So how much do we think is a fair price...

I like to think of price trends in terms of weekly wage, recalling back in the day my entry to sailing via a windsurfer cost me £475 at a time I was earning £40 a week having completed an apprenticeship which had me at £25. Now had I wished to be posh and enter dinghy sailing via a Laser it would have cost £675, which is 12 weeks wage versus the best part of 17 weeks for posh sailors (Who obvious earned a lot more)

Nowadays google tells me the average wage is around 500 quid weekly so that comparison would allow £6000 for Windsurfing and 8.5k for Sailing, so in real terms both the Windsurfer (I just bought the new Windsurfer LT for well under two grand)and Laser fall well below the line, so maybe I shouldn't be moaning, but then again I don't work for anyone who'd pay me 500 quid a week.

Edited by iGRF - 21 Apr 21 at 9:49am

it is strange that on the whole the everyday things like clothes have not got more expensive. Clothing is driven by the likes of Primani and co who utilise sub-continent and far eastern manufacturers to keep costs surprisingly cheap. Yes their stuff is cheap and won't last but then consumers don't care, cheap is good, you get far more clothes for your £ than you did 10 years ago for example (unless of course you are into designer gear). Maybe this leads to a perception that everything else has gotten horrendously expensive. 

I would suggest that the general decline in activity and more durable products have resulted in a smaller cake, and the profusion of "me too" products has multiplied the number of slices being taken out of the cake ... so there is less jam for the builders 

Depends on the boat but yes my expectation is that a new boat costs 10k-12k with all the bits such as covers and trailers etc. At this price those that are not mass produced are marginally profitable but those that make them are not making lots of money based on the discussions and observations of lifestyle of those that I know are involved.