Inflation

[Kukri]

On the back page of my log book for 1971 I found my costs for the year.

Fitting out
Hauling up
Launching
Winter storage
Mooring

Total £62..4s..0d

New jib 16..16s..0d

I also found the quotation for the new sail:



Unusually (!) the bill was less than the quote, and I had to remember why: the sail was made for a Wykeham Martin gear so the cost of the piston hanks was credited.

The boat was one of these, built on the east coast. I would love to know if she is still around:

“Decimal Day” was the 15th of February 1971. So the bills were in a mixture of old and new money. I forgot to include insurance, which was with the Navigators and General. The boat was kept at Ben Clarke’s yard in City Lane, West Mersea, and had a drying mooring off the end of the hard.

 

[Lucy52]

£62 4s approximately £900 in today's money. (Bank of England)

 

[Kukri]

Thank you vert

£62 4s approximately £900 in today's money. (Bank of England)

Thank you!

If I now think of the running costs of my son’s Squib, there seems to have been very little change.

 

[johnalison]

My Westerly Cirrus was £2,400 in 1971. I think that was roughly a year's salary as a not-yet full partner. Adjusting for inflation, that makes it an expensive buy, and I took out a bank loan at the time.

 

[pvb]

In 1977, I bought a new Westerly Pentland for £19.5K, and a rather nice new-build 4-bedroom detached home in Essex for £24K! How things change...