I last reviewed the membership and their boats in 1982 (Bulletin No. 85). The membership then stood at 300. The list issued in December 1984 shows a further growth to 339. This is a touch less than the total for the list of April 1983. The diagram shows the current distribution of membership numbers in serial bunches of 100. Dinghy folk join the DCA, and sooner or later leave. Thirty-odd members from the USA detached from formal membership to form their own Association over there, in friendly liaison with ourselves. This caused a large drop in the 1200-1299 group in the diagram. The dotted part shows the effect of replacing that number and, of course, had they stayed with us, the membership would now be around 380.

The wastage rate is, in fact, lower than previously if we ignore the re-organisation of the USA members. There is for any member an even chance that he/she will leave by the time 200 more have joined (about 2½ years). However, 10% of those who join become hard-core, permanent members who are likely to stay until they launch on that cruise from which there is no return.

I still do not know why there are no members prior to 201. Can anyone say how this came about? The top ten boats listed are:

Dr Lugger 8.0 % Mirror 7.4 GP14 5.0 Wayfarer 4.7 Heron 3.3 Tideway 3.0 Mirror 16 2.1 Dr Dabber 2.1 WW Potter 1.8 Roamer ) Enterprise ) Dr Longboat ) 1.2 Skipper 12 ) Wanderer 14 ) Membership number

The Wayfarer has slipped from 2nd to 4th. The Enterprise is all but relegated. Otherwise the pattern has not changed much.