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Brief History of the Mirror Dinghy

Like a lot of brilliant Ideas, the Mirror dinghy literally "just growed". In fact, the first seed was planted by a small boy who complained to his father that when the family dinghy was being used he never had the chance to sail because others always muscled in. Normally, that would have been the end of the matter but, in this case, the lad's father was BBC TV s do-it-yourself expert Barry Bucknell, who characteristically set about making a dinghy to increase the family fleet and train up another helm at the same time.

Always ready to discover an easier way of doing things, Barry adapted for his dinghy a system of construction used by Ken Littledyke to make KL canoes by joining adjacent panels with resin and fibre glass ribbon. When it was completed, it was seen by one of the Daily Mirror writers, Paul Boyle, who knew Bucknell and being an ex-Navy man himself, chatted to him about the unusual design. At that tine, the newspaper's Publicity department was always ready to look at new ideas for promoting the newspaper and, after a lot of discussions, it was thought that boats bearing the name "Daily Mirror" might usefully keep the name before the public. However, newspapers are ever sensitive of their vulnerability towards complaints by readers and so the publicity executives needed to be absolutely positive that any boat bearing the name of the paper must be 100 per cent safe and foolproof.

It was an easy step, therefore, to consult an expert within the Group, Bernard Hay man of Yachting World, who, in turn, suggested that Jock Holt should cast his experienced eye over the project. Jack inspected the second prototype made by Barry and decided to retain the construction method and the general lines of the boat, yet treat the hull concept as a radically new design. The third boat to be produced, therefore, looked quite different to its predecessors and yet boasted the same jaunty aspect.

Two of the most radical changes were suggested by the Daily Mirror Publicity staff who suggested the Viking red sails to match the paper's front-page title (the original prototypes had blue and white mainsails) and they also designed the insignia.

The third prototype, Mirror dinghy No. 1, came into being and it is this boat which the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich considered important enough in 1986 to put on permanent display as an important example of our national nautical heritage.

It was nothing new for a newspaper to promote a sailing dinghy; after all the News Chronicle had been very successful sponsoring the Enterprise and the Sunday Times had created the SigneT, but it was probably the first time that there had ever been such a very close liaison and a vital, control of marketing by the staff of a popular newspaper.

At the Boat Show in 1963 the first three Mirror Dinghies were on show to be greeted by the sailing pundits and public with reactions that ranged from polite interest, through total apathy to scornful derision. Nevertheless, in the end the design triumphed!

Before very long there were enough owners to form on Association and in 1963 the first National Championships at Burnhan-on-Crouch were held with 28 entries.

The driving force and ideas man behind the early events was the indomitable Beecher Moore who was constantly suggesting new ideas and venues, all of which were calculated to keep the boat in the public eye. Typical of the daring ideas he put forward was the first European Championships, which he said should be held in France. So in 1966 a convoy of 40 cars and boats with police escort journeyed all the way to the Mediterranean to become the first major class association to organise such a championship so far from home.

The next big milestone in the history of the Class came in 1971 when, having already had financial independence for some time, the Association became totally independent of the Daily Mirror, and a separate professional secretariat was set up with Sally Karslake as the Secretary. This resulted in a great improvement in the administration and organisation of Class affairs. Not only because of the tremendous fervour brought to the job by Sally, but also because the job could be dealt with as a complete entity rather than as a part of a number of other operations in the Mirror organisation.

There are now over 70,000 Mirrors worldwide and they are still selling well, particularly now that the Mirror is available in fibreglass and composite.

This note was provided by Vic Shaw (alas now dead) who was the man in the Daily Mirror marketing department who organised the production of the Mirror and became the first Class Secretary. The success of the Mirror owes much to Vic's enthusiasm and administrative skills.