What singlehander

Now, I accept inland that may be different, it's not so easy for the faster boats to stretch out to their handicap potential, but you can still play the position over the water game and those old mingers can still hold their own because of that.

Doesn't make it right though, they should still lay down when they're dead.

If you do look to buy a FRP solo, you will be looking at a Winder around the £4k mark.  The other builder Boon (Ovington) are a little newer and as such slightly more money.  I have not saile a Steve Parker built Solo, but there are few around so i would stick with whats known and buy a Winder.  The build quality is super and even a 10 year old boat will get you mixing it with the top of the fleet at club level.  Most important thing with a Solo is making sure you are using the correct rig for your weight.  The current fashion is to use the Selden D+  which suits sailors up-to about 90kg.  But for me, even at that weight i found it too soft and soon switched back to a Selden Cumulus which is a much stiffer mast and as such gave me more power, which was even more important when sailing in land.  I would also look to buy a boat with either a North or HD sail and keep clear of the rest.  That just my preference though.

If you do ask for advice on the Solo forum about hull and rig preferences you will get shot down fairly quickly as they have some bizarre class rule that's stops members selling the virtues of particular kit.

well there you go... this forum to the rescue, I'd ordered a D+ as initially advised as a good all rounder for my weight (95kg) (I'd assumed the cumulus section was an old softie TBH) and after seeing Russ's post above have made the enquiries, got the advice from builder, sailmaker and some local sages, and have changed my order to the Cumulus section as I'll be predominantly inland and light winds only.

Cheers Russ (& Y&Y forum community)

let's be blunt before Grumpf does it for us, 'fashionable' is an ambiguous term.  I think you mean 'popular'. 

It's a Solo and will never be fashionable, even if it seems popular enough to encourage 120 people to its Nationals and has more singlehanded "proper" fleets around the country than nigh on anything else, almost irrespective of the location- river, tidal estuary, sea and ponds great and small... but it will never be fashionable, nor will it be cool; not on this forum anyway 

But thanks for the tip off, and what you've said above has been well supported by other folks too.