The new Bimini has been fitted

My daughter, son and his partner came to stay for a few days and we had a good blast up the Solent.

Great fun, however, I have my suspicions that they really came to stay so that they could size up the new teenager in the family.








The outboard started first pull and we successfully transported five adults at once without getting any wet bums - a success!  It seemed to get the approval of the offspring as they couldn't wait to steal the dinghy and use it to explore the upper reaches of the Beaulieu River.

My son testing out the new Bimini

For Nicky and me though, the real news from the weekend was arriving at BV to discover that the Bimini had been fitted during the week.

We will have looked a bit strange sailing up the Solent with the Bimini raised in pleasant but not very sunny weather, but it gave us the chance to try it out in a stiff breeze.

It's brilliant.  Exactly as we specified with enough headroom for us to stand on the seat when steering so that we can see clearly when manoeuvring in harbour, really solid bracing, and no forward straps to conflict with the main sheet.  Plus it is curved enough to match the lines and thus look good and, on a practical level, stay taut to easily shed any rain water.  It's got an extra sunscreen which can be lowered to protect the helmsman's back and it also has a little window which can be uncovered so that it is easy to see the sails and the wind indicators for top sail trim in those 'racing' moments when you get two or more cruising yachts in close company.  Perfectly matches what we were after.

Just the new sprayhood to go to complete the transition to beige.  That should happen this week in time for our summer cruise.  Can't wait to explore further afield than just our normal stomping ground of the Solent!