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Hello David. We are going out in the Mirror quite often. Yesterday we went for a seven hour cruise from Warsash to Northam Bridge, in Southampton. Last week we launched at Itchenor, Chichester Harbour, in the evening, F5, and sailed for an hour to a sandy beach for a BBQ. Then sailed back in the night. I am not making videos at the moment as I feel I have covered most of the material. Good sailing. David

In heavy conditions you need lots of power for a long time. Nothing will beat the energy stored in a gallon of petrol.

Glad you enjoy the videos, James. My boat is very heavy as it has double thickness floors in the bow area, the pivoting centreboard and stowage boxes. It carries a lot of equipment. Weight is a huge benefit to the dinghy and the loss of speed is very little..

Thanks and best wishes… I think I’ll start with 30 kg and experiment..

Hello Kevin I am very moved to receive your kind message. Yes, I am well and still sailing, both in my Mirror and also in a Winkle Brig trailer sailor. I have not been making more videos as I feel they could be repetitive and I have already given viewers many Mirror Cruising videos. I am now 80 years old and still working half time - and sailing most weekends. With best wishes to you and to all my viewers. David

Have a look at my video "Mirror Mods", which gives quite a few details.

I originally tried the gaff rig for interest and to learn the ropes. It sails very much like the ordinary gunter rig but is generally thought to be more powerful off the wind but not so close-winded. The gaff is light to raise and lower and the sail comes down quickly in an emergency. As my gaff mainsail is a cut-down gunter sail my sail area is less. However, a topsail is a useful addition because it is only deployed in light weather. Thank you for your nice comments. david

That’s interesting! Seems to work for you and is certainly a bit different and fun. Thanks for the insight! Yes, I saw your top sail. All very clever! By the way, what is the little metal ball thing on your port stays? It’s been puzzling me for a while now!

@@chasingwind114 Hi Brendan, it is a radar reflector.

You need a lot of experience to do that. Read the pilot book and study the chart. You need a good passage plan. Check weather forecasts carefully.

Thank you, glad you are sailing.

Hi Rocky I don't think a heavy centreboard is an answer to it. It does not give enough righting moment and is dangerous. I suggest mast head buouyancy, pluse righting lines. To climb into the boat I have steps on the rudder, which work. David

Thank you for your nice words, David. I am 100% OK and still sailing, but I am not making videos until I have something new to show. Also enjoying a slightly bigger boat for longer passages.

Thank you, Neil. It is just the problem of storing longer oars.

I think you are talking about slab reefing for the jib. Yes, quite tricky at sea, but it is a traditional system. It is also quite a cockup at sea when a roller furler sticks with the jib deployed. I suppose the safe way is two forestays with different sails permananetly bent on.

Hi Julian I had old Holt cast shroud plates and one broke off. I used U-bolts with big washers on the outside. Cut off the excess thread. david

@@msf60khz Thanks for the reply David. Mine ripped the screws out of the wood so I've drilled the original plates out very slightly and used gutter bolts through a plate on the outside and cut the thread back, much the same as you did. . Thanks again Julian

Hello Billy, thank you. Yes I am very much on the water, and i sail both my Mirror and a 16 foot Winkle Brig. I have not made videos recently as I feel I have shown my audience most of the information, but may do another video this summer.

wonderful to hear you are still at it, my early years were spent on the east coast, mersea island, brightlingsea, thames estuary in general, maldon, clacton, either a mirror dinghy and occasionally a merlin rocket, and a small shel of a boat with a 4plus seagul engine, lol, good times, i'm sure any video you put out would still be interesting and entertaining, especially for us ancient mariners, kind regards, bill.@@msf60khz

The curves are all simple curves so ply wood will bend OK. You will need to cut a regular shaped hole, then chamfer the edges, then make a matching patch. Then use temp screws to hold the patch on while the fibreglass sets. david

It is two pieces of wood about 2 x 1 cm, pivoted with a bolt. At the base of the scissors, my outboard is in the way. I managed to make a fixing using small blocks of wood outside the transom. I used some metal fittings on the end of the wooden pieces. If you do not have an outboard, the boom critch can be fixed to the transom directly, or even just stood up on the deck. It is tied to the boom.

