Letters

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Mirrored experience

I couldn’t help but have a good laugh and a bout of nostalgia when I read Peter Baylis’ account of his first sailing lesson in the newly minted Mirror Dinghy (PBO, December, 2021). It mirrored (excuse the pun) my own experience five or more decades ago.

While subsequently I did build a few Mirrors from the kit as ‘Sailing Master’ at a private school as the winter activity, my first yacht was a VJ (Vaucluse Junior), an Australian design which substituted trapeze wires for ‘hikes’ boards which had to be slid across the boat at every about. Of all boats to start with, this was the most inappropriate. But it was fourthhand, cheap, and came with a so-called trailer, to be pulled by my 1956 Volkswagen.

So, I persuaded a university colleague to join me on this inaugural sail. As with Peter, I knew next to nothing about the theory or practice of sailing. Nor did my colleague.

We assembled the boat on the beach. Ah, yes, complete with sheets. Pushed it out into the water of a somewhat protected harbour, and within seconds we were overturned and