The darker blue is more accurate. But I am with Nate H on what he said about colored hulls on sailboats:
"There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black." lol
Alpas were in production from the late 50's until 1979. Maybe they are more of an eastern Med boat, centered on Italy as their 'native' country? They had a bunch of models, from small dinghies they started with up to 40'ish in size towards the end of their run. I'll put some links below. The company name exists today, but with no affiliation; modern Alpa's are all power boats.
At any rate, she's grown on me, and from what I can tell she is put together very solidly, on par with if not maybe a little better than what I have seen from pretty much any other yards, circa 60's/70. Hopefully I'll be able to sail her before too long and see how it goes.
One thing I've noticed is how far aft the helm is in the cockpit, out there back at the very end of the boat. Maybe that is good for around the cans, but I think for long term cruising comfort converting to a tiller might be better. (Yes, I do have a tiller bias.
) But there is a fitting for a tiller just forward of the wheel and the traveler, which if used would be leaving the space aft available for stowage and etc.. It'd make a good area for solar panels that aren't shaded by anything, even with a vane on the transom.
Going to a tiller would also make it easier for the helmsman to grind a winch when needed; many of the 11.50 owners I know of have mounted an extra pair of winches aft. so as to be able to easily reach them from the helm. I think moving the helm position forward might be a better solution, due to access, less motion, a bit of protection from the house/dodger, etc...
Anyway, just some thoughts. Thanks for the input!
https://www.alpahistorical.org <- Open in Chrome and it'll translate the site for you.
http://sailboatdata.com/view_builder.asp?builder_id=124 <- All of Alpa's sailboats.
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=4220 <- The 11.50 in particular