We are in a never to be repeated golden age of sailing.

[potentillaCO32]

I may have posted something like this before.

When I first started sailing in the mid/late 80s in my late teens i looked at the westerly centaur as the popular family cruising boat and good ones were about 10k then. Similar for something like a sadler 26. Family boats were smaller then.

According to google, or AI, or something 10k in 1986 equates to around 40k now.

Yet it is possible to buy a very good centaur or westerly griffon for 6 - 7k. I saw one advertised for sale today with a 2004 engine and clearly well looked after for 7k. With the current market you could probably offer 5k and the seller would bite your arm off.

This is pretty recent, a sort of very gradual decline in prices from 2010 until covid which triggered a boom when you could ask silly money for anything, followed by a baloon pop of real vengence. To the extent that boatyards are scrapping biats at a rate of knots that they have never done before.

So for sailors this is the golden age. I know people say that it is madness paying 5k per year for a berth on a boat not even worth that, but it means that it is possible to get on the water and have fun for less in real terms than I spent on an evening out in Browns in Shoreditch in the 90s.

It is possible to get a seaworthy, comfortable boat, that has been looked after that is capable of crossing the channel for next to nothing.

I see this as a golden age of sailing. Far more accessible than it has ever been before. I don't think people see it, in the same way that most people never see the bottom of a market as a buying opportunity.

If boatyards keep scrapping boats at the rate they are doing then in a few years there will be more of the decent ones left and the supply/demand balance will start to return to normal.

My message is to those looking to buy, buy now and enjoy the value. It won't last.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Who knows what the future holds?

I am not so sure this is the golden age as the big racing fleets of the 80's on the Clyde are gone, as are the numerous sail training yachts and sailing school boats. The big fleets of charter yachts have also gone when Sunsail pulled out.

I agree that boat costs are low now. Is affordability of sailing in a golden age, probably not, cost of living is very high. One hand gives, the other takes.

 

[Stemar]

If I had to pay £5K to park Jazzcat, I'm afraid she'd have to go. There are cheaper berths for a Centaur, even in the $olent, and even same walk ashore ones, so I think you'd need a pretty good reason to pay that much, though I'm sure that if you go to the wrong place you could pay even more. A row ashore mooring in Portsmouth Harbour could be had for under £1000 a year if you don't mind spending a couple of hours a tide sitting on the mud, and a club mooring (if you live long enough to make it to the top of the waiting list), a fraction of that.

Boating is never going to be a cheap hobby, but you can cut your coat according to your cloth. With a club mooring, and anchoring most of the time when we go out, we can afford it even though we're far from wealthy.

 

[potentillaCO32]

If I

Boating is never going to be a cheap hobby, but you can cut your coat according to your cloth. With a club mooring, and anchoring most of the time when we go out, we can afford it even though we're far from wealthy.

Indeed, but I think it is relatively cheap to a degree that I never imagined.

Of course, you can make it excrutiatingly expensive as well.

 

[johnalison]

Yes, you can get a decent-sized boat at a moderate price, complete with fridge and hot shower, but at what price? Anchorages that once held two or three boats are now jam-packed, even if they haven't been replaced by moorings, and you have to share the last available places in marinas with others on a raft. There is no hope of making headway in anywhere like the Solent on a quiet day because the powerboats will knock the wind out of your sails, and on much of the coast it is not possible to enjoy silence on a summer day without the whine of jet-skis. There are many conveniences today, but the opportunities for a full experience and proper refreshment of the mind are far fewer, while minor annoyances have greatly increased.

 

[veshengro]

I'm surprised at some boat prices here in West Wales. Older but well cared for boats can be had for prices that once would have resulted in instant sales, but now just mean unsold boats lying in Boat Yards. I have watched one yacht in the yard where I keep my open boat slowly decrease in price as the owner tries to sell it.

I appreciate the initial boat price is only the beginning of the story/expense of ownership, but I just wonder if people are no longer quite so willing to travel to their boat or row out to a swinging mooring Did I just say Row? ( Silly 'ol sod )
but want a step aboard berth in a Marina and all the mod cons.

