Dave-
Good work, again, as always!
Very interesting that the %age of boat owners that are C-Brat members for the last two years is almost identical (29.1% and 29.3%). This would seem to indicate that there's some consistency in the sampling and that there's a definite %age of new boat purchasers that join the site, or who are already members buying a second boat, which we know happens a lot!
Thge higher %age of older boats (37.1% from 2001), may also be indicative of a real trend. Hazarding a guess, I'd suggest the larger number is due to some turn over of models as they age, with one of the subsequent owners becoming more of a permanent owner and joining the site sooner or later. This phenomenon is probably really several separate things happing concurently, and may be more complex in reality. It would be revealing to find the real numbers produced in each year and compare them to the #age of members to see if this is a real trend and how it progresses over the model years. Again, I'd guess that it rises as expected, but plateaus off at some point.
Your guess of 1/4 to 1/3 of C-Dory owners being members is probably very good, and perhaps even conservative if the %age of members gradually rises with the age of the model year, but only knowing the real number of boats produced in each year will answer that question.
Another way of looking at all of this is to look at what %age of actual C-Brat members participate and at what level. We have members who have joined but never posted, and others who have posted over 1,000 messages. Certainly all that have joined are members, but there is quite a range in levels of participation. Click on the "Members" listing at the top of the Home Page, and then use the controls to have the members listed by "Number of Posts" in decending order, and you'll see what I mean.
I'm also sure that there are many C-Dory owners that have visited this site that have not become members, and that tons of folks have visited that are not owners, both good events for all of us, but not included in the statistic we're exactly looking at.
So all of this is to say that the exact %age of C-Dory owners that are members of this site is only one of many possible indicators of the level of activity and value produced by the C-Brat web site, and the exact %age of owbers thaat are members, while interesting, is certainly not the final criteria of the value of this fine endeavor.
We all know what fine fun and friendship we'ave all had talking about our C-Dorys, sharing ideas, and meeting together. That feeling alone tells us that what we're doing is valuable beyond numbers.
Joe.