One parent's experience of Scottish Mirror sailing with kids

Mirror Scottish Championships at Dalgety Bay © DBSC

"Who is this woman?" Yes, always a good start to a conversation with your wife. What could go wrong?

It's ok, my wife is not a sailor, I'll just explain a little more and she'll understand: "Fi is someone I knew and used to race against when I was at uni. She sailed for Bristol. I haven't seen her in at least ten, possibly twenty years and she's messaged me to try and get me to come to the Scottish championships."

"You want to go and see a woman you haven't seen for a very long time and that also means you can't come to my friends birthday do that we've already paid for?"

It was strange, I kept digging and didn't seem to be getting back towards the surface? Try again.

"Well, what I really want to do is go and support a sailing event with Fionn (our 6-year-old son) and yes, I'm afraid it takes all weekend so we'd have to leave early Saturday and be back late Sunday. But how about this, I'll see if Fionn wants to go and if he does I will and if not, I'll come to see Wicked with you all."

So, I asked Fionn if he wanted to spend a weekend with me, driving to Scotland, sailing and added that we'd camp overnight. He reacted like I'd said we were going to Disneyland and that was that. I didn't mention the likely weather scenario in Scotland at the end of September. Whoops.

And here we were, at 7am on a dark Saturday morning, hitching 'Dotty' to the car and hitting the A1 to get to Dalgety Bay from "somewhere in the north" as I used to call it but now know it as Teesside.

For those of you reading this who live in the south I appreciate this must sound like an episode of game of Thrones, and you're right. I started way beyond the point any southern person would dream of driving for a sailing event, just north of Winterfell to be precise. We drove past the wall and into a place where people say they don't like the English but are actually very nice, called Scotland.

Now I'd love to make a joke about the weather but we were greeted by 12 degrees and cloud which is a first-class summers day for the north so was well above expectations and fuelled me with hope that my 6 yr old son might survive the weekend in his woefully inadequate sailing kit.

Perhaps a little explainer on that: Like most ambitious but essentially untalented sailing addicts in their 40s with young children, I have stumbled across the Mirror class. The perfect solution to the crippling insecurity that arises from winning one sailing event 29 years ago when no one else turned up and subsequently failing to achieve anything in the sport ever since except for many, many seventh places (nod to Dan Vincent).

This, despite three decades of sustained effort, enormous expenditure and the many other sacrifices along the way. Perhaps the Mirror provides a smidge of hope to be able to say "see, I'm not THAT rubbish at this". I know, no one else cares but I was a child when I last won something so let's try and do it in a children's boat again. Nothing wrong with that?

This started me off a year ago on the hunt for a Mirror that fit the criteria of being perfect to introduce the family to sailing, good enough to race a bit and not a waste of money if it all failed miserably. The answer seemed to be a race ready wooden one with a Bermuda rig. With a bit of enquiring, I even managed to find my brothers beloved mirror "Supersidewinder" that he had in the 80s. However, it wasn't for sale so I ended up driving to Lancashire to pick up the lovely Dotty, a white mirror with pinkish spots and some questionable fittings.

We hid it at the grand parents for a month before whipping her into the lounge on Christmas eve (it's the north, for £18 you can buy a house with a lounge big enough to hold a sailing boat) and wrapping her up for Christmas morning. Fionn, aged 5, and Rory, aged 3, thought it was incredible (result!). We then had to spend Christmas day trying, and failing, to negotiate a boat out of the lounge with two children who thought they were pirates.

The next step was to park the boat in the garage until the weather became acceptable. Which, if you remember the start of 2024 and add that I'm in the northeast, never happened. Still, at the end of April, we drove to a small lake on the York moors called Scaling Dam and pushed out into 12 degrees with all four of the family on board. There was 5 knots of wind and a fog thick enough for them to cancel the racing and ask us "not to go too far" in a lake smaller enough to reach from one side to the other.

After 30 minutes of drifting around, smacking buoys with a paddle and squirting anything in sight with water pistols we all got cold and went back to the club for a hot drink. The fog got even worse and so we packed up and went home. The boys loved it so that was good enough.

A few days later someone posted that there was going to be a Mirror open at Derwent. My first reaction was to laugh out loud at the memory of Chris Dodds being shot in the head by the DRSC committee boat (true story) at the 1996 Optimist Inlands. Sadly, we couldn't possibly go there. It's literally twice as far as the extreme north of the UK sailing map, Rutland. Then my wife pointed out we only live around the corner from Derwent now.

