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HG02 said..
We used to have 14 sabots in the club I was in . Sunday races were great and the regattas the group swelled form every where.
Basically every thing was made of ply in those days and competition was you skill , Those were the Mirror days lot a of Dads with there Daughters or sons . Im my club we used to have around 12 sail Sharpies a skipper and main sheet hand and and a trapeze who looked after the spinnakers balloon and reaching It started to change early 70's maybe earlier . Fiberglass and lot a of dollars came into it .. I felt once it passed into the seventies People started to spend money on new sails and expensive light weight dinghies . Then the clubs shrunk started to cost to much for the average bear
Yeah the costs of sailing when I was young held me back.
I bought my first boat when I was 18. A paper tiger for $600. At first it was lots of fun, but it turned out to be real lemon. Extremely thin fiberglass caused cracking and crazing, no gelcoat, buggered trailer, very leaky and lots of sun damaged fittings. At least I know what to look for in a boat now.
It's almost worth buying buggered old boats to strip for SS Ronstan parts. The price of some fittings boggles me.