I take the plunge

... and purchase a sailing dinghy. Not that this will surprise anyone who has been reading my blog! It’s been a bit of a saga (or, I should say, a process). First I needed to secure a place in the Harbour Master’s boatyard (which is right next to the sailing school). Then I had to find a boat... Rupert convinced me that buying a Mirror dinghy made the most sense. So what is a Mirror dinghy?
It is a quintessentially British dinghy, and yet a boat that I grew up sailing. According to the Mirror dinghy web site, the idea was generated by a host of a BBC do-it-yourself show, who set about designing a family boat that was constructed using plywood panels joined by resin and fiberglass ribbon. The prototype boat was seen by a writer for the British newspaper, the Daily Mirror... he presented the boat as a possible promotion for the newspaper. After consultation with a Yachting World expert, the design was modified  to include (1) “Viking red” sails, to match the front page title of the newspaper, as well as a newly designed logo. According to Kelvin, one of my sailing friends, the Mirror dinghy also came to symbolize the postwar do-it-yourself culture of Great Britain. Mirror dinghy No. 1 - Eileen - is now housed at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth [see below].

The boat that we had when we were growing up was No. 6136 (it now lives in Arcata with sister Sue). As you can see from the first photo, my Mirror is No. 70163! Built in 2003, it’s a youngster. Mirror dinghies are nice friendly boats that are responsive and easy to sail... and not too fast... definitely a plus (from my wimpy perspective) in the floating harbor, where even slow boats have to tack every minute or two going upwind. I located a boat online... in Chichester (on the southern coast). So then the question was how to get it to Bristol. Well good ol’ Rupert suggested that he and some of the other sailors swing by to pick it up on their way back from a boat show in Southampton... which they did, while I was in Cornwall. But then there was this slight problem - the mast was missing! (It had been stored at the boat yard for awhile). Which meant that I had to shop around for a new mast... which arrived on Thursday.
Rupert agreed to meet me at the boat yard on Friday to help get the boat rigged and on the water. He had already arranged to sail with John that day, so he brought his son Tom along to help me out... Tom has a lovely little red Mirror dinghy of his own. SO after a bit of fussing and figuring out the rig and improvising a few missing bits and pieces we were on the water!  My friends Pat & Bart were visiting, so that the launch was properly documented.

Rupert suggested a maiden voyage down the harbor for bacon sandwiches & coffee, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable (and quintessentially British) thing to do on a sunny Friday. So we set out, Rupert and John in the boat with blue sails, me and Tom in the red-sailed Mirror. It was a lovely sail that went without incident (well, a little bit of shakedown but nothing major). A very nice inaugural sail.

Yesterday was race day. Again Rupert to the rescue, as he agreed to crew for me. Another beautiful day, so lots of boats on the water. About 20 boats racing, and several sailing school boats up at the far western end of the harbor (with their own race course, which ran up against ours!). Luckily the course was straightforward - a simple rectangle with the up- and downwind legs the long sides of the rectangle. Start was a bit unnerving - challenging when everyone is going different speeds (and with the Mirror dinghies being the slowest boats)... not to mention the Pyronaut, a former fire engine boat that now takes tourists into the Cumberland Basin for a water show. But Rupert informed me that I had to worry about only one thing, which was to make sure that we beat the only other Mirror dinghy sailing that day, which was being sailed by Rupert’s sons Tom and younger brother Joe (Rupert told me that he’d never hear the end of it if the boys beat us). And we did (beat them). Didn’t do very well overall, but the short course (with its several laps) really shows up deficiencies in the helmsperson! With such frequent tacking, it's easy to lose speed unless you are a really good sailor (which I am decidedly not). I also need to get better at paying attention to the frequent wind shifts across the harbor (although the wind was reasonably steady yesterday, relative to what it’s like sometimes). But it was a lot of fun - it’s nice that I’ve sailed with the club for the past year, so that they are all friends out on the water. 

So does your boat have a name, I hear some of you ask? Well that will have to wait for another post, when the name is properly painted on the boat...