Annoyed with Harper and Bartlett

[jfm]

I'm sorry, but are MBY taking the piss? They claim to test half a dozen handheld "chart plotters". The devices they tested have absolutely no marine charting ability at all. MBY say several times in the article that these things are no use as marine chart plotters due to lack of marine charting. The manufacturers will tell you the same, these things are not intended nor sold as marine chartplotters. So why write a piece about them? Why not a study of chocolate teapots? Tim Bartlett and Alan Harper are just wasting out time, or if I missed the point of the article could one of them please explain?

There are in fact only two h/h marine plotters on the planet, namely Garmin 175 and Mag 6000. These were not included in the test.

JFM

 

[Guest]

Re: and ray bulman too!

I too wondered at a test, the net result of which is that "they're all a bit crap - don't really buy any of these".

However, the justification is that these things are all for sale front and centre at the boat shows. If chocolate teapots are also punted about at the same venue, I spose they ought to testem too.

So if the next test is of craft such as a teatray, a paper hat and a balloon, all of which fail the basic tests of seaworthiness, then that would indeed be a test too far. UNLESS of course it was a Sunseeker Teatray with outboard bracket etc.

Agree it's unsatisfying as a test, but maybe the shape of things to come, with boats nearly sinking under the weight of electronics gizmos and worried skippers feeling that they all ought to stay safe.

So lets carp about something else. How about:

I went to a pub the other day for the first time since before the Archduke Ferdinand was killed. What a difference! At the seaside resorts of yesteryear, there weren’t any pubs at all. There wasn’t any sand either. And, as I have mentioned in previous boring articles in the back of this rag, there weren’t any powerful motorboats, marinas, portable phones, fast food, holidays, heating systems, GPS’s, handheld VHFs, televisions, fuel, cars, spacerockets and so on. I expect that by now I have fully made the point that I indeed a very very old git.

Mind, you, when I was a boy, there weren’t any old gits at all etc etc.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I suppose its a cheaper way of filling pages than sending Marsh or Jones out to Mallorca for a boat test or commissioning one of 'Cumbo's' rehashed articles but maybe not as cheap or as pleasant as getting plastered on a few bottles of gin or whisky (remember those 'test reports'?). Cant they farm Bulman out to Classic Boat or PBO, by the way?

 

[Guest]

Re: and ray bulman too! (when is he going to retir

Thx for the posting.

And I thought I am the only mindless guy with no understanding for this cheerfully old and boring articles of Mr. Bulman.

STOP THIS NONSENSE AND WASTE OF PAPER !

How about an interview with prominent people like Eddy Jordan (Coulthard too ?) about their boats ? (just an idea if you want a light weight finish of your magazine)

If you haven`t got any ideas, print even more ads and donate the money to Mr. Bulman..

Life is too short to spend on land

 

[Guest]

Re: noo, not the F1 thing!

They tried that a while ago, but (from the article) it looked as tho either the plane got cancelled, or the skippoer toldem to get stuffed, or the boat was a right mess. So they phoned up eddie for a chat but the airhead is on about something else, or in another mood about losing badly, and they had to use some std sunseeker brochure shots.

Likewise Irvines boat is called Anaconda (teehee rude geddit?) and Button's PR probly won't let him talk about the boat othewise benneton will tell him to get lost next year, especially since he's done more advertising for BMW (speeding) that Benetton (jumpers) this yr.

 

[duncan]

Re: and ray bulman too!

thought the worst bit was the (admittedly tentative) sugestion that they were some use becase they showed the coastline.

Given that the most likely people not to have reasonable fixed kit (chart table......) are going to be in estuary type enviroments like the lower Thames, Poole - Solent etc having confidence in the high water mark during thick for is rather missing the point!
They do have one use - plotting the route out that can be reversed in an emergency - if you carefully delete past histories and don't leave it switched on whilst on the beach all day filling the wipe over memory.

 

[petem]

Re: noo, not the F1 thing!

I think Coulthard was in BI a year or two back with some strange 30 footer (obviously in addition to his proper boat).

 

[andrewbarker]

Re: and ray bulman too!

Agree about the crap plotter test & I've got an MLR xyz something with kiddie plotter function which wasn't even mentioned. Don't agree with MattS about Bulman for this reason. I've got more in common with him re struggling with old bits of string etc to keep my boating going than I have with a zillionaire businessman showing how much richer he is than me in a 200 foot Sunseeker Trouserbulge Mk IIIIII.

General point. MBY should STILL cater for a wide range of motorboaters. I can see why Bulman doesn't appeal to someone posh who does bugger all themselves on their boat. ALSO - let's not have this BB turn into a smug club for big motoryacht owners.

 

[markc]

Re: move ray bulman to MBM?

I do agree with Andrew somewhat on this one, however it seems that MBM is moving down the ladder whilst MBY is moving up. Perhaps Mr Bulman would be more appropriate in MBM?

I do find his ramblings pretty interesting on the whole - being in my early 30's it's quite enlightening to have a historic view of motorboating!!!!

Mark

 

[Guest]

If you've ever watched Tim handle a boat (I did at the S/Hampton boat show a couple of years ago) you'll realise the folly of your ways in believing him to know anything about the subject.

 

[jfm]

Re: Bartlett, worse than Doreen?

What did he do/how bad did he bump it??????

JFM

 

[alanharper]

The things we tested are all exhibited at boat shows, sold by chandlers, and
advertised in the marine press. The Magellan 330M is marketed quite
specifically as a marine version of the 330 (that's what the M stands for)
and the Garmin Map 76 is advertised in the current issue of MBY by no less
than YBW.com !! Garmin's own ad also points out that it has features such as
an anchor alarm and "nautical data". Under the circumstances, we think people
could very easily be duped into thinking that they are marine products.

It is true that the Garmin 175 and Magellan 6000 are considerably more marine-oriented. We
didn't include them (a) because we had already reviewed them earlier in the
series (April 1999) and (b) because they are both about to be (or have
already been) superceded.