2002-2022
Produced by TridentUK from around 2002. Constructed using foam sandwich (Foam Reinforced Plastic (FRP) = thin GRP skin, then foam, then another GRP skin). Identical deck layout to most wooden Mirrors (i.e. Mk2 interior) with a gunwale moulding to give inner gunwales, bow shapes and quarter knees. The deck mould stops at deck level.
From 2002 until 2007, this was the only game in town if you wanted GRP, so quite a few made and the "Mirror Race" version was pretty well down to weight, stiff and on the pace with the best wooden boats. Dave Gebhard won the 2002 & 2004 European Championships in one of these boats.
Note that the "Weekender" version is from the same moulds, but may be heavy if you were thinking of using one for racing. To get this GRP boat to have all the features of the wooden boat required a large number of mouldings to be glued together. For example the skeg is partly hull mould and the rest a seperate moulding. This was the only way a skeg with a hole could be produced in GRP. Needless to say, this is not the ideal way to build a GRP boat, however, this was the only option available in 2001 when the moulds were produced. Older Tridents were gaff rigged, later ones were Bermuda (and some older ones converted to Bermuda). TridentUK continue to develop and sell these boats (see below). The later versions of the pre-2023 "Mirror Race" has no hole in the skeg and improved shroud plates. Pretty good boats, second hand a Bermuda rigged one in good condition will fetch around £2000.
2023 - to date
In 2023 TridentUK sub-contracted their Mirror moulding to Ginger Boats who also produced a new set of hull & deck moulds. The new hull mould is pretty well identical to the previous one, but now includes the whole of the skeg. The deck mould is quite different with dished aft deck & foredeck, a raised platform for the mast step, the deck moulding now runs up to gunwale level and rolls over the hull mould to give a smooth interior and much stronger contruction compared to the separate gunwale moulding used on the pre 2023 boats. There are no cuddies, or shroud blocks, so just three main components - hull, deck & thwart/daggerboard case top. While similar to a Winder Mirror, it looks a bit different - the edges of the side decks are not bevelled, so a little more like the traditional Mirror interior. These boats are now built in epoxy resin foam sandwich, so are stiff, and are down to the minimum permitted hull weight of 45.5Kg.
The boat in the slideshow (from the 2024 RYA Dinghy & Watersports show) was blue with light grey decks (other colours are, of course, available), fitted with a TridentUK 2 piece Bermuda mast, boom & TridentUK race sails (thanks Jethro). It was rigged with the kicking strap led back to the thwart on both side. Other rigging options are available. The non-slip material on the gunwales and thwart is SeaDek. As ever, new boats can be ordered via the TridentUK website.
