RogerJolly does a One-Design Survey of the Top 40 at
Sailing Anarchy, attempting to measure class size and activity by counting the number of entries at the North American or National Championship annually and averaged over three years.
2010 OD Survey. 2009 OD Survey. No surprise Laser, Thistle, Lightning, Flying Scot and Sunfish lead the list.
Boats comparable to the J/30 in the 2010 Top 40 include J/22, J/24, Catalina 22, Sonar, Melges 24, Tartan Ten, J/80, J/105, Cal 20, and Santana 20. All evidence online indicates each relies on Dacron mainsails except for Melges 24.
There is also
US Sailing & Sailing Worlds
One-Design Class Survey based membership reported by classes. That page links to
analysis by Dave Reed in Sailing World explaining why for example there is a bump in class membership when a championship is held locally.
The
2010 US Sailing details in pdf reveal a couple keelboats with Aramid mainsails ranking ahead of J/30 (Beneteau 36.7 and Farr 30) and a several behind (12 Metre, Farr 40 and Express 37) along with two (Catalina 37 and Schock 35) that restrict mainsails to Dacron.
It's notable that many of these one-design classes are primarily of regional interest. I was surprised that even J/105 currently has just six fleets active enough to get a vote under their constitution: New England, Chesapeake, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Long Island Sound, and Southern California (
Go to the bottom of the page).
