Which sailing dinghy

[Achillesheel]

Another vote for a Mirror. At 6, I think they are too young for an Oppie on their own, and the Oppie is too small for Dad to take both kids out together, but you can have some great trips in a Mirror with them. Once they are competent, then get an Optimist, so they can sail unaccompanied.

 

[merlin3688]

Yes a Mirror is the best choice, we always say a Mirror of £300 will see if you like sailing and if so sell it for the same and buy a better one, loads on Ebay but best to look before bidding as lots of rubbish about, if you can find one with a mast even better, the old style gaff rig is difficult to rig for the kids. An adult could fit with two 6 year olds, if they like it the Mirror is supported by the RYA and they could join squads etc, who knows where they may finish up. A stable little boat that will give you hours of fun. Been involved with the Mirror class for the last 30 years so may be a little biased!

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Having gone through the whole process with my own kids, then i'd broadly agree with the trend of comments above.

Mine both started in Oppies aged 6, but you needed a support boat to help them... without that, then a Mirror would be a great choice. Easy to sail, fun to sail, and should they ever be interested, high quality racing opportunities... I don't agree about a heron or scow... the blunt nose of a mirror has significant safety advantages for younguns in the water when larking about, and also causes substantially less damage when things go wrong

Only other observation is that be careful they don't get hooked.... you could find yourself buying 29ers within 7 or 8 years!

 

[emsworthy]

Another vote for the Mirror if you want to teach them first and then at about aged 8 get them an Oppie. Although I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions 6 is a little young to start on their own.

Something to bear in mind though, and still confuses my son when he jumps out of his Oppie into our Mirror, is that most Mirrors are rigged with an aft-mainsheet and almost any other dinghy they progress to will have a centre mainsheet. The method of changing tiller/sheet hands through the tack betweeen the two is quite different as I'm sure you know. If you do get a Mirror it might be worth spending a bit of time and money converting it to centre main to avoid confusion.

Good luck.

 

[tyce]

Thankyou to everyone, really helpful advice, i think a Mirror it is, like has been said there are lots about so i am going to hunt for a bargain. Swallows and amazons here we come!
Thanks all

 

[EuanMcKenzie]

My old wayfarer was great when the kids were really young. They just wanted to enjoy the ride and reefed down it is very stable.

Three folk would fit in an enterprise better than a mirror - you might pick up an older one at that price.

That said I learnt in a mirror they are great boats just not sure for three. You may have to reach them in shifts.

I recently bought an oppy for my youngest (she's 8) for £100. Its a 30 year old home build but in class and perfectly usable. 2 smaller kids can fit in an oppy.

I use my tender with outboard and the plan is to potter round the moorings next year.

For sale board in your local club is the best place to find really cheap boats. They rarely hit the market.

 

[prv]

Something to bear in mind though, and still confuses my son when he jumps out of his Oppie into our Mirror, is that most Mirrors are rigged with an aft-mainsheet and almost any other dinghy they progress to will have a centre mainsheet. The method of changing tiller/sheet hands through the tack betweeen the two is quite different as I'm sure you know.

Yeah - having grown up with my Mirror and the family Wayfarer, both with mainsheets over the stern, I never got on with this modern centre-mainsheet malarkey

Fortunately, Kindred Spirit also has the mainsheet on a traveller across the aft edge of the cockpit...

Pete

 

[Greenheart]

One more for the Mirror...

I was thinking as I started reading this thread, that if the kiddies have a strong sporting streak, it's best not to spike their guns with a boat like a Topper - I had one at twelve, and almost from the start, I wished I had a Laser.

The Laser people seem to have covered all the bases - the little 4.7 square metre version of the rig allows an Olympic-standard hull to be tamed by under-tens, and if, later, only one of them is keen about boats, they'll have benefited from ground-up experience in one of the most competitive, lowest-maintenance, best performing singlehanded classes.

Having said that, I won a rowing race at Cobnor in a Mirror, back in the 'eighties, and I'd happily have swapped my faster Topper, for a boat I could row in, and use to carry a tent/anchor/oars/picnic etc. The fun side of sailing requires versatility above performance.

One more vote for the Mirror.

 

[Seajet]

Another vote for the Mirror here, can't think of any other such versatile boat.

The Heron is / was lovely, but far too heavy; the early composite Caricraft 10 I learned with was too fragile, and I'm sorry to say is trundling along in another place now with clouds for waves.

The Mirror is by a long chalk the best bet. Still, try to base her rigged ready to go at a club if poss'.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

My children learnt on Optimists.

They also (at about 9 years old) taught other younger children by sailing with them in a Optimist.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...-Opi-sailors-are-future-Olympic-hopefuls.html

But Opis – in which 70 per cent of sailors at the last Olympics, including the triple gold and silver medallist Ben Ainslie cut their teeth – are the perfect boats to learn in.

http://www.sailbarbados.com/training_root.html

The Optimist dinghy is sailed by over 150,000 young sailors in over 110 countries throughout the world.
It is described as the dinghy in which young people of the world learn to sail, and is the only dinghy approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors under the age of 16 years.
Today, the Optimist class is the largest and most competitive youth racing class in the world, and at the Beijing Olympics, 85% of medal winning skippers were former Optimist sailors.

