Watching a 50 year old movie, an NYC taxi was a 61 Ford Fairlane, record players the entertainment, type writers the tool of the media trade, reporters wore ties and pulled flash bulbs out of pockets, everybody held a cigarette in one hand, and a good belt of hard liquor in the other.

Hard to believe how far gone most of that is now, life styles have changed. How we live has changed.

I was sailing 50 years ago, at least that's about as far back as I can remember sailing. Around the bay on Lightnings or smaller. The type of boat built back then and before, is still popular today. This is a sistership of my boat shot 50 years ago.I like this old photo, it's a good one.

ONRUST TOO is probably still around. If you took the same shot today, there would be little difference(it could be either color or b&w), and it wouldn't look out of date, at least not in my sailing grounds.

We've seen some change in the recreation of sailing. There was an increase in cruising mostly in the60's, 70's and 80's. A lifestyle for many that I think partly paralleled the same land side 60's trends that continue today(cruising had it's own heros and is alive and well today).

We saw boats get bigger, period. We saw boats get bigger below decks, across the board, especially in the 70's and 80's. We've seen faster designs and some real improvements both in hulls, sails and sail handling. We've seen great and innovative designs in new boats, but not as dramatic as most technology such as I first listed.

50 years later, if there are any trends in sailing, it would have to be todays daysailer(I always catch flak for this...). Looking at the hundreds of small custom builders on the northeast coast(a few boat shows this time of year), the daysailer was a theme in most of their offerings. These offerings run from the huge yachts, to more and more old sized daysailers in the 20 to 30 foot range. Some of these used to be called "Knockabouts" and in fact, a few of those very old designed Knockabouts are enjoying a renaissance.

Somewhere in the middle(that's the fault of todays bigger boat) would fall the Morris DS 36. Morris isn't a big builder but I read they delivered near 10 DS series of various lengths this year.

There were a few real sailboats(under the guise of "daysailers") at a recent small boat builders show on Cape Cod, I checked out on line. This Knockabout is similar to what I started sailing on 50 years ago.

What will the future hold for sailboats and sailing? I vote, not much will change in the next 50.