1994
Phil Smith starts the story:-
"Mirror 69675 was built by my dad and I from a Bell kit over the winter of 1994/95 when I was 15 - I have to admit I did the donkey work of rubbing down and spent most of the time making sure my dad had enough tea or beer to drink! It was the first new boat we had built, having rescued an old wreck from the sailing club bonfire and rebuilt this as my first Mirror dinghy - 35608 "Beanacrew".
It's original name was "Amphetabean" (my nickname being "Bean" which has sadly stuck at the age of 36!!). As a 15 year old the name was deemed inappropriate by a few people and so we peeled the "Ampheta" letters from the name on the side of the boat - hence in many records it is down as only "bean".
The boat went well and in 1997 we took it to Lake Ontario Canada for the Mirror World Championships. I was going to University in 1998 and so sold the boat to Tim Grey from Staunton Harold. It was Tim that gave the boat it's original name back. I lost track of the boat after it went to Tim, other than noting it won many events once in the hands of someone pointing it in the right direction.
Phil's dad went on to build 69820, 69916 - Beanacru - the last kit before Bell went bust and 70142.
1996
- 2nd at Youth & Juniors sailed by Phil Smith & A. Thomas
- 2nd at the Inlands sailed by Phil Smith & A. Thomas
1999
- Winner at the Inlands sailed by Tim & Peter Gray
2005
Owned by John Brickwood & Megan Brickwood from Hamble River SC.
- She was 6th at the 2005 Nationals (the boat now called Swallow).
2016
Previous owner This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. informed the class association he was looking for this boat, please contact him if you have knowledge of its whereabouts.
Shortly afterwards I located the boat in Bedfordshire, contacted the current owner and informed him that Phil was looking for the boat.
