jfm
Well-Known Member
I've found some recent issues quite good and written that on here but this month's (Feb, with XSR48 on cover) is a bit of a mixed bag...
1. Oooh, spookily, both my old boat and new boat are photoed in this issue. Old boat is to right of Nick H's on p13, ref bent biminis. New one on p54, second from right
2. The "beat credit crunch" p55 was a good article I thought - food for thought in the current economic climate.
3. Good advice from the excellent James Barke on p16 too ref the economy. If you are buying a boat, I'd strongly recommend him. Ref his 2nd last para on credit exposure, he does everything he can and what he writes in that para isn't sales talk - he actually delivers.
4. New EFI yamahas on p30 - I have ordered one of these in December - a 40hp for tender. Will report back when I've tested it
5. Nice bit by cumberlidge p39 on NW corsica. This is an utterly fab cruising ground for w med boaters but his photos don't show it well. Top of p40 there is a pic of Girolata harbour which is ok but in the same bay less than a mile away you have these much more beautiful lunch stops
6. I enjoyed the van der valk and Mochi tests. But Alan Harper should have paid attention in geography. He says on p111 you can have late lunch in Antibes then get in your Mochi 64 which does 31knots max and be in Porto Cervo "just 4 hours later". Porto Cervo is 190nm from Antibes. Do the math Alan.
7. I was disappointed in the RIB test. They were all the popular 3.3-3.5m length, but they were all low power and either jockey console or bench/thwart seat. There was no test of a bench seating steering wheel type and nothing pokier than 20hp. I guess it's hard to source the test boats. Why not borrow from forumites MBY?
8. Tony Jones has WNS on p89 and it was ok in most respects but he completely omits checking breathing/heart on the casualty and doing chest pumps etc to keep him alive if his respiration/circulation has conked out. Tony does a fine job of saving all the fibreglass items (using ropes, naturally) but omits the most important point in saving the casualty. Seprutly he says leave the boom loose when the main has been lowered and keep the yacht pointing to wind so the boom is centred, which is nonsense cos once the sail is down you lash the boom hard with mainsheet to stop it swinging and clonking anyone.
9. The (scoop exclusive) XSMG test was a very interesting read though didn't make me want one! Lots of nice pics and info, some strange malapropisms like the turbos on the dieels forcing compressed air and fuel into the cylinders and James May thinking 2x800hp is the most powerful diesel boat money can buy(!) Also look at the pics and imagine those clean lines with a 48inch open scanner on the roof. And it seemed to have no windscreen wipers. But a v interesting read
10. Mystery skipper was better than ever before, phew!
11. Sam Newington is selling his fairline, bottom left corner of p167. Wonder what he's buying next?
1. Oooh, spookily, both my old boat and new boat are photoed in this issue. Old boat is to right of Nick H's on p13, ref bent biminis. New one on p54, second from right
2. The "beat credit crunch" p55 was a good article I thought - food for thought in the current economic climate.
3. Good advice from the excellent James Barke on p16 too ref the economy. If you are buying a boat, I'd strongly recommend him. Ref his 2nd last para on credit exposure, he does everything he can and what he writes in that para isn't sales talk - he actually delivers.
4. New EFI yamahas on p30 - I have ordered one of these in December - a 40hp for tender. Will report back when I've tested it
5. Nice bit by cumberlidge p39 on NW corsica. This is an utterly fab cruising ground for w med boaters but his photos don't show it well. Top of p40 there is a pic of Girolata harbour which is ok but in the same bay less than a mile away you have these much more beautiful lunch stops
6. I enjoyed the van der valk and Mochi tests. But Alan Harper should have paid attention in geography. He says on p111 you can have late lunch in Antibes then get in your Mochi 64 which does 31knots max and be in Porto Cervo "just 4 hours later". Porto Cervo is 190nm from Antibes. Do the math Alan.
7. I was disappointed in the RIB test. They were all the popular 3.3-3.5m length, but they were all low power and either jockey console or bench/thwart seat. There was no test of a bench seating steering wheel type and nothing pokier than 20hp. I guess it's hard to source the test boats. Why not borrow from forumites MBY?
8. Tony Jones has WNS on p89 and it was ok in most respects but he completely omits checking breathing/heart on the casualty and doing chest pumps etc to keep him alive if his respiration/circulation has conked out. Tony does a fine job of saving all the fibreglass items (using ropes, naturally) but omits the most important point in saving the casualty. Seprutly he says leave the boom loose when the main has been lowered and keep the yacht pointing to wind so the boom is centred, which is nonsense cos once the sail is down you lash the boom hard with mainsheet to stop it swinging and clonking anyone.
9. The (scoop exclusive) XSMG test was a very interesting read though didn't make me want one! Lots of nice pics and info, some strange malapropisms like the turbos on the dieels forcing compressed air and fuel into the cylinders and James May thinking 2x800hp is the most powerful diesel boat money can buy(!) Also look at the pics and imagine those clean lines with a 48inch open scanner on the roof. And it seemed to have no windscreen wipers. But a v interesting read
10. Mystery skipper was better than ever before, phew!
11. Sam Newington is selling his fairline, bottom left corner of p167. Wonder what he's buying next?
)))) V Funny! BTW, I didn't say mys skipper was good, just that it was better than before 
