Grand news - Jeff, who lives nearby and has a 1970 Mirror that's in really great condition contacted us and was kind enough to bring it over to Berkeley to drop it in a for a spin. Obviously, in the time honored tradition, things didn't go quite as planned, but a great adventure to speak of, and much experience gained. Jeff's father bought this boat over 30 years ago, and from the look of it it was built to a very high standard (ie much better than us) by the fellow that sold it. Jeff recently rescued it from the rafters it had hung in for the past 15 years and has pressed it back into service. Wish we'd seen it before we started to build as there a lot of good detail stuff that's evident.

Anyway, into the Bay it went, and off went Jeff and Mark for a spin. Everything was going splendidly, and we were getting up to quite a decent lick, until we decided to head back for shore. At this point, a combination of things (this is where the learning bit comes in), meant we capsized. Oh, well, these things happen with dinghy's - no big deal - not too far off shore, the San Francisco Bay is fairly shallow, and the water is pretty warm. So, what one does under these circumstances is obviously to right the boat, get in, bail out the water a bit, and carry on. Same as the other 70,000+ Mirror owners have had to do (yeah, yeah we know, there's always someone out there who says it's never happened to them).

Above, the obviously distraught sole survivors of the capsize.

As to the reason why the boat was tough to right, the answer was found at the top of the gaff - it seems we were in pretty shallow water and had managed to get it stuck in the mud. Yuck. Needed a bit of hosing off back on land. 

Mullings

So there's a few things learned as far as righting the boat and getting back in goes. First have a rope either fixed or fixable somewhere around the center that's long enough to throw over the boat so it's easy to haul back upright. Next have a rope with a stirrup attached to the transom so it's easy to haul yourself back on that way. We'll do this with both of our boats. 

To the right is the newly patented technique we'll try next time we flip it (oh, yes, there will be a next time...). We'll refine this over time, possibly dropping the gaff to keep things fairly stationary. Don't take this one to the bank yet as we haven't really tried all this out in practice yet. Should work though. Well, in theory...

First off, the Mirror isn't that easy to right by pulling on the centerboard, but what does make things easier is Jeff had the bright idea of tying a rope to the mast (at the mast step), throwing it over the boat, and just rolling it back. This too proved more difficult than it should have. What was going on? (answer below). Anyway, all of a sudden the boat came up, and righted itself, and with the flotation chambers, it really only took on a few gallons, which is a good thing and makes life easier. Also found that getting back in isn't that easy so there must be a technique out there that will do the trick (and there is)

Unfortunately, at this point, we discovered we'd broken the boom - not good - but still could sail back on the jib if we had to as it was all downwind. This wasn't necessary as Dan from the local sailing club was on hand to give us a quick tow back so we took the easy option. Given no more sailing, we adjourned for beer in the time honored tradition. Jeff's got a pattern for a new boom so a new project is born...

Here's what we read, plus practical words from Team USA (ie Rich Larson and Luke Dolman).

(1) Both folk swim to point the boat into the wind

(2) The crew gets the center rope and throws it over the hull to the helm waiting on the other side

(3) The crew stays on the low side while the helm rights the boat with the rope, but as it starts to right itself, hooks a leg over and gets scooped inside.

(4) When inside, start baling, and hold the boat to the wind to make it easy for the helm.

(5) The helm gets in the boat using the stirrup on the rear transom and with help from the crew. Voilà