I've put together another one-design class survey to follow up on last year's. The survey uses attendance at Nationals or North Americans as a measure of overall class participation. For classes that hold Nationals and North Americans, the one with the greater participation was counted. This list only includes the top 25 classes as the availability of data is difficult to come by for less popular classes and therefore the rankings are less reliable as you get down past number 25. I think I've surveyed enough classes to say that I would be surprised if I missed more than one or two in my list. It should be mentioned that the Optimist class regularly gets about 300 boats at championships but this survey is focusing on classes with no age limits.

Plotting the top ten classes show that there was a general increase in participation last year and a slight decrease this year. Overall there does not seem to be a decreasing trend but there has not been an increase either. It may be difficult to draw a true parallel between participation in the most popular one-design classes and the general popularity of one-design sailing. It's possible that when the number of one-design sailors in the country grows the growth is seen more in the less popular classes or in new classes.

One theory that supports this, states that as you approach 100 boats at a championship the boats at the bottom of the fleet are less likely to show up. There does seem to be a ceiling at 100 boats that is hard to break through. It's also possible that classes don't want to have more than 100 boats at an event as the event becomes hard to manage. The Lightning class has broken 100 in the last two years but dropped to 66 at this years NA's. We need more data to determine if the drop was a result of the huge participation in the previous two years. Other classes seem to be able to hover just below 100 without big fluctuations. We will have to see if this trend continues.

These data are probably most useful for people who are looking to get involved in a popular one-design with large turnout at events. The rule here tends to be low tech and low cost wins the day in the popularity race. I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise.

The top 25 classes are listed on order of popularity based on average participation over the last three years. The states that the regattas were sailed in are also included as a rough estimate of where the fleets are located. Last years ranking for each class is also included as are the numbers from 2000.

Rank [Previous Rank] Class Regatta ['00 results not included] '01(state)-'02-03-Aver.

1 [1] Lightning NA's [92 (MD)] - 101(VT) -110 (MI) - 66(CT) - 92.33
2 [3] Sunfish NA's [71 (AL)] - 95(IL) - 98(RI) - 81(MS) - 91.33
3 [4] Thistle Nat. [xx] - 74(MI) - 92(xx) - 94(FL) - 86.67
4 [xx] Flying Scott [xx] - xx – 64 (Fl) - 90 (NC) – 77
5 [5] Laser NA's [77(xx)] - 67(CA) - 82(xx)- 77(TX) - 75.33
6 [2] MC scow Nat. [109 (IN)] - 75(GA) - 91(WI) - 55 (LA) - 73.67
7 [6] E scow Nat. [xx] - 79(MI) - 70(WI) - 39(NY) - 62.67
8 [9] Club 420 NA's [24(RI)] - 88(RI) - 52(MN) - 56(ONT) - 65.33
9 [8] Hobie 16 NA's [31 (ONT)] - 47(CA) - 68 (FL) - 70(DE) - 61.67
10 [7] J/22 NA's [63(TX)] - 48(NY) - 60(TX) - 47(NY) - 51.67
11 [10] Star NA's [33(OH)] - 61(CT) - 52 (VT) - 40(CA) - 51
12 [11] Vanguard 15 Nat. [xx] - 55(TX) - 40 (CA) - 51(CT) - 48.67
13 [15] Etchells NA's [xx] - 48(MI) - 38(CA) - 55(MD) - 47
14 [13] J/24 Nat. [53(xx)] - 29(CA) - 52(xx) - 53(WI) - 44.67
15 [18] Albacore NA's [xx] - 34(ONT) - 40(VA) - 59(ONT) - 44.3
16 [19] Snipe Nat. [32(OK)] - 34(OR) - 44(MS) - 50(MA) - 42.67
17 [16] J/105 NA's [33(xx)] - 30(xx) - 50(IL) - 39(CA)- 39.67
18 [23] Cal 20 Nat. [25(xx)] - 36(xx) - 33(xx) - 44(xx) - 37.67
19 [12] Hobie 20 NA's [44(CA)] - xx - 50(FL) - 23(FL) - 36.5
20[20] Rhodes 19 Nat. [43(MA)] - 34(MA) - 31(LA) -38(MA) - 34.33
21 [21] Hobie 17 NA's [xx] - 24(BC) - 43(FL) - 35(IL) -34
22 [17] 505 NA's [45(CA)] - 35 (ONT) - 31(CA) - 30(MA) - 32
23 [25] A class cat [xx] - 16(CA) - 39(MA) - 39(LA) -31.33
23 [22] Day Sailor NA's [38(CA)] - 39(MD) - 27(OR) - 21(LA) - 29
25 [24] Melges 24 Nat. [30 (CA)] - xx - 29(MI) - 27(FL) - 28