Call all prospective Blue water Cruisers

[Guest]

I am currently going through the process of selecting a boat and equipment for a circumnavigation over three years departing later this year. Such an endeavour strikes ma as a fantastic opportunity to do some long-term product tests, which could be published by one of the yachting magazines. Things such as wind steering gear and watermakers are a huge investment and I have never read any tests, which are carried out over a good long timespan. If four or five people in a similar situation to myself co-operate in selecting a variety of the available makes of such product and then report back to YM on their performance, we may be able to achieve a proper long term test of the different products available. As well as getting our boats equipped at cost price perhaps!

What do reckon Kim?


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[davidbains]

I think you're being rather optimistic to achieve what you describe in the next
5/6months.
A good source of the info you require is in various publications. The world cruising survey
by Jimmy Cornell comes to mind. Also the ?World cruising Club that run the ARC
do seminars which supply this sort of info.

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[SimonJ]

Good luck.
I cannot however believe any magazine is going to be prepared to risk the results of critiscising any product you think has failed., should that be the case. There IS a great magazine in the USA which carries no adverts which does do long term testing and comes up with surprising results when set against the reviews seen elsewhere. But there are enough subscribers to make it worthwhile/possible in USA . Litigation, loss of vital advertising revenue etc tends to soften the impact of what is published in YM, PBO etc. You only have to look at boat tests to appreciate the need to read between the lines or understand what has not been said.
There some manufacturers of autohelms, smart (so called) alternator controllers etc who would not like to see published data which shows how some of these devices really perform!

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