Laser 161752 Tynemouth |
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Laser 28 - Excellent example of this great design Hamble le rice |
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Laser 140101 Tynemouth |
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List classes of boat for sale |
Twenty years from now |
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Do Different ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 26 Jan 12 Location: North Online Status: Offline Posts: 1312 |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posted: 27 Jan 15 at 10:23pm |
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Blimey, I thought I could be a bit dour but I'm more hopeful than recent posters.
I don't think that future disposable income is such an issue. Messing about on the water and having some fun racing your mates need only cost as much as you want it to. It's 75% state of mind 25% equipment. I also really do believe that the cost of most products follows the available money supply. You see it all over the world with different pricing in different regions. If money became generally tight across the board, either products would get cheaper or simpler and cheaper and we as customers would also embrace the new norm. To be controversial I am not so sure that the injection of grant money has done that many favours. How many grants were available in what is seen as the heyday? Sure we have warmer Clubhouses, fleets of Fevas and shiny RIBs. However it is like any drug, it feels good, you get used to having it, need more and it distorts reality. To be political, houses of cards can get built on very sandy ground. |
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Rupert ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
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20 years ago, a cheap, probably useable boat cost somewhere between £200 and £300. These days it costs between £200 and £300. I expect it still will in 20 years. Sailing doesn't have to cost much, and the plentiful supply of old boats means it will stay that way.
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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This. The first 29er kids haven't grown up enough yet to come back. I wonder what they'll chose to sail if they do return? |
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craiggo ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 01 Apr 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1810 |
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Im with Do Different on this one.
I have a reasonable level of optimism when looking at what sailing in the UK will be like in 20yrs, mainly because I think there is a bigger generation of kids entering the sport now than I have witnessed for a long time. As others have said, there seems to be a real shortage of 30-45yr olds in many clubs. I would say there are only a handful at our club, however we have a large group of guys and gals in their late teens to mid twenties who are still super keen and are now largely engaged in running or assisting with our sail training activity so we aren't as dependent on the over 60s who make up the largest demographic in the club. We have a small gap of about 8-10yrs and then the next wave are coming through and there are lots of them and they are really keen. Those of us who are the parents of these under 10s are all keen sailors, most of us are or have been committee members or help out a lot at the sailing club and treat it as a great social family venue, camping there at the weekends during the summer and generally having a good time. I think its this environment that will maintain the interest. To some extent the boats are secondary. There will always be affordable 2nd hand boats which for the most are perfectly adequate (I believe I am as competitive in my Grad which cost me a 10th of my RS700). I expect there will be a shift in trends but in which direction I'm not totally sure. There is so much discussion about increasing numbers of singlehanders but that is the current situation and not necessarily the future. I wonder if there will be a polar shift in expectations from these youngster as they try to differentiate themselves from the current late teens-30yr olds and get interested in building and fixing things for themselves, which could in turn lead to a very different outlook? |
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turnturtle ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 05 Dec 14 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2538 |
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Especially when they will quite literally print out the replacement part.....
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The Moo ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 01 Jun 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 809 |
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But they will still have to learn to use a screw driver.........I am told there are many younger households these days that do not possess such an item.
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turnturtle ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 05 Dec 14 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2538 |
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I guess that's the reality of a generation who swapped Lego for Minecraft....
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Do Different ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 26 Jan 12 Location: North Online Status: Offline Posts: 1312 |
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One word: Meccano
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bustinben ![]() Far too distracted from work ![]() Joined: 15 Oct 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 288 |
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I think the reality is that sailing is far too expensive for the non-1980-2005 house buying generation. I'm one of the few 20-40 year olds who still manages to sail (and by that I don't mean turning up at a pond for a plod around), and I can only do it because I've been very lucky with the opportunities I've had. When you've raced to a good level as a youth, pottering about on a pond on a sunday morning isn't going to cut it. You want big racecourses on the open sea with competitive fleets. To do that, you need to travel. Travelling is very expensive in both time and money, and if you're trying to save up 50 grand for a house deposit it's just not viable. Might as well do some cycling. I think what the RYA performance machine has done is show younger generations how good sailing can be, so they're no longer happy with what the bulk of the sport was when numbers in the missing age group were high.
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JimC ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6662 |
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Boats are far cheaper than they were in the boom times, and so is transport. As you say expectations have changed. I can look round my own house and see all sorts of expenditure I would have regarded as ridiculously de luxe back then, not just in purchase but what it adds to overheads.
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