Mirror Dinghy 1963
This Jack Holt-designed 10ft 10in dinghy – barely longer than the original Mini car that was launched four years earlier – employed an innovative method of plywood construction: stitch and glue. Pre-cut plywood panels were held together with wire, then glued with fibreglass tape applied over the top. This massively speeded up construction, while reducing the skill needed to build the boat.
The involvement of Barry Bucknell, whose programmes about DIY projects had built a huge TV audience, also helped boost the design’s popularity, as did support from the Daily Mirror newspaper. It was a far cry from today’s Britain, in which any leisure boat is liable to be described as a ‘luxury yacht’.
It was not long before Mirror dinghies were being built in garages, sheds and even living rooms around the country. Fleets quickly built at virtually every sailing club in Britain and at peak production an astounding 10,000 Mirrors a year were sold.
The Mirror was initially pitched as a family boat that could be sailed, rowed or motored with a small outboard. However, it quickly found a niche it still fits 55 years later – it’s a perfect boat in which children as young as 10 can safely leave the adults on shore and enjoy sailing without interference from the grown-ups.
Other designs were spawned from the Mirror and built using the same techniques, including the 14ft Miracle, the Mirror 16 and the 20ft Mirador trailer sailer. Although a fibreglass version of the Mirror was eventually produced, original manufacturer Bell Woodworking did not seem able to move beyond building boats of timber. In the 1980s the reception of its Leicester factory famously had a sign saying: ‘If God had meant us to build fibreglass boats he would have made fibreglass trees.’