Mirror.Dinghy"Tilman"

What a fantastic joy it was to discover this morning a  interview with A J 'Sandy' MacKinnon, author of " The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow" at the following address:- http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/10/20/4110627.htm

A few weeks into a cosmetic refit of my Mirror dinghy 'Tink'. I have fitted screw hatches to the buoyancy tanks, but mostly, I've just painted the hull (black) and deck (grey). Apart from grinding out any cracks and fissures in the paintwork and filling them with epoxy, it's been pretty straightforward, and rewarding.    Having spent recent decades owning and maintaining larger sailing craft, I find that work on a dinghy is actually very enjoyable, by the time you get started the job's done. Today, without much effort I managed to paint the hull, centralised and tiller assembly. The latter needing to be dismantled and put back together afterwards. Owning a cruising dinghy is s totally enjoyable experience

Well, it's been a few weeks since I bought my first ever Mirror dinghy and I've had a chance to check her out more closely and complete a few small jobs.    Fortunately no major faults have been discovered, in fact no significant repairs have been required at all. That's pretty good for a two hundred dollar sailboat. So, if you're contemplating getting g into dinghy cruising, or are an experienced sailor on tough financial Times, or without energy to maintain a yacht, you may do well to look into the Mirror.    What strikes me is how simple and manageable the Mirror is; you need to move it about then just do it, no need to hook up a tow vehicle or winch. Rigging  up is an easy one-person operation, and the Gunter rig looks really traditional, while being functional. A note to the newbie, is that all three spars (mast, boom and yard), all stow neatly within the confines of the boat for trailer in and storage. The only future modification will be to add reef ...

I Buy a Mirror Dinghy I had been chasing the previous owner by text and had just about given up when I got another text providing his address and a promise of all-weekend availability.  Great, I thought, that just leaves the unregistered trailer issue and being the weekend no inspection stations would be open so that would mean going to a "Service NSW" office and buying an unregistered vehicle permit. Arriving at the property, I noticed two things; an uncovered Mirror dinghy sitting markedly in the front garden and, the house had no garage. This raised the chances of said dinghy having rot from pooling water. Then I discovered that Tim was not home and my visit was unexpected; hence the task of flogging the dinghy fell upon the wife. A pleasant person, she felt most comfortable talking up the pressure they'd had sailing as a family before they went away and asked me about my obvious sailing experiences. All very upbeat, but as a poor buyer of this neglected craft, S wa...

I am the proud owner of a new Mirror dinghy. No previous sail boat has ever felt do right, the scale is just right for the sailing I want to do. There are many obvious repairs and adjustments to be made to boat and trailer. Apparently the boat was imported from South Australia many years ago (?) and the trailer has never been registered in NSW. She is unmanned so that's good, I'm thinking of the Norse, "Laguz", something about flowing water energy