Thanks for the comment. It was a good day with a fair wind and I went through at LW slack. Needles is best when it is still slightly ebbing as it holds back the Channel swell.

@@msf60khz just noticed I commented on this video 3 years ago too! Thanks for the advice makes sense I'll try to remember it. When are you posting another video? Come on.

Thank you Julian. The mast is fitted with two pad eyes for attaching the two toppong lifts and the additional halliard. These are the sort having a curved base, and are scerwed to either side of the mast just below the existing halliard sheave. I also put a hose clip round to make sure they can never pull off. The halliard needs a bit of flexibility in its fixing, which I obtain by using an oval karabiner. I also found that it was better to reverse the two halliards, using the new one for the peak. David

@@msf60khz Thanks for your reply, I will order myself some pad eyes, I understand what you mean about the curved base to better fit the mast profile. I find your videos very interesting, you've got a great set up on your mirror, thanks and keep up the good work.

Hello Darren. Thank you for the nice comments. Very exciting to get your own boat at last. When you start sailing, try to build up very slowly and gain experience gradually.

@@msf60khz Hi David. Unfortunately we've had to learn that lesson the hard way. An ill-advised, inappropriate purchase of a 26 foot fin keel cruiser/racer and the consequential fallout soured us on sailing and boat ownership for almost a decade before I finally found a Mirror. Our plan is to learn and practice on the privacy of Canadian Shield back lakes, and as confidence grows building up to Coastal adventures on the shores of Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands. Only this small, inexpensive, uncomplicated, multi tasker of a craft could have brought me back to the idea of pleasurable boating again, and only your videos could have convinced me of the Mirrors capabilities.

Vou me esforçar para dar alguns subtítulos em português da próxima vez. Obrigado pelo comentário.

Obrigado por ser fã do meu canal. Vou me esforçar para fazer isso da próxima vez.

Hello Fernando. It is very difficult to accommodate tidily everything needed for 3 days cruising in an 11 foot boat, especially in a cold country, where we need wet weather gear. Food and water are a big problem. The radar reflector is needed because we sail across shipping lanes in poor visibility. So far as possible, everything is tied into the boat.

Thank you Nick. It is a long and tricky voyage you made there.

Thanks for the nice comment. I still sail frequently but I am not making videos at the moment as most topics have been covered.

Usually a 0.5m wave height is as much as I would want.

Thank you. The river Hamble is fairly small, maybe 250m wide on average, very popular for yachts. A small boat can travel up the river under low bridges where yachts cannot go. Which country are you in?

@@msf60khz north-west of russia. City vologda. Я хожу в сплавы по реке Сухоне, на пвх лодке. 650 км по течению и столько же обратно. У нас зима 7 месяцев в году, поэтому хожу только с конца мая по август. С середины августа реки мелеют сильно. У меня мечта - от Вологды по реке Сухона и Северная двина добраться до Белого моря.

Я вижу твой город и реки Вологду, Северную Двину и Сухону. Вы очень предприимчивы, чтобы совершить такое долгое путешествие.

The topsail makes a worthwhile difference. It is similar to taking out a reef. But it must be adjusted correctly so it is pulling. Without the topsail in strong winds, the low rig makes the boat very easy to control. David

Hi David. I am still doing Mirror cruising and hope to make more video when I have something new to show people. I had a slight setback when my camera went to the bottom of the sea!

@@msf60khz Thanks for your kind reply. You are a skilled sailor and a good story teller. Any video on your planing besides navigation, your equipment or good practices mixed with pictures or scenes from present or older videos would be interesting. It is this inspiration that drove me to see your videos. Videos of water and boat are nice, but so is all the other stuff related to sailing. Anyhow, I will patiently wait for your next contribution :-)

Thank you. The Mirror has been modified to have a gaff rig with slab reefing and a pivoting centreboard.

I have Whale Urchin manual pump which is very good and Rule 350 gph electric pump. Manual pump can take water out to a lower level with a suitable strum box.

Thanks replying. I hope that you continue to make more videos as they are inspiring.

Hi Anleo. I think the Mirror has standard position for the rowlocks and has mounting blocks, which seem OK to me. People do recommend longer oars if you can find somewhere to carry them. david