I just received the latest Bluewater Sailing and Practical Sailor magazine. The Beneteau 50 was reviewed in the Bluewater Sailing and cleats were discussed in Practical Sailor.
The Bluewater Sailing gave the Beneteau a favorable review. It did agree with me on the traveler-less system. This article gave me some pause on boat reviews by all the sailing magazines and what Ed Massey said about quote " your comments can be misleading and harmful to others and this is particularly true given the reach of the Internet" and "Boat builders, boat dealers and boat purchasers and sellers are part of the lifestyle that we all love so much". The question that begs to be asked is, " Are boat reviews honest without causing harm to manufactures"! With a responsibility of editors to the industry as a whole, ad dollars and the subscription of sailors can there be a true honesty of what is written. My personal thoughts are no. Too much is at stake for the industry as a whole. I believe this is what Mr Massey was referring to on what I wrote. So where can honesty be written and seen by the community of the boating world. The only two places that I can think of is here on the Internet on various bulletin boards and maybe Practical sailor. The utopia of true honesty of boat designs is making the boating industry responsible for making a boat/parts that is safe, good engineering and parts that last more than a few seasons. I believe without it what I am seeing in the recent crop of boats are poor design and engineering will continue for the sake of chasing dollars and market appeal.
Case in point is Practical Sailors article on chocks and cleats. They too are seeing a dangerous trend in inadequate chock and cleat design and engineering for the sake of vanity on a sailboat and dollars. This is inexcusable for boat manufactures to place poorly design chocks and cleats on a modern sailboat. As pointed out in the article, a sailboat spend an average of 94% of the time tied up to a dock or mooring line. The lack of backing plates, cleat placement and cleat design will cause great harm to the sailboat, marina and possible people. As Mr Massey suggested when "If you would like to get past the "skin" of these boat
lines", I am afraid most sailors will not like what they are going to see. I know after touring a few factories in my time, there were times I just closed my eyes and want to scream "What are you thinking"!