Fixed keel mod mirror dinghy

I doubt if it is self-righting. Few of those size boats are. It's one of those surprising things. You are safer in a dinghy than in many small monohull keelboats

Years ago we had an original wooden West Wight Potter. We were sailing it in quite rough conditions off Milford Haven. A Mirror dinghy passed us looking good.

We got home and my mother learnt that two WWP's had capsized that summer, with at least one skipper drowning

Nest year the Potter was sold and we bought a Mirror

Richard Woods

 

Converting a Mirror to heavy displacement craft is a waste of time,

The mirror, and most other lightweight ply dinghys are very weight sensitive, and have been built light on purpose. Sticking 100 kilos of steel and lead on it will make it an awkward to manage square box that drifts around on the water, 4 inches over its designed waterline.


If you want a solid, non capsizable solution, you need to go to a designed solution - combined with the cranes that launch them

 

Agreed, some keel boats are not pleasant at all especially at the smaller end. Sometimes it is better to swim and know the boat won't sink!. The Mirror is still a pretty good stab at an all purpose boat for the length. It goes best with a light crew ie two teenagers but it's very light weight is a virtue. Jack was a nice man, ( I had a number of interesting conversations with him) and definitely put thought into the design.

Very nice little trimaran, (as per your previous link), Richard, she looks very practical, and a good performer. A lot more useful than the Challenger (with great respect to Macalpine Downey) for a lot of waters, especially those with more restricted launching and recovery.

 

I knew Barry Bucknell well. He was the public figurehead, but I'm sure it was Jack Holt who did the real design work. Although Barry might have had a big hand in the stitch and glue concept, having said that I believe canoes were built that way before 1962

Thanks for the compliment. I always thought it odd that a boat like the Challenger trimaran, originally designed for disabled sailors, should be so hard to get into after launching

Richard Woods