3:59 AM Thu 6 Aug 2009 GMT
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'Mirror sailors from Kingston Beach Sailing Club, south of Hobart, Jenny Graney (seated) and Katherine Maher (standing left) and Jessie Appleton...not on a Mirror but on one of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s Elliot 5.9 sports boats.'
Peter Campbell ©
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Kingston Beach Sailing Club has set itself a long-range program to send between six and ten competitive young crews to the 2011 World Championship for International Mirror Dinghy, to be sailed in Albany, Western Australia.
This coming season, the club hopes to attract talented young sailors from the solo junior training classes to sail the Mirror, an exciting and innovative dinghy class for two teenagers to sail, with its mainsail, jib and now bigger spinnaker.
The Mirror is a particularly good class for teenage girls to enjoy, as it does not require the intense physical effort needed in other dinghy classes. Likewise, an experienced teenage boy and a younger sibling make up a good crew combination.
With three sails to set and trim, the Mirror has proven an excellent stepping stone for talented sailors to move into high performance dinghies and one-design keelboats.
Although not one of the international dinghy classes actively promoted by Yachting Australia, the Mirror class has produced top Australian sailors including successful International and Olympic class sailors Torvar Mersky, Paul Eldrid, Tom King (470 gold medallist in Sydney, 2000), Tessa Parkinson (470 gold medallist in Beijing, 2008) and Tasmanians Nick Rogers (International Dragon World champion) and David Graney (International Dragons).
Starting from this spring, Kingston Beach Sailing Club has put together a comprehensive training program over the next 18 months for young Mirror sailors, with the involvement of top state and national coaches.
The club itself is fortunate that it has a strong group of parents who have themselves enjoyed sailing the Mirror in its hey-day as a 'father-and-son/daughter' dinghy. Now they see the future of the class in attracting crews of teenage sailors and are committed to that objective.
The new program will range from basic boat-handling skills through to advanced fleet racing, including tactical sailing and racing rules, catering for a wide range of youngsters and experience.
Kingston Beach Sailing Club can boast some outstanding results in Mirrors, including an Australian championship win in the 2007-2008 season by teenagers Jessie Appleton and Katherine Maher, followed by a second last season.
Club stalwart David Graney finished second in a World championship and his wife, Jenny is a two-times World Masters champion crew for Norm Dean.
With worldwide numbers now exceeding 73,000-plus, the Mirror dinghy has gone far beyond the original concept of a build-it-yourself, small (3.3m LOA) family sailing boat, light enough (hull weight 45.5kg) that can be transported on the roof-racks of a car from home to the water.
It has introduced many thousands of families to sailing, in many cases a lead-up to greater things, including World championships and Olympic gold medals in international classes. In reverse, even former Olympic sailors have returned to sailing Mirrors to introduce their children to sailing.
While simple to build, transport, rig and sail, fleet racing in Mirrors requires good sailing skills in tacking and gybing, as well as being an excellent starter in tactical one-design sailing that serves well as the crew progress to the senior ranks of high-performance dinghies or one-design keelboats.
The class in Australia has been a leader in innovative advances in Mirror class rules that are now allowed worldwide. Designed by the legendary English naval architect, Jack Hold, the Mirror was originally built of marine ply, using the stitch-and-glue method of forming sheets of ply into a snub-nosed 11-footer with a simple gaff rig. Many were built in garages, on back verandas, even in the dining room at home! The mainsail and jib were an identical red, a brilliant marketing concept by the Daily Mirror newspapers which conceived the idea some 45 years ago.
The Mirror Mark III now has a fibreglass hull, a Bermudan rig, but the same sail area and red sails. Sail-handling innovations include spinnaker pole launchers and centre sheeting.
Nevertheless, the older plywood boats with gaff rigs are still competitive and are by the largest number of Mirrors in Australia.
Mirrors are sailed in every State of Australia, with the 2010 Australian Championships to be sailed in Queensland and the 2011 Australian and World championships scheduled for Albany, Western Australia.
Kingston Beach Sailing Club's summer seasons starts the first weekend in October, with racing on Saturdays right through the summer. Other Mirror fleets in Tasmania include Montrose Bay in Hobart and Deviot on the River Tamar. Tasmania hosted the 2003 Australian championships on the River Derwent.
Starting sailing in a Mirror dinghy costs between $3000 and $3500 for a second-hand plywood boat with gaff rig, but the cost of an imported Mark 3 fibreglass boat can be as high as $11,000.
For further information on the International Mirror and Kingston Beach Sailing Club, go to the club website -
www.kbsc.org.au
by Peter Campbell
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