Gui,
I truly understand what you are saying. I think that this kind of discussion is strictly a matter of perspective, the view from where you are standing.
Like you, I have been sailing since the early 1960's. In the 1960's, I loved the boats that we sailed because these were all that we knew. In thier day, these old CCA era boats seemed like greatly advanced designs, although even then, there was a lot oif discussion about the major negatives of the rule driven short waterlines that was typical of CCA era boats.
My family had a Van de Stadt designed Contest 25. Its fin keel-spade rudder design seemed like a revelation compared to the fin keel with attached rudder boats like the Pearson Ariel that were more typical of that era.
As newer designs like the Cal 40's and Cal 2-30's hit the market they upped the anty even further and I can remember getting on a Cal 2-30 and being bowled away by how great a boat that was relative to the boats that I had sailed previously.
By the mid 1970's, I began to look back on the CCA era boats, that seemed so great in thier day as being very limited in thier capabilities across a range of conditions. I also began sailing on traditional watercraft and seeing their virtues, which led me to believe that the CCA era boats were a racing rule driven, ill advised detour from the evolution of quality yacht design.
In the 1970's, when boats like the Dufour were new, they seemed like great improvements over what came before. Compared to the CCA Boats they replaced, they were fast and had superior deck hardware and layouts, but they were also a little finicky to sail. Seen in their era that did not matter much, because looking from the veiwpoint of the 1970's these seemed like such improvements relative to what we knew before.
It was only as design and build quality improved further, the short comings of these designs quickly became apparent. It is only when seen looking back from today, that we realize how poorly these boats sailed relative to how well a 27 footer could sail, that raw copper wire wrapped around a screw head is not the way to make an electrical connection, and that the clear plastic hoses used for overboard plumbing attached to brass gate valves is not the best way to do things. The small Volvo diesels of the 1970's seemed miraculous, but of course compared to the better modern designs, they were heavy, noisy, not all that reliable, and vibrated redicuously.
I still try to sail on boats of all different eras. It helps me see them in perspective, to remember their virtues as well as their liabilities. I try to get a sense of how they were built. It helps me understand how things age, so that I don't make the same mistakes when I upgrade my own boats.
Like you, I look back on the boats of this time warmly for the joys that they brought me during that era. But when someone asks about buying one of them today, I can only look at them through the perspective of today and suggest that there are much better boats out there for the dollar.
Regards,
Jeff