Youtube link:
Event report:
CSC Mirror Open 5th and 6th July 2008
Several major sporting events took place in the UK on the weekend of July 5th and 6th this year. Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix, Rafael Nadal stopped Roger Federer's run of wins at Wimbledon and Christchurch Sailing Club hosted a Mirror Open. Now the Mirror Open might not seem like a major sporting event to some people, but to put it in context, the J24 Nationals at Portland and all club racing at CSC was cancelled on this weekend due to gales. However, in the slightly less strong winds of Christchurch Harbour, seven of the nine boats entered went out to compete on Saturday, and four of the crews were under ten years old. This is their story...
Christchurch is trying to build up its Mirror fleet, and get some of the parents with young children in the 6-10 year old age group to buy a Mirror as an introduction to racing. While there are several Mirrors at each of the 3 clubs in Christchurch Harbour, only a few of them ever go out racing, and this event was intended to encourage more Mirror racing in the area. Simon Lovesey of the Mirror Class Association lent the event the class demo boat, a brand new Mk III Mirror built by Winder boats. This fantastic new Mirror has a completely re-designed interior, and although it is produced with racing in mind, it can still be used for rowing, motoring, fishing or cruising in the spirit of the original wooden kit. I picked it up from him on Friday afternoon, and on arriving at the club it was greeted by a small but enthusiastic group, keen to get a look at it. The two boats from Highcliffe had arrived, one from Netley, and one was due from Lymington Town SC - we were all set for a great weekend's racing.
Saturday morning dawned bright, but very breezy. We arrived at the club at 8 o'clock, expecting a large number of club members who were due to depart on a cruiser rally to Redcliffe, and even more for the Saturday morning club racing. Strangely enough, as the wind picked up, nobody arrived, except the Mirror racers. Carole who runs the club catering, had arrived early to provide breakfast, and she had plenty of takers! By about 9:30, we were rolling the boats onto the hard above the slipway, and starting to get set up.
The RYA coach, Hector Cisneros, turned up along with his 11 year old son Ben. Hector and Ben were the 2006 European Mirror Champions and 2007 National Mirror Champions, so we were very fortunate to have secured their attendance. The first thing they said when they arrived was “Wow!â€
