Outer gunwales

Hiya all.

I have a rather rotten Mirror that I am taking on as a project over the summer. She has quite a few holes in her and the total restoration will most likely cost more than its worth! But then where is the fun in buying a working one?!

She is going to be used for teaching my little brother to sail, and will probably never be raced. On that basis meeting class rules isn't number 1 priority.

Both of the outer gunwales need replacing and after looking on Trident for the official parts it comes to £40. Is there a cheaper solution? I’m rather handy with a plane and live right near a large timbre merchant, so would be happy to make a pair. What sort of wood should I use to make my own gunwales, or is it more effort than its worth and would you recommend instead just shelling out for the official parts?

You may be able to replace sections of the gunwale if there is only locallised damage. This has been done on my Mirror - pieces have been scarfed in.

I think that they are some sort of pine, possibly spruce.

Brilliant!!!
I think most of the gunwale on one side is dead and the other is in a few pieces (got a bit handy with the screwdriver/crowbar). As a lot of the ply from around that area has turned into mush, it needed to come off. Just would have been nice if it was in one piece. On that basis a repair seems impractical.

An easy curve like that of the mirror won't need steaming into shape will it? Just enough epoxy and some screws will do?

Looks like I will be off to 'spruce' up my boat then.

Thanks guys.

I seem to remember that the original build manual from 1972 (when I found it last year) recommended putting them betwen chairs with a weight before hand to help the bend.

I think my Dad when building the boat in 1972 did actually steam them (or soaked them in hot water) anyway.

As it was intended that Mirrors would be home built, I think that they tried to avoid anything to complicated or requiring specialist facilities.