Mirror Dinghy: the versatile first boat for thousands of sailors

Clive Marsh

The ‘car top dinghy’ that can be launched and sailed in most coastal and inshore waters, with more than 70,000 built since 1963

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The first experience I had of sailing a Mirror Dinghy was with my school chum John. The little 10ft 10in wooden Mirror was John’s first boat and experience of sailing, and he took to it like a duck to water.

We sailed past Upnor Castle to the Medway estuary and straight into the path of a Royal Navy minesweeper that was restricted by her draught at low water in a narrow channel. Lots of horn blowing and shouting from matelots as we scraped under her bow devoid of any wind for our sails.

A mirror dinghy with the sail up on a trailer in a garden

A gaff rigged Mirror with topsail. Credit: Clive Marsh

We survived but we clearly needed more space so next time we sailed off Seaford beach in a steep chop. That was more like it and our little yacht coped admirably.

Next, we tried the safer, still waters of Pidinghoe lake. In fact, this little boat could be towed and launched just about anywhere which is one of the many benefits of a Mirror Dinghy.

Mirror Dinghy: easily manoeuvrable

Weighing just 100lb (45.4kg), two people can carry her across the beach to the sea or one person can drag her on rollers or a trolley. Mirrors can even be car-topped if you have no space at home for a trailer. The boat can be carried on its side up an alleyway to a rear garden.

A Mirror really is a marvellous design that will enable its owner to launch and sail in all waters around our coast and inshore. Their versatility is the reason why more than 70,000 have been built, and they are sailed the world over by both novices and experienced sailors.

Many Mirrors are family friends owned and sailed by several generations, some cruised, some raced and many just used for pottering around from beach to beach in places like Salcombe or Falmouth harbour. They are all about fun without stress or unnecessary complexity.

A mirror dinghy being launched on a beach

Launching through a little surf at St Michael’s Mount, Penzance, Cornwall. Credit: MediaWorldImages/Alamy

There is a healthy fleet of racing Mirrors at Itchenor Sailing Club and most UK clubs will have a few. The UK Portsmouth Yardstick handicap rating for the Mirror Dinghy is 1369 (single-handed) or 1383 with two crew. A major event in the UK is the annual Abersoch Mirror week – it’s very social and a good way to make friends.

Some able seamen like to go on extended cruises in their Mirrors. The adventures of David Sumner around the Isle of Wight and along the coast to Poole Harbour are well documented by the Dinghy Cruising Association. He has made significant modifications to his boat which are well worth considering if you want to cruise in a Mirror.

Another sailor to modify his Mirror is my friend Maurice. A builder of many fine boats, he needed a lighter boat and went back to owning his old friend, an ancient Mirror. Her cockpit sole was a bit soft so he made a new one, and while he was about it he replaced the standard daggerboard with a lifting centreboard.

A man standing by a Mirror Dinghy with a red sail

Friend Maurice with his modified, reefed cruising Mirror. Credit: Clive Marsh

Since most of his sailing was offshore, he decided to replace the gunter rig with a lower-profile gaff sail that could be reefed to a tiny sail if need be. This enabled the boat to be sailed upright in stronger winds. And at the same time, why not have a topsail for occasional use in light winds?

Then there is all the string. Maurice has made it possible to control all sails from a relaxed sitting position on the cockpit sole. Uphauls, downhauls, double topping lifts, peak and throat halyards and all manner of rope coming back to the helmsman’s hand. This works well for Maurice, but I tend to get in a muddle with too much string and prefer a simple lug sail.

Construction

Most Mirrors are wooden boats although some are GRP. Many are home-made from kits using the stitch-and-glue method. The designers, Garry Bucknell and Jack Holt, were under the sponsorship of the Daily Mirror newspaper with a brief to make a ‘people’s boat’. The result was the boat equivalent of the VW Beetle or the Mini – a real classic that must be one of the best little yachts of all time.

Note in the specifications (below) the very light weight and compare it with similar-sized boats. This light weight enables the use of a lighter trolley so that the whole package is much easier to launch and recover by hand.

Alexander James (Sandy) Mackinnon, a schoolteacher, sailed and rowed his perfectly standard yellow-hulled wooden Mirror, Jack de Crow, from near his school on the Welsh/English border all the way to the Black Sea, covering 3,000 miles and visiting 11 countries including Romania and Yugoslavia.

A boat being sailed with a red sail

Heavily reefed gaff sail. Credit: Clive Marsh

His book, The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, is a good read and will give you some good cruising tips if you are so inclined to go long distance cruising in a 10ft dinghy. This might seem like a crazy thing to do, but the big advantage of a Mirror Dinghy is the ability to pull the boat up a beach/bank and go ashore almost anywhere. We can’t do this in a heavy dinghy or a yacht!

As a cruising dinghy, Mirrors are often more suitable than many modern racing dinghies. They have a relatively high freeboard and are fairly stable while also being easy to right in the event of a capsize. They can be rowed and have a transom that is wide enough to take a small, light outboard. They are responsive in light winds and stable when reefed in heavier winds, capsizes are less likely than other small racing dinghies.

There is also plenty of space on board to stow cruising gear including a boom tent for use when sleeping aboard. They are more of a sit-in than a sit-on vessel. All this in a boat weighing just 100lb makes the little Mirror a unique and marvellous boat.

Maurice has just gifted his modified Mirror Dinghy to my grandson, Bob. Ask any owner of a Mirror and they’ll tell you that there is just something very good about the boat. And they can be picked up for a song. Older, perfectly serviceable boats are often for sale for just the value of their trailer.

Standard wooden Mirror Dinghy dimensions (approx)

LOA: 10ft 10in (3.30m)
LWL: 9ft 8in (2.95m)
Beam: 4ft 7in (1.39m)
Weight: 100lb (45.4kg)
Draught: 2ft 4in (0.7m) board down
Main sail: 50ft2 (4.6m2)
Jib: 20ft2 (1.9m2)
Spinnaker: 47ft2 (4.4m2)
Construction: Stitch and glue ply. Some are GRP where weight may vary.

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