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Building A Mirror Dinghy
By Dave Todhunter
This web site will hopefully chronicle the construction of Mirror dinghy 70466, as yet unnamed.The build will take place over the winter of 2006.
I started sailing in April 2006 at the tender age of 40, buying mirror dinghy 21863 "Hiccup Too" from E-Bay.I am a member of Bassenthwaite sailing club, who have a very friendly Mirror fleet, if anyone is interested in joining.
The kit was purchased from Alaister Duffin in Belfast, very friendly,knowledgeable and helpful.
I started sailing in April 2006 at the tender age of 40, buying mirror dinghy 21863 "Hiccup Too" from E-Bay.I am a member of Bassenthwaite sailing club, who have a very friendly Mirror fleet, if anyone is interested in joining.
The kit was purchased from Alaister Duffin in Belfast, very friendly,knowledgeable and helpful.
The workshop with "Hiccup Too" in dry dock for the winter. When tidied up there is room for "Hiccup Too" and room to build as well. The canoe hanging up is a Selway Fisher design built from 4mm ply stitch and tape 7 chines each side.
The kit in the kitchen, it was packaged neater than this. I had just weighed the kit. It weighs 35kg including the gunnels and keelband which were weighed separately.This leaves 10.5kg for glue, fixings, coatings, paint and fixed fittings.
The begining at last 23rd December 2006. This photo shows the 2 bottom panels and 1 side panel with their respective front sections being glued (West epoxy) together. The plastic is covering timber battens to prevent sticking (epoxy will not stick polythene)and is also forming a heated tunnel from the fan heater rather than heat the entire garage.
The stitching begins
Stitching progressing with foretransom and transom in position. The keen eyed will notice that there is no centreboard slot, this will be cut later.
Side panels go on
Stitching complete, trial fitting bulkheads
A quick check of the measurement rules, all seems ok. You can see on this photo where I routed out to allow the tapes to finish flush on completion, depth about 0.5mm
Floorbattens, bulkheads, side tanks , thwart etc fitted or in process of being fitted
Decks on
The gunnels go on, I knew I would use those G clamps one day !
Ready for a good sand down
Nearly ready for a coat of epoxy
First coat of epoxy. Note in the background floodlight keeping epoxy at around 20degrees. You cant see in the shot but there is a fan heater under the boat with a skirt around keeping the hull warm, it is then covered with building plastic and gets to around 25 degrees for epoxy set.
Hull filled and epoxied
The hull painted in 2 pack
Carrying out bouyancy tests before going to measurer, just to make sure !
Meant to say undercoat LOL
