PBO or Yachting Monthly?

[Zagato]

I have been offered a magazine subscription for my birthday. I have always sporadically bought PBO when there has been something of use to me inside but recently Yachting Monthly has been better - berthing techniques, harbour guides etc.

I'm not so interested in yacht test comparisons, I'm more interested as a relative newbie in picking up further knowledge/awareness for my sailing - which one would you suggest!

Does anyone have any old copies or want to swap? I used to subsribe to Jaguar & Land Rover magazines and always passed them on when I had read them! Situated in Reigate, Surrey or Chi Harbour...

 

[RupertW]

I've done the journey from PBO to YM and back over the years.

Owning a couple of little project boats where I'd be lucky to get across the Channel once a year - PBO for me

Bigger, better equipped boats where I was extending my cruising range to South Brittany and Spain - YM every time for pilotage, techniques and local knowledge

Now with a larger project-ish boat in the Med, YM seems totally Northern Europe focussed, but PBO is telling me how to do the things I'd otherwise have to find a local to do.

 

[Zagato]

If it's the same organisation that prints them, it's a shame they don't combine the two, they might getter better sales all round rather than two so so mags!

 

[Wansworth]

If it's the same organisation that prints them, it's a shame they don't combine the two, they might getter better sales all round rather than two so so mags!

"How I made a chart table pencil holder,sailing round Cape Horn"shock ,horror tale of singlehanded cruise turned into night mare.

 

[nigelmercier]

YM seems totally Northern Europe focussed, but PBO is telling me how to do the things I'd otherwise have to find a local to do.

Personally I think they overlap too much, and it seems to be in the Solent

I would like to see more Practical articles in PBO, but not ideas like putting up a manky set of shelves, more things like: engine servicing, rudder bearings, seacock cleaning, finding above water leaks, DIY devices...

 

[[2574]]

FWIW I think that the latest PBO is better than YM but I suppose it is what one is interested in at any point in time that swings one's opinion. I have a YM sub and have recently been thinking that it would be nice to be able to swap between mags within the IPC stable under the one subscription contract. Any IPC management reading this?

 

[MoodySabre]

Find a mate and buy one each and then swap. Two mates and you can have SailingToday as well.

 

[jellylegs]

Yachting Monthly has really come on a lot recently. Has such better images too, than PBO. The overall quality of production is better.
I find it generally a better read, hard to pin point why....

 

[Dockhead]

Both!

 

[Vara]

Neither, unless Zinio comes up with another stunning deal!

 

[Coaster]

Has the PBO editorship changed in the last year or so? If it has I might be persuaded to look at buying the magazine again.

 

[BarryH]

Wait until the spring when theres an article on Polishing the Hull. Theres ALWAYS an article on polishing in the spring, no doubt with the copious use of 3M products..........

 

[dylanwinter]

It is like democracy - floating voters

If you want to influence the magazines then what you have to become is a floating subscriber

by all means generally take one

but if you want them to respond to your wishes then you need to be prepared to swap occasionally

and you might decide to stay

or go back again

either way you can be sure that they will be tracking you and attempting to react in the right way

I am obviously biased now as I have taken the occasional and severely devalued king's shilling from PBO

I have to say that they are closer to my sort of sailing

basically a small light boat that is not overwhelmed by electronics and possibly powered by an outboard

owned by a bloke who knows that he willl never own an Oyster or a Hallberg

the sort of bloke who would fit his own roller reefing

PBO did get hold of an old boat and are turning it into a good old boat

and they did by a heap of junk

YM got a half decent boat and started destroying it

apparently it was all in the furtherment of safety for sailors

apparently...

but we know that is not really true -- any more than blowing up a caravan is about education

so that puts them at the Clarkson end of the spectrum


the fact that they are owned by the same company will not impact the way they focus their editorial and the sort of journos they employ

if blokes want to see boats being blown up then they will respond accordingly and do more stunts

if the PBO subscribers would rather see something more constructive with a boat then that is up to them to respond to the magazines

and the best place to do so is here

of course there has to be a readership and an avdertising spend

otherwise it will never happen

now that I am writing for the magazines is that I have started to pay them more attention

when I was a commuter I was buying them all


I still do not get to read them unless I pick them up in other peoples houses

so I am always three months behind

so....my advice is to decide if you would rather see a boat being blown up or a headlining installed by a bloke who is at the same level of the learning curve as you thn I would go for PBO

or even a page or two about flogging a £1500 boat and buying a £7,500 one

if you are a Clarkson type then go for YM

if, while you are scanning the channels late at night you might linger for a moment or two at "how it's made"

then PBO is probably for you

Dylan



that might not be a bad thing

 

[Zagato]

OK I'll get a subscription for Playboy instead and get the answers I want from the forum. One days activity on the forum is the equivalent of the content of magazine and it's FREE, up to date and interactive

 

[Wansworth]

Back in the sixties a sailer called John Riding set off across the atlanitic in a 12 foot sailing boat called the egg.He took a mound of Playboys...no mention of YM and PBO hadnt been invented so Playboy could be a useful alternative.!

 

[nigelmercier]

Back in the sixties a sailer called John Riding set off across the atlanitic in a 12 foot sailing boat called the egg.He took a mound of Playboys...

No doubt he could have jury rigged a new sail with them, if he could find something to stick the pages together with

 

[SeaStu1]

PBO for me l think.....

I buy PBO most months and have done for a couple of years now. Its been a few years since l looked at YM and felt it was aimed at people with nice boats who have little maintenance to do or who can afford to pay someone to do the work.

The articles can be predictable for the time of the season, it can't be long before another article on laying up is due.

It also presents articles with solutions to problems l had not even thought of such as this months article on fitting a lightning protection system (l will take a chance on this and not bother) and other projects which would mean l would spend no time sailing.

My favourite article is the Learning from Experience article where each month l learn about someone taking out to sea for the first time their new to them boat in nothing less than a force 7 and then realising the engine doesn't work properly, the halyards are all worn and the fuse in the vhf radio has blown. Why you would want your real name published alongside the article l will never know, the promise of winning a picture of your boat is perhaps a temptation too far!

I will continue to buy though.

 

[Fire99]

Definitely 'Sailing Today'.... oh hang on a sec.. wrong forum!

 

[Colvic Watson]

Definitely 'Sailing Today'.... oh hang on a sec.. wrong forum!

Classic boat then

 

[Fire99]

Classic boat then

I love that magazine.. Ohh damn, I'm gonna get put in the sin-bin at this rate!