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Sailing Magazines

10K views 49 replies 29 participants last post by  cockeyedbob 
#1 ·
What are the best sailing magazines? I used to get Ocean Navigator, but that was more about offshore cruising than small boat sailing. Are there any good small boat sailing/racing magazines? Is Messing About in Boats any good?
Thanks!

Hannah
 
#29 ·
I will be the lone desenter on PS as I have noticed their methodology to be flawed. A recent adhesive test found 5200 to be weak in its adhesive properties. This is not true as many of you know. After reading the the methodoly and looking at the pictures it was easy to see different size globs on the dowel they used. Poor methods being passed off as science.
Good Old Boat on the other hand is approachable and readable.
 
#31 ·
After periodically buying Lattitudes & Attitudes of the shelf, I finally picked up a subscription. My wife & I recently "bumped" into Bob & Jody at thier 'cruisers weekend' at the Isthmas, Santa Catalina Island.

They truely are great people living the dream, and thier magazine reflects it!!!

Used to subscribe to CW and Sail.... but the advertisers won out. PS is a must for those inevitable purchases.
 
#32 ·
pbyrnes said:
What do people think about Practical Sailor?
I subscribed to PS for a year, and I let it expire. I found that they concentrated too much on equipment and products that had no relevance to my boating experience. I think their reviews of knives that cost $75 and up put the nail in the coffin. I wound up saving only one issue for future reference. On top of that, I found the writing style was BORING. Oh, I understand they are trying to be neutral and dispassionate, but if you read Consumer Reports, you know that mission does not necessarily equate with boring writing.
 
#33 ·
SailinJay said:
I subscribe to Cruising World and Practical Sailor. I'm letting my subscription to CW run out, but I will always get PS.
Back when I had my first boat in '99, a C&C-designer 33 foot racer-cruiser, I used to purchase Cruising World, Sail Magazine and Ocean Navigator. Gradually, I realized that CW and Sail were aiming for a different market than me for the most part, and I found the only bits I really found useful (aside from Webb Chiles/Pardeys/windvane vs. autopilot articles), were the "Hands On" section that frequently had innovative or sensible ideas and projects.

I started subscribing to Practical Sailor in '03 or so and continue to do so. In '05, as we started looking for an ocean-going cruiser, I started to subscribe to Ocean Navigator and paid for both by dropping CW and Sail. We now are fitting out a steel cutter for a circumnavigating, which is *not* like taking a Beneteau to the BVIs. Consequently, I don't regret my decision.

Now, how do I get rid of six years of SAIL and CW?
 
#35 ·
Valiente said:
now are fitting out a steel cutter for a circumnavigating, which is *not* like taking a Beneteau to the BVIs. Consequently, I don't regret my decision.

Now, how do I get rid of six years of SAIL and CW?
Valiente,
Do you know of the Metal Boat Society ? Inexpensive to join and they publish a quarterly newsletter which is available online. The site is packed with useful information on anything to do with steel boats.

www.metalboatsociety.com

We bought our first steel boat earlier this year and this site has been a mine of useful information for a couple of steel boat novices.
 
#36 ·
Magazines

At $10 for a quarterly magazine, "BoatWorks" is a good value and I am sure with backing from its corporate owner, they are aiming to be around for the long run. It has introduced some stink pot, oops :) I meant power boat material in between the covers to appeal to a wider audience.

I believe that "Coastal Cruising" and "Northeast Sailing Life" have disappeared. During a couple land based moves I let those subscriptions lapse and even though the content was fun to read, those publications just didn't have a large enough subscriber base. :( Sorry I didn't renew.

"Offshore", which is targeted at boaters in the northeast of the U.S. is heavily into power and fishing, they only belatedly gave the MLLW when reviewing marinas -- not that I make it a habit of running aground ;) (the two magazines above targeted sailors) And maybe that would not have happened if I had renewed my subscription to "Ocean Navigator", but who knows?

"Good Old Boat", "Wooden Boat", and "Practical Sailor" are all useful publications which I flip through again and again.
 
#38 ·
lochleland said:
At $10 for a quarterly magazine, "BoatWorks" is a good value and I am sure with backing from its corporate owner, they are aiming to be around for the long run.
I'm going to recommend DIY Boat magazine(http://www.diy-boat.com/) for how-to information. I've found it much better than BoatWorks.

I picked up the first or second issue of BoatWorks. They had an article about painting your mast. It was written by someone who had never painted a mast before. In contrast, articles in DIY Boat tend to be written by folks who are in the boat maintenance business and have lots of experience.

After picking up my first copy of DIY Boat, I bought a 3 year subscription and bought the back issue CD-ROM. I've never regretted this purchase.
 
#39 ·
This has been an interesting thread and has caused me to go back and really look at some of the publications I have. Here is what I see: It appears Sail magazine is hurting - ditto Boatworks (owned by Sail). I have been receiving offers for $10/yr subscription for Sail. I almost want to but am convinced I will not receive many before it stops. As for Boatworks, they've changed their target market; tag line and header on the mag cover now reflect power + sail. Hmm. Not selling enough, I presume.

Practical Sailor. Now that I have completed a year of subscription, I'm finding it is not all that useful for me (30 yr old 27 foot Catalina) as has been stated previously. I still look forward to Good Old Boat and read every page.

I'll be checking out DIY-Boat.
 