The Derwent open turned out to be a revelation for a number of reasons. Once again, my wife is perplexed as we turn up to another sailing club she's never heard of and there seem to be several people there I know or sort of know and proceed to chat with them all like long lost friends even though I can't seem to do that anywhere else.

The club is actually a fantastic place which caters for any waterborne activity and has loads of kit to loan to members. The kids seem to love it there, rushing out the car to play with other kids when we arrive instead of asking for their tablets. And, despite 25 knots of wind we managed four races. The Gebhard family, legendary in the Mirror fleet, are members here and through the next generation are packing out the mirror class. Oh, and no one got shot this time which was a bonus.

I say four races, it was Fionn's second time in a dinghy and he was very unsure of it all. We started the first race and then I pulled the kicker clean out the deck. We sailed around the edge of the race a little with the boat humming away on the plane then missed a race trying to fix the kicker. We managed to join in again with a jury-rigged kicker that lasted two legs this time and again sailed around the edge of the course. We hung about the course and started the last race for the heck of it before I got told off by Fionn for trying to race.

Meanwhile, it has to be said, some pretty full-on racing was happening at the front of the fleet of eight boats that, in the end, was won by Graham Vials and his daughter. He's still got it. Phil Smith and daughter were second and the Gebhard family filled out most of the other places. Fionn seemed to enjoy it again. Bonus. So, we joined Derwent and have managed about two sails there since. A great way to spend money.

Next up we got talked into going to Abersoch Mirror Week. I took a lot of convincing that there was a nice place to take your family in north Wales. I've been to Pwllheli twice which is 200 times too many to put it politely. However, the pictures looked nice and every one who owns a Mirror in the northern hemisphere seems to go. My wife, who's only experience of sailing clubs prior to 2024 was Hayling island on nice sunny days, was dubious but I managed to convince her by lying through my teeth that I knew it was a lovely place and stating with absolute confidence that we'd have a great week.

Fortunately, the rumours are true. We had a great time and managed to do almost all of the races. The only exception being the catch-up third race, its usually just two, which landed on the one day I was forced to sail three-up with both boys on board because Katy had to dial into some important work meeting. Ironically, we got our joint best result sailing in no wind.

However, a 3 yr old boy can only be kept on a small cramped dinghy with his brother for so long even with a constant stream of Haribo and chocolate thrust into his mouth. A mutiny was started, the first mate joined in and we went back to the beach for ice cream. The captain was quite happy too, to be fair.

For anyone who's never been I genuinely agree that Abersoch is beautiful. The beach is incredible and the town is lovely with some great places to eat and drink. The club is stunning and it only deluged with rain for two days of the week which is much better than an average summers week in the north of England. The boys had a great time, made loads of new friends and Fionn started to get into the racing a little by the end.

Mirror week is very family orientated with lots of people swapping crews between races and kids activities most days after the sailing.

It's mostly mums and dads sailing with their kids aged between about six and ten and the front of the fleet gets quite competitive. Definitely a little too competitive in the case of one RS200 sailor shouting protest at 'Dotty' after he came in wide enough to give the entirety of North Wales water but couldn't see it. I meanwhile had two perplexed children sat in the front of the boat asking me why I was "asking for water" and a spinnaker flapping about whilst I pulled the self-launching pole back and forth into the jib AGAIN.

I was just glad the pole was working as I only put it on for the first time the day before. Seriously, these self-launching poles are like black magic and I'm still not fully sure I get how it works.

Abersoch ended with two very happy children who seemed to think they'd won. Helped by Rory getting the prize for youngest competitor. He strolled up to collect it, swigging a J20 like he'd done this a hundred times.

I had a long list of things to improve on Dotty ranging from a mainsheet block that is secured by more than rope, a kicker system that feeds back for the helm to control, lots of new bungee to name a few. Naturally I ordered lots of parts off the t'interweb and have hardly looked at the boat since.

Back to my original reason for this extremely long explainer... Fionns woefully inadequate sailing kit. Basically, I'm still not sure he or his brother will like sailing so I haven't bothered spending too much money on sailing kit other than to purchase the kind of things they already wear when we go to the beach in the summer (i.e. a 2mm wetsuit and thermal rash vest combined with boots). I did treat them to a second-hand spray top, thank you Vinted, and a buoyancy aid. Then I found you can even find gloves for 5-year-olds! Amazing.

