Over the past few months, a new Solo has been developed and built in the PDC workshop. The Solo is a one-design class recognised by the Dutch Watersports Association, designed by Jack Holt in 1956. It is a single-handed racing dinghy that is especially popular in England and the Netherlands. Around 100 new Solos are added to the fleet in England every year. The class is also growing rapidly in the Netherlands at the moment. Most Solos are still made of wood, but today new Solos are usually made of foam and epoxy. So Paul couldn’t resist building a Solo for himself.
The project began as a school assignment for our employee Thomas. Thomas is a Maritime Technology student in Leeuwarden and works with us in his spare time. As part of his internship, he studied the rules in detail and used them to draw the ideal Solo hull shape. He also calculated the ideal weight distribution for the boat. The project then passed to Lance, who took it over and drew the rest of the Solo, as well as the final mould. All of this was done under Paul’s watchful eye, with Paul naturally bringing his own ideas to every aspect of the project.
Paul couldn’t hand off the laminating work, so he did it himself. The result is the Solo 673, developed entirely in-house. Last year, Paul became Dutch National Champion in the Solo class. This coming weekend, the Dutch National Championship takes place on his home waters, Lake Sneekermeer. We wish Paul the best of luck and hope he brings the pennant home again.