#40 ·
Most of the mags try to be all things to all sailors and that's there downfall and why GOB seems to do quite nicely. You actually spend time reading the classifieds in GOB, and get thinking, "Yeah, that'd be nice...." In Sail, where one third the mag seems to be the classifieds you get thinking, "Yeah, right!" I bit on the renewal offer last year and it just stopped coming after about six months. I was so distraught I didn't notice for a couple of months. Same experience as Parley with PS. Tried it for three years and it just wasn't worth the budget for the few relavent articles per year-they also seemed to focus a little more towards the high end market than what I am. Hope this relationship with Sailnet gets me the info I did like from them. My neighbor installs vinyl siding for a living, but I think he supplements that with articles in Boatworks.<G> DIY doesn't seem too bad. In my experience, most of the mags don't have enough space and editing capability to do what a good book on the subject does. For example, you can read the 12 Volt Bible for Boats in about the same time as a magazine cover to cover and you've got a pretty good grasp on what those little green men do on your boat. Part of the difference must be due to the fact that it's not easy to get published, you must have a rep to sell a publisher on, and even after the book is done it's proofed/edited much more thoroughly than a magazine article. Just my 2 cts.

I think the death-knell for Sail was when I read about how you should carry a good flashlight for, among other things, shining at the wheelhouse of merchant ships to get their attention!
 
#41 ·
Good Old Boat is hands down the best sailing magazine, IMHO. My only complaint about GOB is that they don't offer a discount to subscribers.

Speaking of discounts, what makes anyone think that $10/year for boatworks is cheap (and therefore the magazine is having problems)? As a quarterly magazine, that works out to $2.50 an issue, which is certainly a good deal but considering that many magazines offer $10/year for 12 issues (such as Sail, Esquire, Rolling Stone, to name but a few) it is not "cheap".

And speaking of "not cheap", while I love Practical Sailor I hate the price. I've subscribed for a couple of years now, but I always let my subscription lapse for a few months because I can't bring myself to write the check when the renewal notice comes. But then I go through withdrawls and end up renewing a few months later.

Small Craft Advisor is also really good. While at 26' my boat is at the upper end of the target audience, the articles are really good and informative.

Two other magazines I read pretty regularly. One is Latitude 38. Free if you pick it up at West Marine. Great cruising articles. The other, I'm almost ashamed to admit it, is Sea. I know, it's a powerboat magazine, but being a west coast sailor it has really good destination articles. Do a Google search and you can find a free subscription offer for Sea.
 
#42 ·
My mainstay, must reads are GOB, PS and SpinSheet (here on the Chesapeake, by far the best sailing rag.) I also subscribe to Sailing magazine primarily because of the Bob Perry boat reviews -- and they also do other, more thorough reviews of boats as well. And not all the boats featured are the usual ones you see in the big glossies. I currently also get Sail, but will let it lapse when this subscription is over.

I let Cruising World lapse within the last few months and yesterday got a deal in the mail from them -- $28 for 3 years. At less than a buck an issue I may take them up on that one. (Such deals are the only way I will subscribe to either Sail or Cruising World.)
 
#43 ·
Cruising World not what it was back in the late 70's. Of course, neither am I. I signed on for three years a while back and got a free crappy plastic jacket and now every month they send another renewal notice and another free offer.

In the future, I'll prescreen the mags at the local B&N or Borders. If I think an article has merit and is worth reading, I'll purchase the magazine or tack over to the library. Yeah, I'm cheap!

The Metal Boat Society produces an excellent quarterly publication for those (like me) who don't go by plastic ...
 
#44 ·
For reasons that are entirely unclear to me, I was offered (and accepted) free subscriptions to "Power and Motoryacht" and "Boat USA International." Yes, they are free. I have been receiving both for at least two or three years. Every now and then, they ask me if I want to continue my free subsription, and I send back the post card with "yes" checked off. PMY is a very well written magazine. I have picked up a couple of good tips on fiberglass care, engine maintenance and electronics. The columnists are actually quite good; for the most part, their pieces could go right into a sailing mag with no editing. I tend to quickly flip through the rest of the magazine, but it is interesting to contrast their boat reviews with the typical sailboat review. I have yet to see a sailboat review say anything explicitly negative about a boat; in PMY, they may not blast a boat, but they do point out negatives.

Boat USA is megayacht-look-at-me-I'm-so-rich porn. The majority of the yachts (and they are yachts, not boats) portrayed are power yachts, but there is usually a sailing yacht profiled in each issue too. Unbelievable stuff. If you think Cruising World and Sail cater to the "high end" of the market, you are in for a surprise. The Hylas 44 that you lusted after in last month's Sail costs about as much as a charter on one of the big boys. 'Nuff said.
 
#45 ·
The two must reads for me are: Good Old Boat and Ocean Navigator. All others I preview at the bookstore/newsstand and buy the ones I like that month. Which usually mean I pick up a coulple or three issues of PS, 5 or 6 issues of CW, and a smattering of others. Though, Boatworks and DIY look interesting.

Sam
 
#47 · (Edited)
makingthyme said:
I've got a small fortune tied up in sailing magazines. I get:
Lats & Atts
Cruising World
Sail
Practical Sailor
Good Old Boat
Blue Water Sailing
Sailing

They are all good reading when Lake Michigan is frozen.
you haven't got Practical Boat Owner (PBO from UK). its a good mag for DIY'ers and those who wants to know about "bolts & nuts" in a sail boat.
 
#48 ·
tdw said:
Valiente,
Do you know of the Metal Boat Society ? Inexpensive to join and they publish a quarterly newsletter which is available online. The site is packed with useful information on anything to do with steel boats.

www.metalboatsociety.com

We bought our first steel boat earlier this year and this site has been a mine of useful information for a couple of steel boat novices.
Yes. I am considering joining, as well as joining a boat builders' co-op here in Ontario. Thanks.
 
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