Custard yachting

[Guest]

What do you think of the quarterly 'supplement', Custom yachting?
Good? Bad? Keep it? Bin it?
Is it good to have a dream aspirational section to MBY, or is it a waste of pages?
What, if anything, would you have instead of it?
Discuss.

 

[petem]

How about Birds and their Boats.....

Featuring big sexy boats and big sexy women.

If not then Cutstom Yachts will do.

 

[tcm]

Re: Total rubbish! new idea....

I have never read such garbage! Private jets, Leopard boats, all clearly made up. Chuck it, and tell the extra readers and advertisers that they can stuff their poxy money.

Instead, lets have a new section:

Reality Boating - Boating As It Really Is.

article#1 Knots in Detail: Each month we explain an important knot

This month: The Bowline

The bowline is perhaps the most important knot of all. It's vital that you and your crew know how to do a bowline above any other knot.

Make a loop in your left hand and take the end of your rope in the other. Then, as the saying goes, "the squirrel goes up out of the hole, round the tree, and back down the hole". Easy! Unless you're a marinaro in Nice where they always makes a thing that looks a bit like a bowline, but isn't, haha. Anyway, there's a bowline. And look, to undo it you turn it over and break it like this....there.

Now, you have a go...okay, so your left handed, but the squirrel still goes up out of the hole. The HOLE...the hole is the loop, see? No, the loop has to go AWAY and UNDER the other bit, like.... that, there much better. Why? Well it just does! I'm not getting irate I'm just saying how you have to do it. For chrissakes you're supposed to be the main crew person and we've been doing this for years. Sorry, I'm sorry dear, no don't get upset. ...but it is important actually. Yes, the breakfast is very nice, no problems there, but we can't tie the boat up with cups of tea now can we? No, I wasn't being nasty, just explaining the knot! No, the round and round figure of eight thing won't always do, cos what if the right thing isn't there to do the figure of eight thing?

Oh for chrissakes just givit here, look like that ...see? Oh never blimmin mind, just keep that like that, and don't effing undo it until the end of the season. Yes well I don't need any more blimmin tea I'll just have a beer....


Next week- Stuff this for a game of conkers, let's write about summink else....

 

[Guest]

Re: How about Birds and their Boats.....

Birds and big boats was a subject that had been raised.
I'm not sure that Jordan has a boat - maybe she doesn't need one?

 

[numenius]

Brilliant! nm.

nm

http://members.lycos.co.uk/boaty1965/index.htm

 

[jfm]

Re: like a sheep bend?

Found that most useful. One follow up Q though - can you use a bowline when the two ropes you're tying together are different diameters?

Will, the custard yachting is good stuff. Far better than a Rodman reviw, and you need some aspirational content imho. But need a bit more proper journalism imho. Mangusta/Leopard dont advertise in MBY ( though praps C N/Rod'gez do?) so can you write up the bad bits as well as the good? They have crap anchor windlasses for a start, but there must be other stuff you can say, having blasted around innit a bit?

Anyway, what are the sales figures or ABC numbers for the last 24 issues say? Do the custard ones sell any more? Likewise your ad revenues? Lets have full figures so we can dissect em to death!

 

[tcm]

Re: tying things together

Ooh yes, bowlines are v useful. Indeed, you can use bowline to tie together a rope of 16mm diameter (say) and a boat of several yards diameter, ahem, which is even a differnt material completely. I mean, see a bowline always ties on to itself, dunnit? But if you really want to tie together two shagged-out lumps of rope then you can use a bowline on one and then the other having bowline thru the first. Or buy a longer bit of rope. Hope this helps

 

[Guest]

dream or reality

Jfm - glad to hear that Custom Y is well received, at least in some quarters. I ask about CY because some feedback suggests that some readers have gone off MBY in last 9 months since it has (been perceived as) gone up market. There's still plenty of practical stuff (cruising guides, news on regs etc, shop) but some people are obviously referring to Custom Yachting when they say MBY is now "out of their reach".

