A new boat, a new blog, a new name.

Hi and welcome to my blog. Those of you who followed my Jelly Bean Blog will be familiar with my low budget approach to keeping afloat.  I pride myself on having maximum smiles per pound, I'd been sailing Jelly Bean for since 2005 and never got bored.  I was starting to push the boundaries of her capabilties so decided it was time for a change. I wanted a boat that would be capable of safely crossing the channel but still retain the compact feel and shallow draft that I was used to.  I quickly narrowed my search to the Hurley 20 bilge keeler.  Despite being tempted by various boats for sale (Caprice, Vivacity, Alacrity and many more) I remained focused and  have just bought a Hurley 20  which needs a little tidying before she can go in the water next April.

As the boat is still at the previous owners farm in Bicester there is little that I can be getting on with, however there was one job which we could do.. The boat is currently called Comme Ci Comme Ca.. I wasn't fond of this so as a family we set about coming up with a name that we liked, suited the boat and would fit nicely on the dodgers :-)
Having had some great holidays in Italy we wanted an Italian name, some of those short listed were 'Da Cielo'(from heaven), 'Fuga' (Escape) and 'Piacere' (Pleasure) however after much deliberation, pasta, espresso, peroni and gelati we have decided on Ciao Bella.... well I think she's beautiful :D