Practical Boat Owner today

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But with a bigger and bigger section dedicated to Motor Boats...



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What's wrong with motor boats? I thought the magazine was Practical BOAT Owner? To me there is far too much in the magazine about sailing boats.

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In itself nothing of course. But from a personal point of view I am not interested in motor boats and I suspect that goes for a fair few other readers too. I wouldn't mind if the section had been added to the magazine, but it seems to have replaced what in my view were more interesting articles.

If IPC are trying to shift PBO into a middle ground between Sail & Power, fine, but I will my cancelling my sub because I don't see why I should be paying for stuff I'm not interested in. And by trying to all things to all people I fear the magazine will lose its appeal to many others.

Of course it is possible that PBO have done their market research and that I am not representative of the PBO readership. Let us just hope they didn't do their market reaserch from their stand at Excel... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Marc.
 
I agree, I have no interest in motor boats whatsoever. I would much prefer to see PBO as a sailing mag. MBY is for MoBos, is it not? If having a bigger MoBo section means a smaller sailing section, then I will be less interested.
 
A friend and I raised this point at the stand at the LIBS, but could get no response of any substance as there were no PBO staff on duty there when we visited. In an email follow up I was told in no uncertain terms that I was the only person who had commented adversely on the shift of PBO towards a non existant middle ground between motor boats and sailing boats - it seems to me that the target audience is lifelong sailors who are making the move to motor boats. It may well be that it is a choice I have to make at some point (would I rather continue to "sail" under power when I can no longer manage the sails than not go out at all) but I certainly don't want to contemplate it on a monthly basis until I have to. I let my subscription lapse and took one for Sailing Toady instead - but as I usually visit the UK at least monthly I'll no doubt succumb to PBO's allure at newstand prices instead.
 
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..........but as I usually visit the UK at least monthly I'll no doubt succumb to PBO's allure at newstand prices instead.

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I succumb as well a couple of times a year and always wish I hadn't, I usually end up feeling I've wasted my money. But I subscribe to S.T., which IMHO now has very good practical articles.
 
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I do not think that Practical Boat Owner magazine today is just that "a Practical Boat Owner" magazine for Practical Boat Owner's. Most of it is new boats (except the piece by Andrew) on second hand boats.

There is little 'hands on' stuff (unless sent in by readers). Most seems to be new gear/new boats/through out your old an stick in the new.

Or am I totally wrong??

before you respond have a look at a PBO from say 15 - 20 years ago.

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I stopped having PBO some time ago and only pick odd copies now if wanting something to read at airports / hotels etc.

I used to regard PBO as the 0 to lower middle section of boating ... with plenty of practical stuff to get the budget boater along ... go back and see articles on fitting Ignition coils to Vire engines ... mounting an emergency outboard on back of your pocket cruiser etc. It didn't matter that sail was not specifically covered - PBO catered for all small boats ... fine.
Yachting Monthly and World etc. covered the "upper" market boat-owners - with more reviews etc. of expensive gear and boats to satisfy their reading wants.

The demarcations between the mags eroded long time ago ... and now they cross each others borders ... even having repeated similar articles / reviews at times ...

There is still a large population of small boat owners out there that want the Practical side of boating ... you only have to look at threads on here ....

On another note - isn't this similar to the Boat Building Trend in UK ? The move away from the cheaper end of the market ? Up and up the size / price scales .....
 
Thanks Lemain. Irritatingly, it doesn't come up in a search.... but does under Outdoor Pursuits...as you said it would. How crazy is that??

What size files are they to download? I can't always get onto wifi when cruising and have to use a dail-up connection - which could prove somewhat expensive, I guess.
 
The biggest in my library is 40MB - actually some of the pictures are a lower res. than I'd like but I'd guess that this depends on the publisher. Having said that, they look perfect at the intended size though they suffer if you try to zoom them. They are downloaded with the Zinio interface rather than an normal ftp or http download. It has always worked well for me on WiFi in the harbour here, but I have excellent speed at present.

Try it out with some of their free trials or order one or two single issues of mags that interest you. It is the way forward for periodicals.
 
I must admit to being a little ambivilant about PBO.

I love the 'how to...' type articles but will admit that there only so many ways of writing 'how to fit a holding tank' before it gets a tad boring. It's bound to repeat itself every couple of years. There's only so much you can do to a plastic boat.

Minimal boating and small boat cruises, maybe with family, are what I am interested in.

To be relevant to my kind of sailing/income it has to be pratical and cheap. I actually enjoy working on my boat and the comraderie of the winter boatyard is great.

To be honest, I feel a bit sad for those who are to busy to do so, whilst still feeling a bit jealous that they can afford to pay someone else to strip the heads pump and clean the bilges or whatever!
 
I have a small collection going back to 1983 with significant gaps. In that time the magazine has certainly changed and I agree not necessarily for the better.

I always looked forward to Denny's laconic style for conveying wisdom and the practical emphasis of Roger Witt and David greenwell was always welcome. The occaisional dissertation by Peyton proved a velcome diversion and his humour converts well from cartoons to the written word.

So it has changed. Its still just as practical but the delivery method is dryer and less easy to digest. Perhaps the only one carrying the flag is Simmo (I'm sure he wont mind my calling him that?).

I enjoyed the 'grumpy old men' series on TV and this stream of messages reminded me of that. I still buy PBO when I can find it and the other day I came across a few back issues which I didnt have for a $1 apiece, now thats what I call value!!

Regards
TonyM
 
Hi I agree to some extent about the price of the boats which they survey. The article on the Fingulf 46 did say that its very much at the top end of the budget for PBO. Actually, I think the balance in PBO is not too bad although some of the new gear and boat reports seem to be similar to manufacturer blurb. As a forum for introducing new whidgets and toys it seems fair but its not objective.

There was an article about rudders and 'are you at risk' this month, lots of theory and cautionary stories about aluminium rudder stocks and how stainless would have been a better material or bronze alloy (cant remember the exact name so dont jump on me!). However, whether its good or bad, the fact is too many boats have aluminium rudder stocks which owners can ill-afford to replace. I would have preferred to see what steps could have been made to protect them better (anodes, galvanic isolators or whatever). I found the article, although informative on the theory a bit dissapointing.

On the whole, I like PBO (rather more than Sailing Today).

Simon
 
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