2011 Youth National Championships - Hermanus
A huge fleet of dinghies and catamarans are sailing on
three courses on Stofvlei.
There are 10 Mirrors competing in this event. Here is
Jenny d'Oliveira's report on proceedings:
What do you think fact or myth – the story at the club is that you
don’t want to win orientation
day races as it is bad luck and your chances of winning the regatta are
doomed? So winners of the fun race.... what are your thoughts?
Monday:
Beautiful day in Hermanus – sun shine, hot and mild winds great for
some not so great for others. All sailors took to the water from 11h00
until 17h00 completing 4 races. Leading is the team of Ryan Robinson & Jaco Bester winning all 4
races.
Tuesday:
The winds arrived.... the enthusiastic Mirror sailors were ready to
tackle the strong winds and they tried with a few boats resulting in
injuries – the bridge decided to abandon the race.
Wednesday:
Sadly to say storming winds and rain arrived which has resulted in all
races being cancelled.
Thursday:
Strong winds again today race abandoned.
2011 Mirror National Championship Regatta
Held at Mossel Bay in conjunction with the E. Cape
Championships, the event attracted a fleet of 22 boats, including two
East London boats,
five SAS NR boats, one KZN boat, 9 W. Cape boats and 5 from the S. Cape.
Four races were held on the 1st day in a brisk SW. One race was held in
the 2nd afternoon, after a passing cold front had produced wind too
strong in the morning. Two races were held on the final day in a light
SE with big swells.
The Cape team of Candice and Lauren Smithy got their campaign off to a
good start by scoring some wins and good postions to lead going in to
the last day. However, they did not have a good last day, letting the
Robinsons (who else? - this time Ryan and Katherine) through to take
the trophy once again. Howard Leoto and Sebata took 3rd place.
Full Results
2011 W. Cape Championships
The Mirror class achieved a fleet of ten boats,
assisted by two visitors from GLYC. Twelve races were sailed in varying
conditions -
mostly strong!
The Izivungu team of Howard Leoto and Renaldo Mohale overcame a DSQ and
an OCS (which they could discard) early on and then went on to score
a string of first places in the final four races to be able to win
overall with a two point cushion over the earlier leaders Ryan &
Katherine Robinson. Third place goes to Fuad Jacobs.
2010 Eastern Cape Championships
Ten Mirrors competed in this event, held at
Mossel Bay. W. Cape supplied 3 boats (two from Izivungu), 3 came from
George Lakes, two from Knysna and one each from East London and Mossel
Bay.
Three races were completed on the first day in a wind that started off
fresh, but faded. On Saturday, there was virtually no wind, but one
race was managed to be started and finished by some (many out of time!)
On Sunday, the wind returned with force - four races were completed by
the more experienced sailors - it was too strong for the novices. Howard Leoto (Izivungu) was
consistently up front to win comfortably overall. Consistency in the
front bunch gave 2nd place to Keegan Ekermans (TSC). Cundell Statt and
Rory Laing (GLYC) could have claimed second place except a rudder
breakage cost them two races and they had to be content with third
place.
News on GRP Mirror Manufacture
Kuba reports that Stephen Du Toit has been awarded the contract to
build our glass boats - seeing CNC
plug and mould maker - progamme is moving!
Obituary - John Moss
Prof. John Moss, a loving husband and father, a
highly respected
scientist, lecturer and mentor to countless students around the world,
sailor in Mirrors and keelboats, mountaineer and a very good friend
died on Monday 31st May 2010. May he rest in peace.
Our condolences go to his widow Lynne and daughters Tara and Miranda.
The attached picture was taken at Kraalbaai on the Langebaan lagoon in
2003.
by Paul Johnson

