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I can't find a better place for this, so I will try it here. I was just perusing one of a plethra of sailing magazines today and came across an add for "BoatWorks" by Sail Magazine. A portion of the self promotion goes like this:
...a new magazine for boat owners who enjoy maintaining and improving their own boats.
BoatWorks is written for owners of classic fiberglass boats of the '60s through the '90s...
Hum, that sounds a little like us, doesn't it? Anyway, it appears that April is/was to be the kickoff issue. Has anyone seen this one yet?
Doug http://heartofgoldsails.com "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."
Karen Blixen
I am not promoting this stuff, but here is a link I just found for anyone interested. http://www.sailmag.com/boatworks/
It looks like it may be interesting. I will see if any copies are available locally before I dive in too deep.
Doug http://heartofgoldsails.com "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."
Karen Blixen
I just received a gratis copy the other day when I made a purchase at Conanicut Marine. It seems to be an interesting magazine with some very practical articles. The articles cover a wide base of topics from structural repairs to engines, electronics and sails. The issue is marked "Spring 2004" so I don't know how often they will publish.
What other rags/mags is recommended by the group here? I find I always am interested mostly in the repair and maintenance articles in the normal sailing/boating mags. The Boatworks mag sounds interesting and I'll check it out as soon as it hits the local Books-a-Million.
The only mags I truly like--and look forward to--anymore are Wooden Boat and Professional Boatbuilder. I've pretty much quit all the other ones--too much emphasis on advertising, chartering, and reviews of gear and boats I don't want or need.
I continued getting Good Old Boat because my wife enjoys browsing it--the only boating magazine that she will pick up. Therefore, I read it too, but don't find it that interesting or even well put-together anymore. And they have enough advertising now that I think they should consider reducing the skyhigh subscription rate, too.
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Forum Founder--No Longer Participating
(paraphrased from my response to your SailNet post)
My first impression is that it's better than I would expect from the editors of Sail. Perhaps they're are taking a cue from the success of Good Old Boat, realizing that the world is in fact NOT full of sailors with nothing better to do than spend spend SPEND!!!.
There's a good little article on the Atomic 4, and a few other worthwhile reads. The thing on painting and varnishing, however, rubbed me the wrong way a few times. Clearly, they're writing for the lowest common denominator.
True to their Sail heritage, the graphic quality is pretty good, but the posed photographs are just laughable. I think my favorite is of a guy "working" on his electrical panel with nothing but a leatherman and a crescent wrench!! What about all the bits of wire and insulation all over the place? Where's the box of crimp fittings that's been knocked over twice already?? Where's the crimping/stripping tool that's to dull to do either?? Too funny.
Anyway, I don't think they can keep it up for long. Their primary challenge will be to continue to find worthy new topics, and Good Old Boat has pretty much picked that garden clean already.
Hey, if it's about something that floats, I'll read it. I commute via train.
WoodenBoat
Professional Boatbuilder
Boatbuilder
Good Old Boat
Practical Sailor
Passagemaker (now THERE'S a mag that's exploded lately!)
BoatUS scare-letter
Sail (quick-browse and discard)
Sailing World (quick-browse and discard)
Maine Boats & Harbors
Soundings
National Fisherman (secondhand copies, usually at least a year old)
A handful of local trash.
....and where is the piece of tooth laying on the counter after the fellow got tired of the worn out stripper tool and then had to depart shortly thereafter for the dentist?
I decided a while back that life's too short to get aggravated by LCD articles (that's "Lowest Common Denominator"). When magazines that are supposed to be interesting, entertaining, or helpful only serve to raise my blood pressure, what's the point? :<)
I'd rather go and get aggravated working on my own boat. But of course all my projects go perfectly smoothly.
(Yeah, right. Or, as Garth from Wayne's World might say, "As if"!)
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Forum Founder--No Longer Participating
The wifey's in the biz, so we get comp issues of a bunch of mags, including Boatworks. The latest landed yesterday. They've not improved. Fantastic presentation of some seriously flawed or incomplete information.
If not for the fact that the computer was upstairs and I'd already climbed a zillion stairs that day, the first three articles would've each earned their own fire-breathing email to the editor. It's as though they've recruited authors by approaching shoppers at West Marine. Hey, I notice you're buying a box of cotter pins. Would you be interested in writing an article about adding an inner forestay to your rig? We'll provide the photos and captions....
A single star shone brightly through the dark and stormy night. They chose to do a boat review of the CD Typhoon. It was a very clumsily presented review, but I can't fault their choice of topic.
I finally got around to the Fall 2005 issue. There is hope.
Review of Island Packet 31. Again, can't fault their choice of topic.
Comparative guide to small diesel engines. I really wish they'd skewed this more toward what to look for in the USED engine market, but beyond that I must say that this is one of the more useful articles I've seen in a while.
The article on marine insurance was almost as good. I would've been more impressed but WoodenBoat set the bar pretty high on that topic a few issues ago.
Then came more of the same Lowest Common Denominator stuff.
Most Absurd Photo award goes to page 84. To illustrate the proper pulling angle for removing masking tape, they show tape being pulled away from a bootstripe leaving a perfectly crisp, clean line. The absurd part is that there's not a speck of paint on the tape.
Figment wrote:... To illustrate the proper pulling angle for removing masking tape, they show tape being pulled away from a bootstripe leaving a perfectly crisp, clean line. The absurd part is that there's not a speck of paint on the tape.
I had to laught out loud on this one! This is a tough group!
For the record, I'm a rookie here, but I really look forward to my Good Old Boat magazine.
The Sept/Oct issue of Small Craft Advisor has an article that partly features a Princess 22 Cat Ketch named Pilgrim that I built last year for a customer.
I havent seen the article yet- I'm a boat builder- don't make enough to BUY those mags*grin* I have YEARS worth of Professional Boatbuilder, but I wish they'd get some new "tips" written.