 

[Minerva]

Yes, you can get a decent-sized boat at a moderate price, complete with fridge and hot shower, but at what price? Anchorages that once held two or three boats are now jam-packed, even if they haven't been replaced by moorings, and you have to share the last available places in marinas with others on a raft. There is no hope of making headway in anywhere like the Solent on a quiet day because the powerboats will knock the wind out of your sails, and on much of the coast it is not possible to enjoy silence on a summer day without the whine of jet-skis. There are many conveniences today, but the opportunities for a full experience and proper refreshment of the mind are far fewer, while minor annoyances have greatly increased.

I think you will find the Solent is the best place on this globe for sailing, and everyone should sail there.


[and leave my anchorages in another part of the coast nice and quiet]


More seriously though - I grew up racing but these days, paying boating costs to leave the wife and children at home every weekend would see me rapidly single and unable to pay for any sailing. Therefore interest is now in nice anchorages and making my 80’s Moody as comfortable as can be. As a result we spent 4 weeks aboard last season as a family, plus a good few weekends. Looked at it that way then each night aboard cost less than a premier inn and far more pleasant.

 

[MoodySabre]

People’s expectations have changed since the 1980s. Changed in respect of housing, home appliances, cars, standard of living. The reason a Centaur has not held its value is that it no longer meets those higher expectations. People want more up to date looking boats that have better accommodation and sailing ability.
Yes you can buy a boat very cheaply and keep it on a cheap mooring but many prefer not to.

 

[Leslie frank]

I am reminded of the adage.. "some get a boat because they have money.. others don't have money because they have a boat." I know which camp i am in

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Anchorages that once held two or three boats are now jam-packed, even if they haven't been replaced by moorings, and you have to share the last available places in marinas with others on a raft. There is no hope of making headway in anywhere like the Solent on a quiet day because the powerboats will knock the wind out of your sails, and on much of the coast it is not possible to enjoy silence on a summer day without the whine of jet-skis. There are many conveniences today, but the opportunities for a full experience and proper refreshment of the mind are far fewer, while minor annoyances have greatly increased.

You sail in the wrong place for peace and quiet. When I visited the community pontoon in Kirkibost on Great Bernera last August, complete with swanky showers, I was the 3rd visiting boat...ever. I stayed a couple of days, and wondered if I might get some company from another visiting boat, but like at Adlestrop, no one left and no one came. Just me.

 

[NormanS]

You sail in the wrong place for peace and quiet. When I visited the community pontoon in Kirkibost on Great Bernera last August, complete with swanky showers, I was the 3rd visiting boat...ever. I stayed a couple of days, and wondered if I might get some company from another visiting boat, but like at Adlestrop, no one left and no one came. Just me.

You have to remember that the three Loch Roags, where Kirkibost is, have scores of good sheltered anchorages. So there could have been several visiting boats in the vicinity, that you weren't aware of. You are quite correct though, if you take the trouble to venture to these parts, you'll get plenty of peace and quiet.

 

[westhinder]

You sail in the wrong place for peace and quiet. When I visited the community pontoon in Kirkibost on Great Bernera last August, complete with swanky showers, I was the 3rd visiting boat...ever. I stayed a couple of days, and wondered if I might get some company from another visiting boat, but like at Adlestrop, no one left and no one came. Just me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will do my best to visit Kirkibost coming summer. Join me for a dram if you happen to be there. Hoping to be the first visitor from the continent, just like I was the first visiting yacht from the continent in Greystones (Ireland) in 2013

 

[newtothis]

Yes, you can get a decent-sized boat at a moderate price, complete with fridge and hot shower, but at what price? Anchorages that once held two or three boats are now jam-packed, even if they haven't been replaced by moorings, and you have to share the last available places in marinas with others on a raft. There is no hope of making headway in anywhere like the Solent on a quiet day because the powerboats will knock the wind out of your sails, and on much of the coast it is not possible to enjoy silence on a summer day without the whine of jet-skis. There are many conveniences today, but the opportunities for a full experience and proper refreshment of the mind are far fewer, while minor annoyances have greatly increased.

I don't want other people enjoying the thing I enjoy doing is not a great advertisement for the fraternity of sailors.

 

[Stemar]

I am reminded of the adage.. "some get a boat because they have money.. others don't have money because they have a boat." I know which camp i am in

And sometimes, they're the same people

 

[doug748]

I may have posted something like this before.

When I first started sailing in the mid/late 80s in my late teens i looked at the westerly centaur as the popular family cruising boat and good ones were about 10k then. Similar for something like a sadler 26. Family boats were smaller then.

