capnsensible
regular
Reged: 15/03/2007
Posts: 1251
Loc: Atlantic
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I'm not going to advocate a return to the good old days of bad teeth, ricketts and high infant mortality. Plus I'm not exactly old myself.
But.
It does seem that expectations today are somewhat different to those I had as a young aspiring sailor. I expected to get cold, tired and wet. I expected to be uncomfortable and probably nauseous. I discovered the huge feeling of achievement of an overnight passage to a foreign land, the supreme joy of riding the waves and the delight of switching the engine off to discover the sound of water wooshing past the hull.
Nowadays it seems that you must have 21st century land life imposed upon a less than modest hull crammed with gadgets. Lacks adventure, somewhat, which was the thing I was looking for. I have no wish to live like a tramp, but also no desire to turn my foulies inside out and be beaten with a soggy almanac. Surely there is a happy medium that fosters a spirit of adventure, a modest level of comfort and a desire to give nature a bit of a prod?? Is the modern person 'up for it' ? A diminishing few, I fear.
What do you remember?
How about RDF aka The Sick Box? Streaming a log, hanked on headsails, the original Shell Channel Pilot, Johnny Coote style, green buoys for wrecks, black buoys for starboard channel markers (I was VERY young), logs you actually filled in, customs visiting when you got back from France at horrible o'clock, woollen hats (yeugh), smelly oilskins, smoking in the saloon, Fray Bentos pies!!!!!
Theres a start, got any more?
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sarabande
regular
Reged: 06/05/2005
Posts: 5905
Loc: up on the moors.
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ooh arr !
What about
Gonio loop
Real cotton sails that I put away damp one autumn and opened the bag in Spring...
Asbestos tape round the exhaust pipe of a Stuart Turner
6v battery systems
Having copper clenches in the bosun's bag
Inglefield clips
Dinghy trolleys with old car tyres
Station pointer
Semaphore
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Enlightenment is motor-sailing
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roly_voya
regular
Reged: 05/02/2004
Posts: 1051
Loc: Pembrokeshire Wales
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Still use hanked on headsails, still have a streaming log, I use it to calibrate the paddle wheel!! I also remember: DECCA that use to give position unreliable from 5 miles befor the shipping lanes untill in port in Holland, the it happily said you where about 3miles inland... Damp woolen cloathing, warm but weighed a ton and smelt like an old sheep... This is yacht **** for a link call (the clue is before mobiles). And of course boats that looked after you.
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Tidewaiter2
regular
Reged: 25/02/2008
Posts: 653
Loc: ation any pub in Sussex
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Gimballed Primus stoves, Tilley Lamps, paraffin smell everywhere, Seagull o/bds, hand starting a diesel with a blowtorch on the sump or glow plug, doing your own splicing in hemp, reproofing boat tents/ dodgers with linseed oil, those brown plasticky material blocks, cutting out and glueing/stitching your own wetsuit....
We've still got the Tilley and Primus too, but not on board 
They do seem to have an excessive love of creature comfort- two days without a shower or hot water= mutiny!
The number of Wayfarer and other dinghy cruising folk seems to be declining rapidly, too. That was how we got afloat first of all- now, even our two sons, unless it's 37' ft long, h&c, shower, Eberspacher, etc, it's unthinkable 
We had such fun on a tiny budget. We've met only one or two ordinary young couples in small basic yachts round the Solent this year, who are following on that tradition-
all the rest seem to be/are 37' plus, AWB, chartered or bought with the big Bonus, marina/pub/resturant/marina/etc/etc  lifestyle.
Perhaps we are just wearing rearward looking, rose tinted glasses, but ...?
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 15337
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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I blame the advertising; turquoise waters, bikinis, long drinks with paper umbrellas in them, bronzed hunks, a bouquet on the saloon table. They should be arrested for fraud.
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If, at first, you don't succeed...
...don't try sky diving.
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bilbobaggins
regular
Reged: 12/02/2005
Posts: 7847
Loc: The Shire
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The days when the RAF still had wooden sail boats - 20 Square Metres - that went out every week in the season, to France, the CIs, and Holland, and DIDN'T quit the Fastnet race at the nearest pub and the first 'interesting' forecast. They leaked everywhere, but mostly right above my bunk. When the compass was swung within an inch of its life. When the Walker log was calibrated every month, at least, by someone 'just practising'. When the skipper would spit over the side, peer at the wake and the sails, and declare 'Four knots. And a quarter.....' and be right.
When sometimes the only Lines of Position hard-gleaned between drizzly Plymouth and foggy St Malo were 'The Hurd Deep' on the echo sounder, and some suspicious Consol lines from Ploneis. When 'dipping distances' of the major lights were carefully highlighted on every chart, and everyone stayed awake for 'Sailing By'.....
Ah, nostalgia's not what it used to be!
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Bilbos Previous
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Woodentop
regular
Reged: 20/11/2004
Posts: 301
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Absolutely.
When you were expected to solve your own problems or die like a gentleman instead of squealing like a stuck pig because you would be late for your restaurant booking.
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 15337
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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Wot! You mean you never took a position line off of the wake of a x-channel ferry?
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If, at first, you don't succeed...
...don't try sky diving.
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Searush
regular
Reged: 14/10/2006
Posts: 4452
Loc: k up if caught.
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Going sailing & no-one knew where you were, or could contact you unless you called home from a call-box.
Seafarer rotary echosounder, 60' (or 12fath) to the dial so the depth was read as instinctively as an analogue watch. I love mine & still use it!
Black & white charts.
DR nav with pencil, tide tables, compass & rolling ruler.
Using slide rules for calculations. (dates back to days at Uni that one)
Kapok "life jackets" that asorbed water over several hours & lost their buoyancy, but were often used as cockpit cushions.
Tinned milk for tea, powdered potatoes for mash, dried peas that had to be soaked overnight.
Plastic oilies that cracked with age or ripped the first time you walked past a split pin in the rigging.
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Boaty junk clogging up your shed or lockers? Chuck it in Marinaskip
Want a used bike, spares or repairs in Staffordshire? Visit http://back2bikes.org.uk/
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BrendanS
regular
Reged: 11/06/2002
Posts: 39168
Loc: Me: Wilts. Boat: Lymington
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yes. and no
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See http://www.frappr.com/ybw to add yourself to the forum map
and as everyone else is doing it
www.plaintalkconsulting.co.uk
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