Still, this isn't enough clothes for the end of September in Scotland. But you probably knew that and weren't trying to ignore the fact. Where as I was in total denial driving up the A1 in 4 degrees on a Saturday morning. It was BOUND to warm up?! I was also totally ignoring the unarguable logic that if you want them to enjoy it good kit is the first thing to spend money on.

Three hours plus a Costa breakfast stop later - McDonalds was inexplicably shut for a refurb - we arrived at Dalgety Bay. It's not a bad spot, north of the Firth of Forth, or the Forth of Firth or the froth of whatever it is, overlooking Edinburgh. The clubhouse is pretty well set up with decent catering and a bar with a balcony overlooking the vista.

There weren't many other boats there which is a tad disconcerting from someone who usually arrived last and ordered a coffee about the time the first boats start to launch. Still, they turned up steadily and we had a whole nine boats by the briefing. People seemed happy with that even though it's less than the number of Moths that would launch in the snow on Christmas morning at Stokes Bay.

It was a mixed event limited to 75 total boats. When the race officer said there were 25 Lasers, there was a groan of shock in the crowd at the "huge" number?!

We rigged, changed and launched and the temperature was still only about 10 degrees. I had a cunning plan though, if I put on equally poor sailing kit then I'd know if Fionn was genuinely cold. At that point I realised I didn't even have a hat for him and I'd managed to leave the newly purchase thermo-lined inner socks at home too. Damn.

The wind was light to start with, about 5-10 knots. This is good for us because together we weigh about 80 kilos. However, it's not great for Dotty who's old, scratched and has a spinnaker that a Scotsman wouldn't wipe his bum with.

With the tide pushing us down from the line I took inspiration from the America's Cup to come steaming in high to round up inside anyone trying to start on the committee boat, forgetting that a Mirror is totally overshadowed by such an enormous hulking committee boat as a 22-foot yacht. Still, we managed sail through the void, hold our lane and tack off to the shore leading the fleet out of the tide.

Phil Smith and daughter Lucy did their usual trick of sailing straight past us but we hung on to go round the first mark in second with Sam and Leo Mettam in third.

It's worth saying at this point that Fionn was LOVING it. He's now got to the point of knowing what a good tack is so regularly gives me feedback on my performance. He also knows how to put the guy into the jaws of the pole pre-launch and sometimes manages to get it in on his own. Basically, he thought this was all down to him. He just about understands how the races go and knew we were second with a big gap to third.

The wind stayed light and we held off the plastic boats all the way to the finish. There weren't a lot of wind shifts to speak of and the fleet largely stayed as it was. Second place was a big improvement on the 20s we had at Abersoch. Sadly, this was the high point.

The usual twixt-race strategy kicked in and the Haribo was dealt out in spades whilst Fionn sat on my lap to try and keep him warm.

The next race start was similar. We all bunched a bit more at the starboard end and fought a little to tack off and get inshore out of the even stronger tide. The wind was in the 6-7 knot range with some holes and shifting more. Come the first mark Conner and Charlotte McGaughey were making a break for the win with the Smiths chasing hard. The rest of the fleet was quite tightly bunched a bit further back.

Getting to the next beat the Smiths took the lead whilst Fi and Duncan Rigg came ripping through to third place and the rest of us swapped places constantly.

Race 3 threw up a different challenge. The tide was making you want to tack right and get in shore but the wind had shifted to give a big port bias. Fortunately, I was distracted by trying to keep Fionn warm and feed him sweets so when I realised the bias it was far to late to get to the pin... so we started with the McGaugheys and hit the right side hard and a big shift came back our way putting us miles ahead.

Only for it to shift back etc etc etc.

Ruby and Brydon Leask called it best to lead at mark 1 with the Smiths chasing again. We were third and had a bit of a gap to the rest which seemed to disappear by the leeward mark. Ruby did a great job covering team Smith only for Phil to sniff out his own random line of wind to sneak through at the top mark. The rest of us traded places with the Mettams and us neck and neck until they snuck ahead at the leeward mark to hold onto third on the reach, we took fourth with Graham and Charlie Tait getting in and out of the mix to finish fifth at the end.

Cracking racing for the first day with much Haribo harmed in the making. A warm shower and hot chocolate later we sent a video back to the family which clearly showed Fionn having the best day.

Best of all we'd managed to sneak second on countback but it was super close with only a few points between all of us... other than Phil and Lucy who looked unbeatable.

