It was not usual for a manufacturer that had earned a good reputation building a 22 footer to move up to something in the 26 or 27 foot range, and then on to a 30 foot model, and so on. Nonetheless, the trend to step up to something larger continued with many sailors, and the size of models offered by most companies grew with the demands of their clientele. These slightly larger boats soon became the choice for more and more first time buyers, and the entire 20 to 26 foot size range became known for its "entry level" boats. However, "two-footitis" soon took hold with many of the owners of these boats, and it was not long before they were shopping for 25 and 26 footers with interior standing headroom. So called "entry level" boats such as the Tanzer 22, CS 22, and Grampian 23 became very popular during the early part of the 1970s. For a while, used sailboats were actually appreciating in value, and consequently, the major banks attended boat shows and actually competed to provide loans to would-be sailboat owners. It wasn't long before sailboats started to displace powerboats at many marinas and by the end of the 1970s, they also dominated many boat shows. Well known companies such as Bombardier, Chrysler, and Yamaha, including powerboat manufacturers such as Bayliner, all jumped on the sailboat building bandwagon. Although the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 may have coaxed some people away from powerboating to sailing, it seems that this trend was simply a matter of the public being ready to latch onto sailing as a desirable and fashionable water sport and activity. It wasn't just a case of fiberglass manufacturers making boat ownership more affordable - it was also that sailing caught on as a popular trend in central Canada and many other areas of North Amercia. The recreational sailboat industry in central Canada really took off like wildfire during the 1970s. This includes the C&C and Tanzer, although the two companies started off building boats at opposite ends of the size spectrum.
In fact, the late 1960s saw the emergence of some of the manufacturers whose models still dominate today's used boat market in Ontario and Quebec. This set the stage for major growth of the recreational sailboat industry in central Canada and North Amercia in general. Even more important was that the concept of yacht (sailboat) ownership was fast becoming a feasible objective for the average middle income wage earner.
This made it much easier for the average person to maintain their boats without costly professional assistance.īy the mid-1960s fiberglass was well entrenched as the medium of choice with most manufacturers, and the idea of buying "plastic" boats had gained public acceptance. In addition to making sailboats more affordable, the fiberglass hulls required much less maintenance than their wooden counterparts. And it should be remembered that the use of plywood already represented a significant labour saving over the carvel plank technique that had been commonly used to build many wooden sailboats during the preceeding decades. For example, George Hinterhoeller built his first couple of Sharks out of plywood, but he didn't do this for long when he realized a fiberglass hull could be built with 18 hours of labour versus the 128 hours for the wooden hull. As a result, yacht ownership, particularly anything with standing headroom in the main cabin, was often regarded as the domain of the rich and the very rich.Īll this started to change as manufacturers discovered the tremendous labour savings made possible by building boats out of fiberglass.
Not only were these very expensive to build, wooden vessels also required a great deal of effort and money to maintain. Prior to this, recreational sailboats were generally made of wood.
To fully appreciate today's used keelboat market in central Canada, one has to go back to the early 1960s when the industry was just starting to build production sailboats out of fiberglass. Retrospective of the Sailboat Market in Canada