Mirror Class is on Facebook
Mirror sailors who make use of the Facebook social
networking application are invited to join the group "South African
Mirror Class".
This is a means of keeping in touch on a more regular basis with
activities concerning the Mirror class in South Africa.
Tender for Mirror Mould
The Mirror Class has issued a tender for a builder
to produce GRP Mirrors in South Africa.
This tender has been announced in the publication
`Launch' of the Cape Town Boatbuliding & Technolgy Initiative. (attached)
It is the intention that locally produced boats
will also find an export market.
2010 Mirror National Championships
The Mirror fleet mustered a total of 25 boats for
the 2010 National Championships, with visitors from Natal (1),
Northvaal
and E. Cape.
Sailed over Easter at Theewaters, together
with Fireballs and Stadt23's, only 6 races could be completed over 4
days.
On Friday the wind was light- 2 windward / leeward races were completed
(by those who could make the time limit). On Saturday morning, there
was again no wind, but it filled in in the afternoon, becoming quite
strong. 2 more races were completed (triangles this time!)
Two races were sailed on Sunday morning, also in a
fresh SE. The dinghies went in for lunch, while the Stadts sailed 2
more races. The dinghies went out again after lunch, but were sent back
to shore, as the wind was gusting over 30 knots.
An early start was scheduled for Monday, but the
wind had blown all night and was still strong at the starting time.An
hour later, racing was abandoned. As it often happens, the wind then
eased.
Some of the top Mirrors then went out to practice and to allow
promotional photos to be taken.
The front end of the fleet was once again dominated by the Robinsons. They got most of the 1sts and 2nds, leaving
scant pickings for the rest. There was a tie on points for 1st place,
broken in favour of the new National Champions - Brennan & Michaela
Robinson. Ryan & Ricky Robinson had to be satisfied with the silver
medals. Third place went to the team of Fuad Jacobs and Tashreeq
Abrahams.
Lots of photos of the event are up on Picasa:
2
April
2010
3
April
2010
4
April
2010
Various
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Prizegiving
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2011 MIRROR WORLDS
Sixteen exhausted South African Mirror
sailors have just returned home from the 2011 Mirror Worlds at the
Princess Royal Sailing Club in Albany, Western Australia.
A fantastic performance from the "pocket rocket" (Ryan Robinson, 14
years old), and his older brother Ricky, earned them 4th place
(including two wins in 15 races).
The 61-boat fleet was highly competitive with entries from Australia,
the Philippines, UK, Ireland and South Africa, so 4th place was a
superb achievement. Young Ryan will be a force to deal with in later
years so watch this space! But also look out for their other siblings,
Brennan and Michaela Robinson, who performed next best in the RSA team,
ending in a very respectable 16th position.
The top five places went to the five nations competing:
first place was taken by the Irish team of Ross Kearney and Max Odell.
This is Ross's second World Champs win, making him a double champion.
Second place went to the Philippines, followed by the UK, Ryan and
Ricky from RSA, and then Australia in 5th (full results are on the
website www.mirrorworlds.com).
Cundell Statt Jnr and Rory Laing ended 5th in the Junior fleet,
and the Izivungu sailors Howard Leoto and Renaldo Mohale were 7th in the Youth
fleet.
Sailing conditions in the bay were fantastic, with strong breezes most
days. Fifteen races were sailed over five days, after a grueling three
days of sailing the Australian Champs in very strong winds. Thanks to
Anthony Galante and his team from Princess Royal for a great event and
to Trina Merrick for all her lovely photos. Thanks also to Paul
Pietersen from Albany, who was the RSA team trouble shooter on the
ground and raised funds to help the Izivungu sailors compete. Check out
the blog for more news (worlds2011.blogspot.com).

2009 MIRROR WORLDS
The Mirror World Championships were sailed at
Pwllheli (Wales), U.K. from 23 July to 1 August, 2009. First up were
the UK Nationals, followed by the Worlds
The S.A. Mirror class team sailing are
Jeremy Holdcroft and Emmanuel Morake,
David and Rory Laing, Candice and Lauren Smithie, Howard Leoto and
Renaldo Mohale, Kuba Miszewski and Storm Avery, Daniel Tatt and Keegan
Ekermans, Fuad Jacobs and Jermaine Wolmarans, Cundell & Cundell jnr
Statt.
Report by our reporter
on site - Mandy Lombard:
Day 2 (Tues) was blown out so no races sailed.
Day 3 (Wed) had 5-8 knots wind, so only two races managed.
Black flags and general recalls are the order of the day - with four of
our boats having to sit out of one of the two races yesterday. We think
there will be only one discard so this is not good.
Jeremy and Emmanuel in best SA position at the moment, but the only
flashes of brilliance coming from the Izis.
Nations night was last night, and our SA team put on a good show, with
some advertising for Izivungu and requests for funding and equipment
for them.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 31 July - Today was blown out, so no sailing.
Results from yesterday are now final.
Unfortunately Fuad broke his tiller yesterday - the resultant
DNC's made his results pear-shaped!
The Isi's did really well.
Ciaio for now.
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For a chart showing the SA team performance in the UK Nationals and the
Worlds, click here
Results
|| Photos
|| Official
site
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2011 Mirror Class Annual
General
Meeting
The AGM was held at Mossel Bay Yacht &
Boat Club
during the Nationals. David Laing stood down as chairman and Mandy
Lombard stood down as secretary. Aside from the long-standing plans to
build GRP Mirrors in this country, it would also be investigated if it
would be financially advantageous to import GRP Mirrors from China,
once production there got underway.
Election
of Committee: Chairman - Grant Ekermans; Secretary - Cundell
& Tracy Statt, Treasurer - Jeremy Holdcroft
For the full AGM minutes, click here.
2008 Update to Class Rules
An amendment to the Mirror Class Rules has
been published by ISAF.
One of the amendments permits up two bungs
to be installed in the aft transom so as to be able to drain the aft
buoyancy tank. A previous rule change caused corrector weights to be
affixed to the aft bulkhead, instead of the underside of the thwart.
This has now been reversed - corrector weights must now be on the
underside of the thwart.
Another rule change permits the rudder
stock to be made from aluminium alloy or GRP construction. Previously,
only wood was permitted here.
The maximum purchase permitted on the vang
has been increased from 4:1 to 8:1.
The section on Sails has been revised. In
particular, the previous requirement that the spinnaker had to be be
constructed in two halves, then joined by a centre seam has been
removed. The new rule specifies a maximum of 8 panels, each panel
having to extend from luff to leach. The spinnaker must be symmetrical.
If you are buying new sails, ensure that your sailmaker is familiar
with these requirements.
To download this Class Rules Update, click here
BOATS and PARTS FOR SALE
Interested in buying a second hand boat? Perhaps someone is selling
Mirror parts. Take a look at whats in
stock...
For sale
TAKE A LOOK AT OUR TOOLS SECTION
Want to calculate
the
age of your mirror? What about getting clued up with the rules? Check out
the weather
or use our windspeed
converter. It's all there plus a few links
to
know.

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