Aquanimity, a Miracle, Sail number 1094 was built from a kit in Melbourne Australia and originally sailed at the Hampton Sailing Club by the female builder from the late 1970’s

HSC is located adjacent to the old (and decrepit) Hampton Pier and next door to Sandringham Yacht Club, home of a huge fleet of keel boats and property developers!
Its history dates from the formation of the Victorian Ladies Yacht Club formed in 1945 by a group of strong willed women who, sick of being pushed about by male dominated clubs. They were allowed to crew on their husbands’ or partners’ boats but no recognition was given to those craft that had female crew. Hence no awards or trophies.

The women assembled a fleet of Sabots for sail training purposes and the new Club prospered. As the membership grew so did the number and classes of boats they were sailing. Eventually the club moved to new premises at its current location to the west of Hampton Pier in the mid 1960s.

One of the members decided to build her own dinghy in the spare room of her Albert Park home. She chose a Miracle, designed by the great Jack Holt. The Miracle was Holt’s last design. This intrepid women sailed the Miracle for many years, of course children intervened and sailing took second place. Eventually the family decided that sailing wasn’t their sport and did other activities.

This Miracle has sat under cover for a few decades and she offered it to a new home. As SGYC (South Gippsland Yacht Club) is the home of one of Victoria’s premier vintage boat festivals it was offered to a SGSC member to restore.

Aquanimity is in good condition for a 50 year old hand built boat. The brightwork needed sanding and a few new coats, as did the hull. Foils, spars (aluminium) and original sails are in good condition. Sheets and halyards have been replaced with modern ropes.

Aquanimity has a facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551247552282&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Or
http://tiny.cc/Aquanimity

Current status
I recently retired and have moved permanently to Inverloch, Victoria last year, I took on the restoration of Aquanimity as my first major retirement project.
I have several grandkids that join me on some weekends to sail at SGYC with the restored boat
The boat can be sailed single handed or with the extended family.
I learnt to sail on Lazy e from Adelaide in the mid 1970s (another Jack Holt design)

Miracle sailing dinghy class information
The Miracle is a truly versatile craft and is ideal for beginners or experts, young and old alike. It offers friendly but competitive, exciting racing opportunities at both club and national level – but is also the perfect boat to take on the family holiday or to potter about in.

An optional spinnaker (with chute), flat aft section and wide beam help to provide all the thrills and spills you’d expect from a one-design thoroughbred planing racing-boat which even downwind, remains stable enough for youth or inexperienced helm to quickly learn to control.

The Miracle was initially supplied only in wood as a kit and is designed for home building. Consequently many Miracles were built by enthusiasts. Most professionally assembled Miracles were built by Bell Woodworking, who were the sole source of kits, and a few by other professional builders. There is nothing wrong with a home built boat. If it looks well built it probably is ! If it is relatively old, the fact that it has survived tells you that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the initial build quality. The very great majority of Miracles are made of wood.

In the early 90’s, a composite version of the Miracle was developed (glass reinforced plastic [GRP] hull and wooden deck), and shortly after that a full GRP boat. There are relatively few of these about and pricewise they are still at the higher end of the market. In 1997, the option to home build the wooden boat from plans became available

Length: 12.76 ft / 3.89 m
Sail Area: 95.00 ft2 / 8.83 m2
Beam: 5.22 ft / 1.59 m
Displacement: 170.00 lb / 77 kg
Max Draft: 2.50 ft / 0.76 m
Min Draft: 0.50 ft / 0.15 m
Construction: Wood/FG
First Built: 1975
# Built: ~4000
Builder: Bell Woodworking Ltd. (UK)
Designer: Jack Holt
Australian yardstick 130