From the latest newsletter of the MPBA, it appears that the Association my be shortly closing down after 102 years as it is proving impossible to fill vacancies on the National Committee.

While this is incredibly sad, it is unfortunately a sign of the times in respect of the general decline in organised model boating today which is becoming increasingly fragmented due to a rapidly ageing demographic. As a member for well over 50 years I had some wonderful times during the explosion of interest in R/C Scale boating from the 1970s into the 1990s and served for several years as Scale Secretary along with David Metcalf, Mike Finnis and others.

So many of the well known names at the time are no longer with us and us survivors of the Golden Era are in our late 70s and later and much less active. We have not been replaced as the subsequent generations have other interests and that is the way it goes. There will always be an interest in Model Boating but it will become very much a niche activity compared with past popularity.

Colin