The model boats in this series are loosely based on a Mirror dinghy.

The first model shown below was one I knocked up on a holiday visit to Cornwall. It was fun sailing it on the lake in Helston, but it didn’t sail well.

So I built a better one.

I described its initial development in two blog posts.

(toys) Aluminium toy boat, part 1

(toys) Aluminium toy boat, part 2

I sailed it on a netted-off section of the upper Sydney harbour. It was promising, but clearly had a way to go before it would be convincing.

With a few developments that I will describe later, it sailed quite well on a pond I created in our back garden,

but couldn’t hold a straight course. I tried a wind-vane steering system, but this didn’t work – I couldn’t get enough force out of the vane. So i have gone back to using the sails to provide control. It’s beginning to look promising.

As part of this approach I have been developing my sail-making skills. I’ll report in time.

Now I’m developing a smaller version. Here are the two side by side.

I’ll tell the story of this one later.

I’ll finish this page with this photo of us sailing our Mirror.