft spot for Mirror's they were included in my search which lead me to the UK Mirror Sailing website where I first found 57236, Snow White, being given away. She had been unused for quite a few years and needed a fair amount of work and for a small donation to the RNLI I became the owner.

Snow White needs a complete strip back to bare wood and a new transom fitted, which is under way. At the time of writing this post all the fittings have been removed, around 2 kilo's of varnish has been taken off the woodwork inside and a new outer ply transom made. Next step is the inner transom which is going to be formed out of an old hardwood window sill.

Work on Snow White is going slowly as my shoulder injury, along with the winter UK weather, is taking its toll.

Soon after getting Snow White I noticed a Facebook post from a local sailing club who were giving away a quantity of Mirror spars, foils, a couple of sails, some dagger boards and a few bits of rigging. A further small donation to the RNLI and my stock of parts was growing exponentially.

Next, again from the UK Mirror Sailing website came 17964. She was about to be cut up and burnt as she has a large hole to one side of the cockpit floor but now sit's in line to be restored once Snow White is complete.

Aside from the two hulls at last count I believe there are six complete sets of spars and foils in the garage, two and a bit sets of sails (some quite bad) three launching trolleys, three sets of oars and a road trailer, along with miscellaneous bits and pieces and the store keeps growing.

With years of parts saved from various boats and projects both Mirror's should be able to be back on the water with minimal cost. I am occasionally positing progress on the Facebook Group if anyone is interested.

Well that's is more than enough for now I guess. More to come as work progresses.

David