I agree - it's important for a mag like this to have an aspirational section - where would Car be without its Ferraris and Maseratis? But it's got to be done in the right spirit - a bit of fun, as well as a serious review-side. As regards real journalism on the big boats, there's plenty of material to provide juicy stories on, and it would certainly make a more interesting read, particularly about some of the characters that deal / own and skipper these gin palaces. But while we are relatively new to this market, we can't afford stories to be too juicy. In time, it would be nice to do some light-hearted Custom Yachting exposés - but first we have to invest some time in cultivating friends in this secretive world. Appreciate the feedback
W

 

[alanharper]

Let\'s get one thing straight, jfm

MBY's editorial is independent of its advertising. If you doubt me, ask an advertiser (not a salesman - ask the man who spends the money).

Advertising considerations do not influence what we say in a review. We tell you what we find and state what we think. It's straightforward. We are always polite, it's true, because we're like that. Boatbuilding's a small industry.

To suggest that you can buy favourable editorial treatment with your advertisement is to accuse us of being dishonest, and is also, incidentally, a slur on the professionalism of the advertisement manager.

Alan
MBY

 

[jfm]

Re: Everything is straight

Alan:

No slurs/insults at all intended.

Let's get something even more fundamental straight. Being independent and impartial is more than just being independent and impartial. It's about being SEEN to be independent and impartial.

Your magazine earns significant revenue from advertisers. Then it tests their products. It also needs boat tests to sell mags, yet it struggles to get manufacturers/dealers to provide test boats. So, as between you and the manufacturers, they have some cards to play. I am a reader, and I'm entitled to take the view that you are exposed to pressure of not being independent, there is a temptation for you not to criticise a fairline wotsit if they might let you have first test of the 74 next month, or whatever. Maybe you are indeed independent and impartial, but you're not seen to be so. The fact you rarely criticise test boats hard reinforces this.

So, that's my view. It's not an insult or a slur, just a comment on the commercial position. I don't claim superiority, if I were editor I'd face the same stuff. And I still buy the mag.

But don't get on your high horse and attack me (in strong terms, quite unlike the terms of my post) for thinking and saying what a reasonable person would think and say. I'm just a reader asked for a comment by your staff and I gave a comment. I even said I like the custard section (and your generally aspirational content these days). Surely it's better to know what readers think, even if you don't like it? It's a good thing, if the manufacturers are able to exert editorial pressure that readers are seen to be alert to the possibility and put some pressure back the other way, right?

I repeat, I do not say categorically or with any proof that your journalism isn't independent and impartial. I just say that it isn't SEEN to be so and there is much commercial pressure for it not to be so, and since I'm on the "reader" side of the pressures that are put on you I will continue to encourage you to report more bad bits of boats as well as good bits.

Please take this in good spirit. It's a bulletin board not a pile of international diplomatic service memos. Bat my comments back with "Don't worry jfm, be assured we're independent etc, we're not influenced by manufacturers, etc etc" not all this high horse "insult and slur" stuff. Best wishes.

 

[tcm]

how to make friends and influence people

hm, yes praps bit of work needed there... <G>

 

[ari]

Re: Everything is straight

Wasn't it MBY which some time ago wrote "When we tested the boat it was flat calm, but the distributor assures us that it is an excellent sea boat".

I have to say that to me the boat tests do read a bit like glorified brochures at times. A bit of criticism of the size of the chart area just to show that they're being objective, followed by lots of ooohhing and aaahhhing and the phrase "breathes more easily" worked in there somewhere.

The most important aspects of a boat test to me are how does it handle (cos I can look at the brochure and poke about at a boatshow myself) and how does it rate compared with the competition. If you look at the amount of copy written about the driving and handling the two things that spring to mind are that there aint much of it and that it reads exactly the same as the last boat test I read. not a very good turning circle but excellent in the marina, crossed the photographer boats wake at a few different angles and that seemed very good and recorded a top speed of x and a db of y. Compare that with a car test and it is 90% about the drive cos thats what you need an objective comparison of.

That said, the test they did of the Sealine S48 was straight to the point particularly regarding the quality, I found that most encouraging and the first time I felt like there was some real straight talking tell it how it is reporting.

Mind you, don't remember seeing a Sealine test since.........

OOooeer!

;-)