To be perfectly honest, from the perspective of a retired outdoor writer, the vast majority of the sailing magazines are garbage, poorly written and while I still have a subscription to Sail that my wife gave me, I'll let it expire with no chance of renewal. GOB can be listed in the fair category, mainly because it provides you with some interesting "How To" articles and a reasonable number of accompanying photos.
Now, on the subject of boat reviews, there are far too many, and has anyone ever seen a bad review of a boat? They don't exist in print media. This is because print media survives only upon the whimsical dollars dished out by the advertisers. Piss off an advertiser and there goes the magazine, right down the tube.
Many magazines have third class mailing permits, and as such, they must comply with certain constraints when it comes to advertising V/S articles. If I recall correctly, in order to retain that third class postage permit, the content must be 60 percent editorial and a maximum of 40 percent advertising. Of course, things such as product reviews, are a great loophole to get around this. A product review, even though it's nothing more than an advertisement, is considered editorial.
Free publications, Prop Talk, Etc..., publications given away at stores and the shows, are exempt from this. They can do pretty much anything they want, and often have far more advertising than editorial content. However, if they want to mail that freebee out to you, it has to go first class, which is very expensive.
Bottom line: you're much better off purchasing some good books from Amazon, Kindle, etc.... They tend to be well written and provide a greater number of entertainment hours for the buck.
Cheers,
Gary
