Tragic news from the shore this weekend: despite Ocean City’s best attempts, the Maryland beach town will only be able to call itself fourth-best in the search for a world record for the longest bikini parade in the world.

The AP reports that only 325 women showed up for yesterday’s Bikini Beach Parade, far short of the 1,085 that showed up in the Chinese city of Huludao City earlier this month. Had the weather cooperated, Ocean City officials said, the town could well have entered the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records.

The Chinese effort crushed the standing record of 450, set in May by Panama City, Fla. Prior to that, Australia’s Gold Coast held the title, with 357.

Now before you go and criticize the event as a lame attempt to exploit women’s bodies for tourism—well, it’s certainly that too—consider this: voluntary registration donations went to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for the Life, the Surfrider Foundation and Diakonia, an organization that provides emergency transitional housing to those in need in Ocean City.