ghostlymoron2
Active member
How do these sail?
Mirage 28 sailing performance
- Thread starter ghostlymoron2
- Start date
crown22
Member
I know where is a bilge keeler for sale.Only about 8K.It sails faster than my Atlanta Viking 8.5
[194224]
...
My first boat was a Mirage 28 bilge keeler. She had plenty of room for a family of four as we were then and we spent a lot of time doing different types of sailing from club racing in the Solent to longer holiday trips to the west country, Channel Islands and Brittany. We sailed in some pretty rough weather but the boat always felt very stable so I never felt that I was exposing my young children to things that would worry then such as large angles of heel. We did fairly well when racing but were not competing with fully-crewed more modern boats of course. Longer passages were comfortable with reasonable speed I'd say.
The one thing I would say is that going to windward in a biggish sea the slamming between the keels was quite noisy but the boat was well laid-up. I don't recall feeling that the amount of leeway made was excessive for a bilge keeler.
I did come first in one of our club races from Lymington to Portsmouth one year. That course you can pretty much rely on the south-westerly being favourable to flying a spinnaker just about all the way which we did and she handled very well. I think the stability of the boat is what sticks in my mind. Easy to single hand too.
The one thing I would say is that going to windward in a biggish sea the slamming between the keels was quite noisy but the boat was well laid-up. I don't recall feeling that the amount of leeway made was excessive for a bilge keeler.
I did come first in one of our club races from Lymington to Portsmouth one year. That course you can pretty much rely on the south-westerly being favourable to flying a spinnaker just about all the way which we did and she handled very well. I think the stability of the boat is what sticks in my mind. Easy to single hand too.
Last edited:
Sandy
Well-known member
With sails, a mast, a hull with a couple of keels and a rudder...
Seriously, they are a lovely boat with bags of space and feel quite safe in a sea. My first boat was a Mirage 28 and it taught me a lot about boat ownership.
Think of it like a big dinghy without getting your bum wet. I happily recommend them to anybody who wants to give sailing a go.
samfieldhouse
Active member
It's basically a pre-curser to the Cobra 850, so not as well as a fin keel 850, but better than a Centaur.
It's a Feltham design so bags of space, well found and with some nice design touches.
I have the original design drawings if you're interested.
It's a Feltham design so bags of space, well found and with some nice design touches.
I have the original design drawings if you're interested.
jlavery
Well-known member
I ran a fleet of these in Greece in the 80s. Great little boats, sail nicely for a boat of that size - in fact better than some larger boats!
samfieldhouse
Active member
You probably had mine - her flotilla name was Urainie. She was owned by Neilson (Falcon).
jlavery
Well-known member
Actually, not one of mine. I was working for YCA the year before they were absorbed into Island Sailing (which became Sunsail).
Other threads that may be of interest
