Twenty years from now

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.

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?

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.

One word: Meccano 

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.