Mirror Scottish Championships at Dalgety Bay - photo © Fiona Rigg

The club put on a great dinner, the kids ran around outside for hours on end and the band was very loud. Fionn and I got into bed at 9pm with a very excited 6 year old wrapped up in ALL the clothes. He went straight to sleep and I lay awake wondering why I was in bed at that time and why the band seemed to be getting louder. Fortunately, they stopped playing at 2am after a particularly long encore of Wonderwall so that was nice. I clearly hadn't missed anything.

At around this time I ran out of clothes having progressively put on everything in my bag but fortunately my Fitbit tells me I managed to sleep anyway.

At 7am Fionn woke up saying that camping was great. At least putting all the blankets I brought with us on him kept one of us warm. We drove to McDonalds where they had central heating and hot drinks. An hour later I finally felt warm. Fionn ate the biggest breakfast I'd ever seen. Getting back into the car I released that Tesco was OPEN! 8.30 on a Sunday morning and you can buy whatever you want.

This was fantastic... I bought Fionn a hat.

Sunday morning didn't bring a lot of wind though. They hoisted that red and white flag that means "don't launch" and the race office came over for an amusing convo where he explained "the Mirrors were sailing bang to handicap which is making the finishes very congested as you keep finishing with the Lasers." Who works that kind of thing out?

He then proposed to lengthen our races to resolve this but fortunately Fi had the sense to say, "don't bother we'd rather they were shorter," and everyone agreed.

My main concern at this point was leaving at a vaguely sensible time but race control clearly intended on sticking to the "last race no later than 3.30" bit of the SIs.

Eventually we launched and drifted out to the start. Fionn was already cold so the Haribo was in full flow. We started into a very light breeze that was shifting quite a bit whilst punching the last of the flooding tide. This time the Taits were giving the Smiths a run for it up front with the rest of us chasing.

Coming up the second beat there was a big shift right and that spotty blue and white flag went up accompanied by three toots. As usual when this happens everyone carried on racing in the hope it was a mistake but no, race abandoned. Very keen race officering if you ask me considering it was already past 1pm on a Sunday and the race was nearly finished.

Race 5 started about 15 minutes later. With the tide turning to push us over the line it all got a bit punchy and eight Mirrors on a line long enough for 100 managed a general recall which pushed us to the back of the rota. More Haribo was consumed before we eventually got away into a bit of a drifter.

To be frank, the racing was blurring a little into one by this stage. My main memory is that the Smiths and the McGaugheys got away and took first and second with the Mettams coming through another tightly grouped pack to take third. We seemed to have the brakes on and drifted backwards from start to finish and hopes of a decent final placing were fading.

It was nice to see young Oliver Smith sailing with his mum Naomi crewing getting right in the mix this time and getting a sixth place.

The sixth and final race started in a building breeze getting into the mid-teens and the wind against tide kicking up a bit of a chop. Whilst this was quite fun for Mirror sailing my already cold crew started to go quite blue and ask for a shower a lot. We were well past the point of sugary treats keeping him going and sitting on my knee between races didn't make much difference either.

After another tight start and close beat Phil and Lucy Smith lead another tightly packed 8 boats round the first mark. I decided to try and not put Fionn off sailing for life and carried on upwind for the showers but the racing stayed tight to the finish. Phil and Lucy held on for the clean sweep of wins and the title with Graham and Charlie Tait showing some leg in the stronger breeze to take a good second.

Team Mettam took third to secure second overall by 3 points from Conner and Charlotte McGaughey in third overall. Ruby and Brydon finished fourth overall with Ruby as first lady helm. It was great to see Oliver and Naomi Smith finish all races with Oliver as first Junior.

If any keen people have read this far, and well done to you for persevering through this tripe, you may have noticed we started with nine boats but I only mention eight. Someone might have sailed into a rock within minutes of the first start but I wouldn't want to embarrass him by letting that story out.

Eventually, I got Fionn out of the shower and full of hot chocolate and he seemed pleased as punch to have had a weekend with his dad, some camping and enough sugar to power him through to Christmas. It seems I avoided putting him off the sport for life although he was asking me what a drysuit was on the way home. I may have to spend some money now.

He also decided to wait for the prize-giving after being given a choice. Obviously we came seventh, so no prizes, and although he seemed slightly disappointed at first, especially after thinking we were doing so well after day 1, all that changed when Fi handed all the kids some Haribo. Plus ca change.

Three hours later and we were sat around the kitchen table telling mum all about the weekend. Big smiles all round and just a slightly increased risk of early onset diabetes. Fionn couldn't wait to tell everyone at school what he'd been up to at 'snack and share' the following morning, and I couldn't work out how the heck to stop coming seventh.

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