Sailing Coach Thomas Chaix looks at the benefits of the Mirror dinghy in the lead-up to the World Championships in Sligo as well as a possible new orientation for the 1962 design that has more than 70,000 built worldwide
Why the Mirror?
With my eldest Ben turning 6 two years ago and starting to show an interest in sailboats (building cardboard crafts, loving trips on the RIB watching my coaching sessions, paying attention at the back of my debriefs...) I started to think about the best approach to introduce him to our great sport at such a young age with the idea to develop his skills, his enjoyment and maintain his enthusiasm whilst keeping him safe (and not the least, keeping it within our family means).
Ben respects my expertise, and we have a good father-son bond, so we naturally thought about a small double-handed boat I could sail and race with him. I wanted to develop his respect for equipment and his understanding of boat design, fittings, sail shaping and dynamics to build a solid basis for his future sailing (in time, distant, I hope, I will become obsolete)... And the Mirror just came back to my mind. I coached the national team long ago at a Europeans in Poole, and it triggered memories of a boat quite simply filling all our requirements. I also liked the idea of a boat we could fiddle with in order to enhance Ben's understanding of race sailing.
After a few weeks looking around I found "Renaissance", a wooden boat in Cobh still set up with the traditional gaffed rig and a good bit of work to get her race ready again. After a few months in the workshop, we could start sailing and racing, one skill at a time. And it proved to be an astonishing success, with Ben loving his time afloat, developing skills on and off the water, making friends at every event we attended and now looking forward to delivering at the Worlds in Sligo in less than a month.
The Chaix children working on the hull of one of their Mirror dinghies
2023... racing is underway
So far three regionals have been sailed with gradually growing numbers. We sailed and won the Westerns in Galway. The remaining two (sailed on the lakes of Athlone and Mullingar) were secured by Sligo girls Jessica Greer and Myrtle Bamber.
Mirror IRL 70649 - Jessica Greer and Myrtle Bamber of Sligo YC
The girls and ourselves travelled to the UK nationals a few weeks ago to test our skills against the best British sailors and hot favourites for the worlds Ben & Keira McGrane, former world champion Chris Balding and Olympian Chris Grube, both sailing with their kids.
What was incredible was to see the UK fleet delivering 48 boats, most of which partnered an adult with a young sailor (daughter, son, grandson...) and despite windy conditions, kids as young as five came back to the slip with big smiles.
After eight races, Ben and I, unfortunately, suffered from the high discards (2 for eight races) not rewarding our consistency and settled just outside the top 10 in 11th (5-10-7-11-10-10-15-20) but well ahead of the 2nd traditional gaffed rig, which gives us good confidence before the worlds and our quest to win the classic trophy. Jessica and Myrtle had a gear failure to deal with on day one and settled with 24th overall and first youth boat (16-22-DNF-26-19-19-35-30)
Team Ireland with their certs and trophies from the UK Mirror Nationals
Could hosting the worlds in Ireland trigger a return of the class? I certainly hope so! 50% of the 50 boats entry is composed of Irish sailors, which is a higher number than what we regularly have at regional events.
I think the class can return to delivering great racing and fun for adults and youth alike.
Most of the Mirror sailors of the 90s and early 2000 years who competed in 100+ boat fleets around Ireland now have young kids at the age where they could be introduced to the sport... I can only hope Ben and my approach will trigger memories of fun times in the class, and maybe it will return to healthy numbers.
A tightly packed Mirror fleet races downwind
We now have two boats in the family, with my 6-year-old daughter eager to give it a go, and Ben, now eight looking to partner up with another sailor his age once the worlds are over.
No need to break the bank! Our wooden boats have cost less than €1,500 to get race ready and have proved competitive despite all the upgrades that have happened in the class over the last 20 years.