According to google, or AI, or something 10k in 1986 equates to around 40k now.

Yet it is possible to buy a very good centaur or westerly griffon for 6 - 7k. I saw one advertised for sale today with a 2004 engine and clearly well looked after for 7k. With the current market you could probably offer 5k and the seller would bite your arm off.

This is pretty recent, a sort of very gradual decline in prices from 2010 until covid which triggered a boom when you could ask silly money for anything, followed by a baloon pop of real vengence. To the extent that boatyards are scrapping biats at a rate of knots that they have never done before.

So for sailors this is the golden age. I know people say that it is madness paying 5k per year for a berth on a boat not even worth that, but it means that it is possible to get on the water and have fun for less in real terms than I spent on an evening out in Browns in Shoreditch in the 90s.

It is possible to get a seaworthy, comfortable boat, that has been looked after that is capable of crossing the channel for next to nothing.

I see this as a golden age of sailing. Far more accessible than it has ever been before. I don't think people see it, in the same way that most people never see the bottom of a market as a buying opportunity.

If boatyards keep scrapping boats at the rate they are doing then in a few years there will be more of the decent ones left and the supply/demand balance will start to return to normal.

My message is to those looking to buy, buy now and enjoy the value. It won't last.

Yes, a fine time to buy.

Here is a nice looking Hurley 24, you would probably get it for £1500:

Pardon our interruption...

I remember the pride of a club member when he bought one of these in 1985, he paid the equivalent today of about £13,000 for it

There is a very late, clean Hurley 22 in Devon that would probably go for £750. Bit of work and Cherbourg here we come.

When you consider that many people pay £400 per month to rent a car they will never own, bargain time.

.

.

 

[Minerva]

Yes, a fine time to buy.

Here is a nice looking Hurley 24, you would probably get it for £1500:

Pardon our interruption...

I remember the pride of a club member when he bought one of these in 1985, he paid the equivalent today of about £13,000 for it

There is a very late, clean Hurley 22 in Devon that would probably go for £750. Bit of work and Cherbourg here we come.

When you consider that many people pay £400 per month to rent a car they will never own, bargain time.

.

.

Quite remarkable that then you could get a decent family cruiser new for the equivalent of £13k in today’s money.

A new cruising wayfarer these days is more than that at £15k

Sailing Dinghy | Wayfarer Cruiser

 

[Poignard]

Yes, a fine time to buy.

Here is a nice looking Hurley 24, you would probably get it for £1500:

Pardon our interruption...

I remember the pride of a club member when he bought one of these in 1985, he paid the equivalent today of about £13,000 for it

There is a very late, clean Hurley 22 in Devon that would probably go for £750. Bit of work and Cherbourg here we come.

When you consider that many people pay £400 per month to rent a car they will never own, bargain time.

.

.

Looks like a bargain.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Quite remarkable that then you could get a decent family cruiser new for the equivalent of £13k in today’s money.

A new cruising wayfarer these days is more than that at £15k

Sailing Dinghy | Wayfarer Cruiser

Quite so, we seem to be comparing the prices of boats when new with the price of those same boats some 40 years later.

Meanwhile, as reported in another thread, the cost of my boat new has doubled in the ten years since mine left the factory. Sadly the same cannot be said for my take home pay.

 

[ridgy]

The real bargains now are in the 28 to 32 range, boats that you can go places in comfort and have friends staying over with room. Boats that you can have a holiday on.

Those hurleys are mostly worthless because you have nearly all the running costs of a bigger boat without the utility.

As someone who has spent years perfecting the art of cheap boating, swinging moorings, 3rd party insurance, avoiding electronic toys, cash deals with the winter yard etc, I can't get the annual bill under 2k for my 32 footer that I bought for 6k. That bill would hardly be smaller for a hurley 24 yet one of those boats takes me everywhere I want to go with friends and family, with space, grace and pace. Nobody would get on the other one. Or once maybe.

 

[elliotmc]

People’s expectations have changed since the 1980s. Changed in respect of housing, home appliances, cars, standard of living. The reason a Centaur has not held its value is that it no longer meets those higher expectations. People want more up to date looking boats that have better accommodation and sailing ability.
Yes you can buy a boat very cheaply and keep i

"peoples expectations have changed since the 1980s" YES they have, gone down, a postman, milkman or building site labourer could buy their own house, back then, without it being struggle.