One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was a stack of old Yachts and Yachting magazines dating from 1968. My son bought them for me in a nautical 'junk' shop.

The articles in them were much the same as today's magazines, with tips on going faster and making handling easier. Unsurprisingly, the actual sailing was all around the UK. I found only one article about sailing abroad, and that was in the Med. Most unlike today's magazines where everyone – or so it seems – goes foreign, and many live-aboards seem to travel in ever-increasing circles round and round our planet.

They made fascinating reading because I remember the year well, but never realised how much things have changed since – until I read the advertisements, that is.

GRP must have been just coming in. Indeed one advert from Strand Glass has the headline 'Not using Glassfibre yet?' Another advert offers the International Snipe in 'new' GRP. Yet another offers Araldite Epoxy for 6 shilling a pack. I always thought epoxy came much later. So whatever happened to the Araldite version? I've never seen it in Chandlers as far as I can recall.

Dinghies were cheap. The 11' Mermaid kits were only £67, whilst the popular Mirror cost only one pound more. And to my surprise, a ready-to-sail 18' Drascombe lugger came for £418, which seems quite expensive by comparison. Another advert asks 'Are you ready for the Mirror 16?' No price is mentioned, although you were invited to send for details from the class association. But a Beaufort 16, in GRP, came your way for just £345.

If you could afford a new Drascombe, then maybe you could stretch just a little further and find the £450 needed to buy a 'Havencraft 16' – a nice looking 16' cabin sloop. Apart from this advert, I've never heard of it and I wonder if anyone else has? Funny how some boats take off and others don't, isn't it? New Leisure 17s were advertised at £575 on other pages and whilst that's a jump of only £125 and seems very little to us now, it is 1/3rd more. Nevertheless, the Leisure 17 survived and the Havencraft 16' died.

Believe it or not, you could still buy British engines in those not so far-off days. There were Stuart Turners, Watermotas and Vires – all inboards and for yachts of course. But if you wanted to power your dinghy, a new Seagull outboard was yours for only £23. Alternatively, there was the 'A.P.Compact' outboard, weighing only 20lbs and powered by a JAP 34cc engine. It was the 'small outboard with a big push', they said, and cost £30. Moreover, you could buy the 'de luxe' version for an extra £2! It didn't tell you what the difference was, but they did say it wasn't a thirsty machine, claiming it would run for 2 hours on 1 pint of petroil. Whatever happened to them?

The 'craft for sale' adverts interested me too. Yachts that had engines – and many did not – were all described as having an 'auxiliary', or 'Aux' as they abbreviated it. A far cry from today eh, when most yachts seem to use the sails as their 'aux'!

There was a firm called Dixon and Kerly from Maldon in Essex who, in January '68, were selling an 'unconverted Fishing Bawley' for just £500 o.n.o. I wonder who got that? Must have been quite a snip at a price only £50 more than a Drascombe. By the March issue it had obviously gone, and in its place they had a 'small barge yacht' for only £300. Talk about bargains! Makes you wish you could just nip back in time, doesn't it?

The same firm also had 'several Thames Barges, from £475'. Only £25 more than the Drascombe! By March that year, the cheaper ones had gone and the lowest price for one was £1,375. Still a bargain I would think. Don't suppose you can buy a cheap, second-hand Tardis anywhere?

But the advert that really made me wish I could go back was in the January '68 edition. You could see – at the London Boat Show – the new Sunspot 15. Complete with everything except an engine. It came for only £375. Doubtless, at that same Boat Show, I'd be able to buy one of those little JAP outboard jobs – the de luxe version of course - for just another thirty-two quid!

Doctor! Doctor! Just where is Dr Who these days? Anyone got his email address?