Mirage 24

The Mirage 24 is a Canadian trailerable sailboat designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian, the naval architecture design division at C&C Yachts, as a Midget Ocean Racing Club (MORC) racer and first built in 1972.

Production
The boat was built by Mirage Yachts in Canada, starting in 1972. It was their first production design and is a development of the Cuthbertson & Cassian designed Northern 1/4 Ton. The design is now out of production.

Design
Dick and Irene Steffen owned a yacht dealership for C&C Yachts, in Pointe Claire, Quebec. The company had been very successful selling C&C boats, but the C&C line did not offer a boat smaller than the C&C 27 at that time. Dick Steffen was a competitive sailing racer and thought that there would be a good market for a C&C-built 24 foot keelboat for MORC racing. At his request Cuthbertson & Cassian designed the boat, but decided not to proceed with production at C&C. Steffen bought the design from them and founded Mirage Yachts in February 1972 to build the boat.

The Mirage 24 sold well and the company soon had 15 employees building the boat model in their rented second floor facility in Pointe Claire. One factor driving the Mirage 24's strong sales was its racing record in MORC class events. Even 15 years after its introduction a Mirage 24 won the production boat division in the MORC national championships.

Caught off guard by the success of the design, C&C decided to produce a competitor, the C&C 25, which was very similar to the Mirage 24's design. The Mirage 24 continued to sell well and usually beat the C&C 25 in competition.

The Mirage 24 is a small recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fibreglass. It has a masthead sloop rig, a transom-hung rudder and a fixed fin keel. It displaces 3700 lb and carries 1500 lb of ballast.

The boat has a draft of 4.00 ft with the standard keel. It has a hull speed of 6.00 kn.

The boat is normally fitted with a small 4 to 6 hp outboard motor for docking and maneuvering.

The design has sleeping accommodation for four people, with a double "V"-berth in the bow cabin and two straight settee berths in the main cabin. The galley is located on the starboard side at the companionway ladder. The galley is equipped with a two-burner stove, icebox and a double sink. The head is located just aft of the bow cabin on the port side. Cabin headroom is 57 in.

Variants

 * Mirage 24
 * This model was introduced in 1972 and fits the standard height mast. The design has a PHRF racing average handicap of 225.


 * Mirage 24 SM
 * This model was introduced in 1972 and fits a mast that is shorter than the standard mast by about 1.5 ft. The boat has a PHRF racing average handicap of 228 with a high of 224 and low of 234.


 * Mirage 24 TM
 * This model was introduced in 1972 and fits a mast that is taller than the standard mast by about 1.5 ft. The boat has a PHRF racing average handicap of 228 with a high of 231 and low of 222.

Operational history
In a review Michael McGoldrick wrote, "the Mirage 24 belongs in that Canadian Sailboat Hall of Fame if only because it is the boat which launched Mirage Yachts...The Mirage 24 is pretty boat with a fair amount of interior space. This boat did very well in the MORC fleet, and its owners report that its performance really starts to shine in medium winds."

In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "best features: This is a boat designed to go fast in Quarter Ton racing, and she does. Worst features: Her ballast is higher than her comps, which leads us to assume that she could be faster in heavy air but slower in light air compared to her comp[etitor]s."