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

[johnalison]

And I bet nobody complained about lack of space. It was, perhaps, a more innocent age where people were more easily won over by a sense of adventure.

Perhaps it is because of today's epidemic of obesity that larger boats are now considered essential?

Today might be considered a golden age in some ways, in that boating is accessible to more people, boats are on the whole better designed, sailing wear is vastly improved, and the technology applied to sail management and navigation have made things much easier. On the other hand the sheer numbers sailing mean that quiet places are harder to find and it is no longer possibly to just swan into somewhere like Salcombe for the harbourmaster to find a nice unoccupied buoy for a few days. In the '70s one might occasionally meet a water-skier in the Blackwater on a Sunday but generally everywhere was free from the noise of motorised craft going at high speed and on a near windless day one could sail patiently for hours without losing drive from passing wash. In other word, sailing had more charm, a concept that now seems obsolete.

 

[Stemar]

If (IF) you can sort out a diy yard or non corporate mooring.

I suspect that the DIY facilities are one of the reasons Hardway has a waiting list for membership. They have ridiculously cheap club moorings too, but get your name down young - it'll be a long wait.

 

[benjenbav]

Its not just the boats I also think laziness has a large part to play. You can still get a reasonable mooring but nobody (other than myself it seems) wants to row/motor a mile in a F6 north easterly to reach the boat. And then we have marina fees....in a word... 'Astronomical'. It may be a golden age for those with extremely deep pockets but for the rest of us with modest means and who just want to get out on the water I don't really see it.

I think lifestyle is an important factor.

These days many young couples both have to work to pay a house mortgage of X times their combined salary.

That leaves little enough time. And when they have children they face insane costs for other folk to look after them in the time they already don’t have.

The spare time they have is limited, so marinas appeal for a packaged experience - except for the expense. And hence holiday charters: a week in the sun, no maintenance. Put away and forget till next time.

Or there’s things like high performance wind/kite surfing - something that can be done for a morning/afternoon, on one’s own and packed away again until next time.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Having learned to sail as a child / adolescent I didn't come back to it until my mid 30s and even then it was only crewing for others and the odd charter, I had in the preceding years and for quite a while afterwards other sporting interests as well as developing a career. Even though I bought my first house when I was a research student as life progressed and so did our aspirations we, my wife and I needed both salaries to cover what we did. It was not until I was in my middle 40s , settled in work and career with another wife did the purchase of a yacht even enter my mind let alone the ability to fund one. It didn't help that I lived just about as far away from the coast as it's possible to be nor did I come from a family other than my grandfather who lived in Ipswich have any great connection to the sea and certainly not to sailing.
Once the first boat was purchased a swinging mooring was its first home but that really didn't work for someone that had to travel 250 miles and 3 to 5 hours on a Friday night just to get to the shoreline followed by another hour of faffing about in the dark with a dinghy to get on board then another hound a half or more to the following morning just to get to open water. after two years a marina beckoned. I often wonder how my wife stuck it in those early years of sailing for her. For me it meant giving up Golf, cricket and diving all time consuming pastimes involving the weekends. It's pretty difficult to get into sailing if you don't live by the coast and or have some family background in sailing. So it's no surprise that most of the newer participants are well established late 30s or more that buy a newish clean boat AWB ready to sail and keep it in a marina and use it once or twice a week plus the odd extended Bank Holiday period and annual holiday having learned their sailing by doing RYA courses rather than being schooled in sailing from an early age.

 

[johnalison]

One experience that I won’t try to recapture is that of my trips to the Broads. The often old wooden boats that we sailed and motored in the ‘50s and ‘60s were either brown or dirty white paint but were well-suited to the tight waters of the Broads. It was a delightful, and useful, experience. Although it is still available to some extent, there is more monitoring and it can be quite expensive. In the early ‘60s I could hire a sailing cruiser for £8/10/- per week, but what has killed it for me is the ubiquitous plastic, especially that dreadful electric blue that has no place in the wild.