A lovely shade of lipstick

it does look comfortable, and I even thought about submitting it to Y&Y for a customary re-evaluation, the decks mean the tester can leave his specs behind for once.

  - why thank you Al, I couldn't have got a better response.

First and foremost, I hope my little girls like it.  That's the most important reason, as at their current ages 4 and the other 9 months old, the next few years are both precious and impressionable.  I hope they have some fond memories of various boats as I did as a kid.  They love our family floating platform in Spain, and my eldest daughter is already having a go at steering it, but sadly we can't be in Spain all the time and I can't justify two dinghies in the UK, otherwise Russ and Paul's Gradate adventures look just the ticket. 

So this had to be something they'd like- if only to look at and have the occasional summer potter in.  A.N.other boring monotone dinghy was not going to do, and if I'd been completely selfish, then I'd have probably gone composite and had some seriously nice wood decks laid on it by a proper craftsman, but again, not exactly going to make the little ones smile is it?

Secondly, after 10 years of owning antipodean influenced boats, which tend to be quite masculine, indeed in Kiwi, a boat is a 'he', I've now ended up going for something designed in the 50's, hand built in Yorkshire faithful to that original Holt design and equipped with a sail shaped, stitched and glued in Birmingham.  In Great Britain our boats are feminine, so I decided to embrace the feminine attributes of this.  I don't dress my kids in carbon effect vinyl wrap...

Finally, I've spent a long time trying to find a cool boat.  But what's cool anyway?  Certainly not a Solo dinghy, it's far too popular, mainstream and adult.  So why give it the monotone lipstick treatment that is allegedly, on trend, and cool currently?

Some of the nicest Solos I've seen have been coloured, wooden hulls- meticulously restored, or just lovingly owned and maintained over decades of pleasurable sailing.  Personally I think a lot of the all black and white, monotone, carbon effect thing is fairly pedestrian now.   That's the problem with 'cool', once it becomes 'cool' it ceases to be cool anymore.  So why bother, certainly not with a Solo anyway?

The first sail on Sunday and I can't wait.  But the bigger test is later today- the girls are heading up to the office to have a look, I hope they like it.