In Bulletin no. 84 (Autumn 1979) I reviewed some features of the membership and their boats, culled from the lists for 1973 and 1979. Between those two dates the listed membership grew from 202 to 279, and it has since risen to 300, which implies a steady growth. A score of members live outside the UK.

The new list does not give the dates of joining, but looking at the members by serial number shows some interesting things. There is an even chance that any member will still be on the list (or have left) when the next 200 have been recruited. This holds good down to membership numbers in the 500’s. Below this we find the stalwarts who do not leave. Then, and this is most peculiar, the first 200 members apparently never existed or, perhaps, they were all drowned in a terrible storm, because there is nobody on the list below 201 (Joan Abrams) although the laws of probability say that all of them should not have simply left by now.

The top ten most popular boats among the members listed are:

Drascombe Lugger 8.0% Wayfarer 7.7 Mirror 5.7 GP 14 4.0 Mirror 16 3.0 Enterprise 2.7 Skipper 14 2.3 Heron ) Tideway ) 2.0 Drascombe Dabber )

The Wayfarer was no. 1 in 1973 and 1979, but from no. 10 in 1973 the Drascombe Lugger has risen steadily and now comes out at no. 1. The mixed Drascombe fleet is easily the strongest at 13%. I wonder how the demise of Honnor Marine will affect the situation in future years.