kimhollamby
Well-Known Member
Old perspective
Interested to read all of this and also the reference to Practical Motor Cruiser, which was the magazine I cut my teeth on in the mid-1980s. That title was well loved by a relatively tiny audience...and we had tiny resources to match. I was the ad sales guy at the time and wrote occasional bits of copy, which I cringe at now but I think I avoided any real conflict somehow. The editor, Chris Cattrall, can be found these days looking after Canals and Rivers magazine.
When I joined the launch team at MBM I saw the light and gravitated across into the editorial team and we certainly worked within defined editorial and commercial boundaries, although dealing with the small and medium companies in the marine industry was never going to be like working through the PR machines of the car giants. It always was (and I am sure still is) much more up close and personal. I liked that and grew to have a lot of time for many of the people that had driven many of the companies in the industry to a position of prominence, but it didn't stop us falling out from time to time.
As editor I remember getting considerable stick for publishing tests on the first Fairline with prop tunnels that wouldn't steer at speed until they finally sorted out the rudder toe-in angles; the Birchwood 37 Super Sport that regularly dipped a toe rail in a following sea until the company realised that in its aft cockpit version it would be as well to replace all the weight of the aft cabin with a ton of cement in the bilge; the Cruisers International 267 that was so badly built a 3ft hole opened up in it until our campaign (among others) forced the US licensee to put a war chest together to repair the products of the failed UK company. And the Birchwood TS51 in the Bay of Biscay that was fine downwind as long as you enjoyed steering through a meandering 30 degrees either side of the course.
The standard of engineering these days is almost unrecognisable from then - and naval architecture has moved from the back of a fag packet to fully trained staff using excellent facilities. I'd really hope the instances of chronically poor performing boats are eliminated long before the gel coat comes out of the can now.
Actually for me the retrograde step is, ironically, in some of the areas picked up in a light-hearted way here such as the practicality of stowage and whether you are sat on a boat that can be used or an exhibit that has to be kept wrapped in cotton wool. I've never figured out how to 'cruise-lite' and if my boat cannot swallow a groaning trolley load of bags and all the knocks that happen when you swing them on board that I start the weekend miserable
Interested to read all of this and also the reference to Practical Motor Cruiser, which was the magazine I cut my teeth on in the mid-1980s. That title was well loved by a relatively tiny audience...and we had tiny resources to match. I was the ad sales guy at the time and wrote occasional bits of copy, which I cringe at now but I think I avoided any real conflict somehow. The editor, Chris Cattrall, can be found these days looking after Canals and Rivers magazine.
When I joined the launch team at MBM I saw the light and gravitated across into the editorial team and we certainly worked within defined editorial and commercial boundaries, although dealing with the small and medium companies in the marine industry was never going to be like working through the PR machines of the car giants. It always was (and I am sure still is) much more up close and personal. I liked that and grew to have a lot of time for many of the people that had driven many of the companies in the industry to a position of prominence, but it didn't stop us falling out from time to time.
As editor I remember getting considerable stick for publishing tests on the first Fairline with prop tunnels that wouldn't steer at speed until they finally sorted out the rudder toe-in angles; the Birchwood 37 Super Sport that regularly dipped a toe rail in a following sea until the company realised that in its aft cockpit version it would be as well to replace all the weight of the aft cabin with a ton of cement in the bilge; the Cruisers International 267 that was so badly built a 3ft hole opened up in it until our campaign (among others) forced the US licensee to put a war chest together to repair the products of the failed UK company. And the Birchwood TS51 in the Bay of Biscay that was fine downwind as long as you enjoyed steering through a meandering 30 degrees either side of the course.
The standard of engineering these days is almost unrecognisable from then - and naval architecture has moved from the back of a fag packet to fully trained staff using excellent facilities. I'd really hope the instances of chronically poor performing boats are eliminated long before the gel coat comes out of the can now.
Actually for me the retrograde step is, ironically, in some of the areas picked up in a light-hearted way here such as the practicality of stowage and whether you are sat on a boat that can be used or an exhibit that has to be kept wrapped in cotton wool. I've never figured out how to 'cruise-lite' and if my boat cannot swallow a groaning trolley load of bags and all the knocks that happen when you swing them on board that I start the weekend miserable
