Boat profile: Mirror Dinghy 'Bubbels'

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Last year Frits made his debut with 'Bubbels' a 1975 Mirror Dinghy.
Mirror 49862 was first sailed on the Uitgeestermeer near Alkmaar and ended up in Assen where Frits picked her up as a restauration project.
Most of the restauration work took place in the autumn and winter months of 2020. Frits kitted her out in the Spring of 2021.
One of the projects was the innovative spinnaker chute from leftover sail cloth and a wooden squash racket as the launcher.

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Frits arrived at the eleventh hour at the Raid Extreme 2021 after a long drive having collected his boat and stuff from various locations before he could drive to Oostmahorn.

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Frits arrived at the starting line with no illusions but once underway found he enjoyed the challenge. No wonder because his Mirror dinghy handled very well despite its short length.
And Mirrors have been used for much longer voyages: read 'The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow' by A.J. Mackinnon who started off in North Wales and strayed as far as the Black Sea.   

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The Mirror dinghy was designed by Jack Holt and Barry Bucknell in 1962. During the DIY boom of the sixties and seventies over 70000 were built. Thousands were built from kits in The Netherlands. Although building a Mirror at home is now less usual than before, sail numbers have reached 71001 with a continued strong presence from the UK to faraway Tasmania.

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We think that Frits and Bubbels will be a strong contender for the award for dinghies under 12ft.