After 15 years of age, youngsters who began their sailing career in Optimists usually graduate to the Laser.
This class is split into two divisions, Laser Radial for the lighter weight sailors and Olympic Laser Standard for those slightly heavier in weight.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[VicS]

Another vote for the Mirror here, can't think of any other such versatile boat.

The Heron is / was lovely, but far too heavy; the early composite Caricraft 10 I learned with was too fragile, and I'm sorry to say is trundling along in another place now with clouds for waves.

The Mirror is by a long chalk the best bet. Still, try to base her rigged ready to go at a club if poss'.

I did a dinghy sailing course in which we started to use one of the student's Heron for capsize practice. After a few capsizes we realized something was not right. Its buoyancy tanks were filling with water.

We carried on using my Mirror.. which gets no water into its buoyancy tanks.

I understand this is a common problem with Herons. The tanks are not sealed up with tape and resin like they are in a Mirror.

 

[Lakesailor]

Lots were home built. Standards vary.
My Heron was watertight.

 

[Greenheart]

The Heron and Gull both looked like very appealing pointy-bowed 11-foot alternatives to the Mirror. As far as I could judge, the Heron was mostly gunter rigged - so ideal for towing/passing low bridges...while the Gull was mostly bermudan-rigged but built in GRP?

Lovely footage of how versatile the Heron is, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAif54kYN8o

(Complete with Sailing By score! )

 

[temptress]

optimist - no other choice IMO.

 

[Avocet]

I did a dinghy sailing course in which we started to use one of the student's Heron for capsize practice. After a few capsizes we realized something was not right. Its buoyancy tanks were filling with water.

We carried on using my Mirror.. which gets no water into its buoyancy tanks.

I understand this is a common problem with Herons. The tanks are not sealed up with tape and resin like they are in a Mirror.

Been there, got that (rather soggy!) T shirt! In fact, re-taping the seams round the buoyancy tanks is on my list for this winter! They were also laid-up rather thin on the bottom where they typically sit on the trailer - ours needed a load of fibreglassing work because the bottom had been punctured by the trailer and very poorly repaired. Cheap boat though - and the spraydeck is great for storing things under and for (slightly bolder) young kits to stand on waving plastic Cutlasses and making pirate noises! Ours is gunter-rigged and it really is a dream to just hitch up and tow - no messing about with long bendy masts and supports! The downside is that when paddling out from the shore - especially a lee shore, with the sails lowered, you have the gaff as well as the boom cluttering up the boat and it's quite hard to straddle them (even for a grown-up!) to keep the boat fairly level.

The weight is an advantage when it comes to safe and stable cruising though (ours really is pretty slow!) and they can't bury their noses like Mirrors can!

(and they look nicer)!

 

[VicS]

The downside is that when paddling out from the shore - especially a lee shore, with the sails lowered, you have the gaff as well as the boom cluttering up the boat and it's quite hard to straddle them (even for a grown-up!) to keep the boat fairly level.

The trick with the gunter rig is to bundle boom, gaff and sail up together then hoist to about 45° with the halyard.

Works a treat with the Mirror. Provided the goose neck fitting is similar it should work with the Heron too.

 

[Avocet]

Ta Vic, I'll try that next time. Just use sail ties or somesuch? I was wondering about all that weight swinging from side to side above my head though. Does that make them significantly less stable?

 

[VicS]

Ta Vic, I'll try that next time. Just use sail ties or somesuch? I was wondering about all that weight swinging from side to side above my head though. Does that make them significantly less stable?

I was trying to remember what I used to lash them together. A couple of bits of light cordage I guess or sail ties.

On the Mirror the I use the main-sheet to stop it swinging about excessively. The boom and gaff are not what you'd call heavy anyway

With the boat clear you can sit down to row, paddle or outboard so that helps to keep it stable.

 

[FairweatherDave]

For the O.P. I owned a Mirror this summer in order to teach my 10 year old twins, building on the RYA course they did in Optimists. They loved the course and being on their own in Optimists. The trouble with the Mirror was not being able to easily reef it. Mainsail rolled around the boom and the height was too low. Fitting some sort of slab reefing would be so much better. But still it would have seemed quite a big boat for two 10 year olds (and no adult). I sold the Mirror (for what I paid) because as a wooden boat I did not want it outside over winter, and the boys never bonded with the Mirror. They would vote for Optimists and independence and I would vote for the RYA training for making sailing fun. Really depends on your kids' attitude to getting wet etc and if you can avoid sounding stressed when they get things wrong....
Personally I like family sailing in a Wayfarer........

 

[Greenheart]

As I said earlier, for a switchable, all-weather variable rig, with all-age competition covered and absolutely zero danger of the kids being sneered at by sailing friends, plus minimal maintenance and no wood to soften, an old Laser with 4.7 square meter sail will do it.

They'll take more interest in the Olympics, too.