Talk:Mirage 30 SX

Data on Mirage 30SX, background and heresay

Hello Ahunt, I feel I must know you personally IRL as we're both at the same sailing club and both involved in aviation. First talk posting as well, please don't be offended by issues with my input.

I have an old classified ad from Swan's Yacht Sales from 2007 for Mirage 30 SX. It was clearly identified as such, and named "Emeraude" at the time. I recall talking to my brother about it and he recalled the story about Dick Steffen building it for himself with Kirby 30 hull, Mirage 30 deck and elliptical keel, named "Uhu". (You can Google recent race results from the Royal St Lawrence YC for a Laser 28 also named "Uhu" helmed by D. Steffen.) If not unique, I think there are very few, but the 1986 timeframe sounds right. I thought it was a masthead rig (cited somewhere) but the rig databases all imply that it's a 7/8 fractional rig -- with only 1 or 2 examples made, I'm not sure how they know that... unless there were many made, and I'm way off base. I found another advertisement recently (but didn't bookmark it, darn) that said the keel was from a different 30 foot race boat (name and model escape me at the moment) and the rudder from a Laser 28.

And the description as a lightweight version of the Kirby 30 is problematic if the displacement is 5,900 lb. vs 5,300 for the K30. Ergo, that`s not the outcome.

I recall an article about Mirage posted some 10+ years ago (before I bought the Kirby 25 in 2006) that described the whole history from C&C dealer through the 24, the Kirby 25 and including the 30SX and change from Bob Perry to Philippe Harle. Unfortunately it dropped off the net sometime in the last decade.

More recent research (mine, just now) through the Yahoo Mirage and Kirby owners group shows some hits if you search on "Mirage 30 SX". No point posting the link because it's a closed group, however an article there has the following to say about the 30 SX:

[quote] From: glennb2b2 <4glennb@...> To: Mirage_Kirby@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 11:10:52 AM Subject: [Mirage_Kirby] Re: Mirage 30 SX This is from an old post.

Are you looking at OOHO [sic] it's the only Mirage 30 SX that I know of. It use to race on our lake (back in the 80's-90's), very fast boat, light, accommodations are practically nil tough. If you're looking for a good PHRF boat it certainly qualifies. This is what I would look for.

1. The bulkhead and the chain plates, make sure that there in good condition, I mean no signs of water infiltration there.

2. The deck, I believe this boat was made by the same folks you made the Kirby 30. The boat shares some of the same lines and design. Because of the amount of stress that these boat are submitted to during races and simply because of the sail plan, they are under a lot of stress, the deck tends to crack in stressed areas and will start to lift eventually as the core of the deck deteriorates due to water infiltration and stress (note the emphasis on stress).

3. As in all boat from this era the rudder is always a concert unless it's been replaced.

4. Sump, many of the Kirby's have problems with the sump due to water infiltration there use to be an active Kirby 25 group which had details on rebuilding the sump on these types of boats.

The SX is a light boat but very powerful with a PHRF of about 110-115. Unlike it's brother the Kirby 30 it's a Masthead design thus no runners. If you want to go fast you've found the right boat.

Glenn[/quote]

I'm still looking for info that would back-up the very limited production run and the pedigree of the boat. If I can figure out how to attach the Swan's ad, I will.

Finally, Sailboatdata is an excellent resource but I wouldn`t take it as gospel. I`ve provided a fair bit of info to Randy on the Kirbys (25, 30, 36) and the SX 30... as well as pointed out the issues with the (multiple) Mirage 25s. (Actually the name Mirage is somewhat ironic here.)

Thanks

Chuck Lanning Charleslanning (talk) 02:04, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi Chuck: Nice to hear from you. Funny that we haven't run into each other at the club that I know of! I think I spend too much time on the water!

I recognize that sailboatdata.com does sometimes get things wrong, just like any reference does. It isn't perfect, but on a lot of these designs it is the best source of info we have, unless old magazine articles can be located. It is one the factors in creating an encyclopedia, as opposed to a blog where there is room for personal recollections, opinions and such, that here we are stuck with going with what the references that we can find say. Really where personal experience becomes of use is when faced with several refs that contradict each other. Then, if we know one is wrong we can at least choose the best one. Of course if we are unsure we can omit the data or indicate that sources vary on the subject. Of course getting the refs fixed, as you have done, is very helpful. I have been able to do that too in some aviation subject areas.

Everything here hinges on references, so all the information is verifiable.

In the case of the Mirage 30 SX I see that you have been able to provide a photo and some updates to the ref. I'll see what we can update here from the ref now. - Ahunt (talk) 01:45, 30 November 2017 (UTC)