A lovely shade of lipstick

One of Y&Y forum's occasional contributors, Bender, bought a new Contender a few years ago and specifically chose all the Progrip to be light purple - he called the boat Syringa (he's the brainy one at the club).
Unfortunately, the lilac has now faded to light mauve, but the unusual colour still stands out - as long as you have a good thesaurus... 

definitely need to get it next to the pink lightning- if only to demonstrate the difference between pink and lilac!!!

harsh Tim- 

But I'd still stand by those comments on the aesthetics of that initial old school deck shape and the blue colour it was presented in, well it was just too 'blue' and 1970s Ideal Standard... gracefully we've all acknowledged the production boats are toned down and look quite smart, even your older sky blue was nice, but around my way you'd get mistaken for a Coventry City fan and quite frankly that would be a no-go-zone for anyone with a braincell or two.

Pastel shades and muted colours are in this season, primary colours are out now the Olympics are over.  Neons never were in and never should be on anything other than a Cherub or a Moth- then it's allowed, in fact it should be mandatory just because, well 'because' they are Cherubs and Moths and should have sole usage rights to anything that'll blind a cat with over exposure. 

Black and White is bland, passé and a bit 2009- it's all 'fifty shades' these days if you're targeting a monochromatic look.  But I doubt that'll last once there's a hollywood 'safe' version, so I'd avoid anything without colour for longevity and appeal.  At least the D-One has a coloured spinnaker, so you guys will be fine, even those of you with the ice-white and carbon inserts upgrade.   

Oddly enough, if I had a D-One I would give it the same colour swatch as this Solo.  Despite its questionable aesthetics, it's still a very feminine boat.  A bit like Nigella Lawson if I'm honest; big in the right places, but slightly odd at first.  It definitely thinks it's more Italian than it really is and would probably qualify as 'posh totty' if you have enough Bombay Sapphire and Fevertree to get on to the subject.  Assuming fidelity wasn't a barrier, you wouldn't say no to quick go, especially if there's a good meal thrown-in afterwards.  Who knows you might get quite taken by it.  That's Russ's excuse anyway, and that Saatchi fellow.

If I had a Finn... well that burnt orange might not look so great on a jpeg, but in the flesh it was pretty mint.  I was surprised by that and the yellow one- very nice to look at, but you'd never choose it off of the Amazon website.  A Finn wouldn't suit the lilac for sure... it would need more thought, and for twenty grand, it had better be a damn good, long and hard thought first.