There is another, compelling reason, why the average age of model boaters keeps rising.
Back in my late teens and early twenties I moved from Meccano to balsa planes and Airfix kits. Maybe like many of us who were showing signs of curiosity and creativity even at that age.
However, curiosity turned to girls, which led to working long hours, a mortgage, and eventually children. No time, or money, for the more solitary pastime of scratch building slot racing cars etc.
Time passed. Eventually the mortgage got paid off, children married and moved out, I retired, and we developed a fault on our TV set. For some reason it would only show forensic dramas.
It was then I started to spend more time in our small front room, building things. It kept the little grey cells active and each build was a journey towards making ships that I could sail at our local club. This got me out of the house, where I met many new friends.
So, when anyone decries the fact that most enthusiasts are retired, or close to, please think of my journey and it should not be surprising that most of us are older. I now understand why the multi-tasking commitments of people with young families is not conducive to long hours of lone model making.
Their time will come, as long as there are people like us to help them make that transition.
Our club has almost fifty members. So what if we are generally older, it is all part of the long Circle of Life. Don't knock it.