I believe that it was about $55,000. It's equipment was a simple Datamarine depth, speed, and wind machine.

If you about a new similar length boat today, it would probably be about $250,000 (or more).

I'm not sure how a person early in their careers could afford such a new boat. I couldn't then (a partner and I bought our first boat).

The "concept" boats that Morris and others are making are really not for 99% of the people in this country. The top 1% only has a minority that have boats; and, only a minority of them would want a sailboat to own.

A new J/70 -- sail away is about $45 K, or so. It's a fun boat which will probably be the J/22 or J/24 of the decade, but it's not a family cruiser.
I do believe that it's possible to make a smaller, simpler 30-35' cruiser as a starter boat for "mortals" to enjoy. But you need to have something where the advertiising budget isn't over $20K/boat spread-out over the number of units delivered; and, you need to have a sufficient number of people interested and capable of buying them.

We need to have many more people sailing and loving sailing to make that happen. That would be young people who develop a love and committment to the sport and its place in their lives.