Yet another scruffy waif has found it's way into my collection. This orphan had no name. It had merely been branded Number 15 & as I towered over its cowering & bedraggled frame in the August sunlight; I felt a heartbeat sense of it's former self, a residual soul under the dirt & I heard myself proclaim: We can rebuild you, we have the technology. Today you are number 15, a refugee from The Village, tomorrow you will cut surf & turquoise seas & shout, I am not a number - I am a free Anas.

You have wonky teeth I know, & your retro-fit hatch & deck lines are both equally amusing. You have your wires crossed, literally. Your pure Igdlorssuit progeny is askew.

The ancient emblem tattooed onto your ass Number 15, as always, reads: British Canoe Manufacturers Association - The Reflection of Excellence.
Some work will be needed to restore you, there is no debate, & some may hurt a little, or seem unnecessarily brutal. Your footplate is an original alloy bar wingnut affair, drill jammed in like an amalgam filling without anaesthetic. Your forward ballast is an onion bag full of polystyrene chips & a birds nest, & your open wounds are creeping. Your split stock seating bucket is lined with finest executive karrimat & your gelcoat is a near non existent collection of scars that could have only been acquired whilst fighting lions...in a very small room. Your glasswork is atrocious, inside a fashion of magnificence, & you're coming apart at the seams, but fear not Number 15, 1972 & 2008 will both be good years & the times, oh the times...they are a changin'.

£75.00 all in for the official adoption papers, but remember Number 15 - beautiful flowers grow out of the wreckage & the dirt, & the girl who sells them in rags, is prettier than all those dancing, high-falutin' lights.
One final aside, the Skye-vine has recently reported Murty & Gordon giggling openly in his Ornsay kitchen about this Anas possibly being re-rendered in fantasy brown. Gordon Beige apparently laughed loudest. ;o)

In the near future I'll finish putting together a pdf.file of Anas restorations if it's handy to anyone. As well as being applicable to nearly all modern glass/carbon kayaks, it will include Anas Acuta specific detail, including everything from retro seat fitting, gel coating, minimalist but practical refitting to rear deck surgery & reshaping - the works in fact. If it's useful to anyone, all good, if not, it'll kick around until it is.