Yes, I will be very sad to see her go, had lots of fun in her over the years for very little outlay.
When I first bought her, I started by entertaining the gongoozlers at Petersham Meadows as I floated around in circles struggling to start the old (Seagull?) outboard someone gifted me, before I saved up to buy a new, reliable Mercury 4 hp 2 stroke, which has never let me down.
Happy memories of my wee daughter* in her party dress and straw boater hat, posy of flowers on the prow, enjoying picnics and getting cheery waves from all the big gin palaces we maneuvered around at Henley regattas.
Lifting her into little quiet canal sections around Surrey and Hampshire, spotting water voles, kingfishers and other fauna.
Skimming across the waves down off Chesil beach, suddenly realising what would happen if I fell out and got smacked on the head as the boat escaped off to France - at which point I decided retrofitting a kill switch might be a good idea.
She then rested in the garage for many years as my daughter reached teenagehood and found other interests, whilst my busy work travel schedule left me little time for pastimes.
Then my enthusiasm was rekindled just a few years ago when I took early retirement and we were spending the summers back in my native Fife. I stumbled across a blog called "Inflatable Boat Journeys From Around Scotland" by a certain Donny Wilcox**, describing his exploits in a wee inflatable on the Firth of Forth:
http://inflatableboatjourneys.blogspot. ... kerel.html
This inspired me to dust her off, replace a dodgy valve, fork out for a decent coastal lifejacket and VHF radio and spend some happy days meandering around Burntisland and Dalgety Bay.
Then I found this forum, went on my first Wild West Adventure, met a great bunch of guys and the rest, as they say, is history.
I realised that now I'd caught the SIBbing bug I needed something a wee bit more capable to venture beyond the delights of Tralee Bay - and yes PaulB, I still grin when I recall being escorted back to the slipway in V formation by you and Martin.
I did look seriously at new F-RIBs and a 4 stroke but apart from the costs, the fact I'm an overweight, unfit 60+ year old and generally go out on my own meant I'd probably struggle to manhandle them. Fortunately, a very nice man, known on the forums as beerbelly, was looking for someone to care for his 3.2 airfloor Honwave and 15 HP Mercury 2-stroke, which he kindly allowed me to view with no pressure to buy, so as to check I could lug it around and fit it all in my car.
Advice from my new found buddies on here also confirmed that this would be a suitable setup for my needs and so now I've started building up memories of my times with her, including last year's very, very, very wet but nonetheless great fun outing at WWA 2016, catching a few mackies on the Forth and a pleasant meander along the Thames last week as posted on another thread here.
Hopefully, the tough little hypalon Compass will be good for another few year's service with my daughter's boyfriend on the Thames; but I might be tempted go along and rock him around with my 15 HP wake when the Environment Agency's boat isn't around!
* She's a slightly larger 28 year old now!
** Now fondly known to us as The Gurnard
