"Practical " Boat Owner?..

[Refueler]

I had an anchor light that was a 5 watt bulb inside a spice jar for years. Probably did not comply but was pretty good.

The Anchor light on my SR25 was a classic old style bronze framed glass affair. The glass got broken one winter when moving the mast. There being no chance of replacement glass here - I looked for alternative.
I stood there finishing off a small bottle of Coke .... and there was the solution.

The plastic Coke bottle was perfect diameter to fit the frame but on outside ... so I cut the bottle ... washed and dried it ... put it over the frame and with Self-amalgamating tape secured it in place ............ more than 10yrs later it is still there and works a treat.

Seen there with also my 3D printed Windex arrow ...

 

[steveeasy]

Bought an online copy this month and to my supprise found it much easier to read. Where the online version really comes in to its own is no matter where you are, it’s at hand to open up and read. Quick break and it’s there to read whenever one wants.

My hard copy PBOs just end up stuffed in the chair or put in a draw. The biggest issue though is what a waste of resources to create something that then gets binned. It is a thing of the past I feel. Can’t see the paper mag lasting much more time, more focus should be on selling it online.
Steveeasy

 

[Neeves]

People are lazy - if you have a problem ask on a forum, sometimes the problem is topical and, underling people don't read and are lazy, they don't bother to read the thread. Most then don't bother to use the search function. The advantage of the forum over the magazine is that your problem enjoys the focus of the members NOW, when you want it, not in 12 months time. The problem of forum, as Thinwater implies, is that there is no peer review - and some forum debate is....rubbish and because sometimes the forum members are easily beguiled you get rubbish being built on rubbish.

Which leads to the next problem - who is going to do the, independent, gear or yacht reviews in the future?

I fear that unless an innovation is adopted by a major, something like a sail drive, or Rocna anchor, would never survive. The impecunious inventor has no vehicle to promote his idea and has insufficient finance to support the long term. Spade took years, decades, to gain traction and, galvanising apart, its one of the best anchors around - copied to make Rocna, Vulcan, Mantus M2, Ultra - but Spade had no 'sponsorship'.

Jonathan

 

[thinwater]

Maybe a niche for mags like Good old Boat?

"Good Old Boat" folded about a year ago. Not enough ad revenue with old boats as the focus.

 

[thinwater]

I went to the Annapolis Sailboat Show today.

• About 5% of the boats are under 40'.
• The average price was >$2,000,000. Very few were under $750,000.

I enjoyed the vendor tents, but I only went on a few of the smaller boats. A floating condo doesn't interest me, but many were ogling the inside. Curiously, very few look at the running rigging etc. The profit per unit is much better, I'm sure.

 

[thinwater]

... Which leads to the next problem - who is going to do the, independent, gear or yacht reviews in the future?

I fear that unless an innovation is adopted by a major, something like a sail drive, or Rocna anchor, would never survive. The impecunious inventor has no vehicle to promote his idea and has insufficient finance to support the long term. Spade took years, decades, to gain traction and, galvanising apart, its one of the best anchors around - copied to make Rocna, Vulcan, Mantus M2, Ultra - but Spade had no 'sponsorship'.

Jonathan

Nearly all of the mags that used to do reviews have back WAY off. It costs too much to buy samples and the testing is hard work. The articles are too expensive, even when written by sailors that do it as a labor of love for a pittance. A few will test things on You Tube, but ...

• Are they independent or are they getting a side spiff (most are)?
• Can they afford to test many over a term, or are they just reporting that the "thing" they bought to days is working today?
• Have they tested enough stuff to know what they are looking for?

 

[Refueler]

Bought an online copy this month and to my supprise found it much easier to read. Where the online version really comes in to its own is no matter where you are, it’s at hand to open up and read. Quick break and it’s there to read whenever one wants.

My hard copy PBOs just end up stuffed in the chair or put in a draw. The biggest issue though is what a waste of resources to create something that then gets binned. It is a thing of the past I feel. Can’t see the paper mag lasting much more time, more focus should be on selling it online.
Steveeasy

When I lived in UK ... I had binders and the listings that YBW sold to collate issues. I kept all issues and referred to old issues quite often. That was when PBO was a 'practical boat owners resource' ...

But the 'archive' got ruined when Wife and I separated ... she put the binders in the shed ... later when I went to collect them - they were wet and ruined.

Today I only have one Mag on subscription ... RCM&E ... an RC Model magazine ... I have the paper and digital subscription. Why both ? The paper one has the fold out plans for featured models which digital does not. But digital I can open and read when I'm travelling.

 

[Daydream believer]

I fear that unless an innovation is adopted by a major, something like a sail drive, or Rocna anchor, would never survive. The impecunious inventor has no vehicle to promote his idea and has insufficient finance to support the long term. Spade took years, decades, to gain traction and, galvanising apart, its one of the best anchors around - copied to make Rocna, Vulcan, Mantus M2, Ultra - but Spade had no 'sponsorship'.

Oiy you--- Sod off to an anchor thread & stop trying to sneak one in here

 

[Wansworth]

"Good Old Boat" folded about a year ago. Not enough ad revenue with old boats as the focus.

But Wooden Boat is still going?

 

[ghostlymoron2]

I was a regular subscriber and even occasional contributer but stopped buying it some years ago. I'm afraid that after a while the articles begin to repeat themselves. Also the mag itself became much thinner (partly due to very few boats for sale).

 

[PCUK]

There was an Australian mag' called Australasian Amateur Boat Builder. It was aimed at the real DIY enthusiasts on a budget. I remember one where someone had built a “tinny” out of corrugated roof sheets. It looked fantastic and was stable and safe. Real low end DIY. My mate made good money out of DIY articles for various mags' but that is more or less finished apart from one about every six months in PBO. It seems the real hands on stuff is no longer popular.

 

[Minerva]

Yes, it feels like younger generations are used to free content - paying significant money for a magazine must seem weird to them.

The printed format is changing. The days of the likes of monthly pbo / yachting monthly as was being value is over. I flick through the digital copies some months and can read all the interesting content in both mags over one cup of coffee. They offer little advantage over what can be had via social media (of which this forum is).

However one magazine I subscribe to is a quarterly adventure magazine with I think is about £20 delivered. Just looked at a copy from last year and it’s 150 pages long. Number of adverts in total is 8. First 4 pages and last 4 pages. That’s it. All written content is excellent and every photograph is worthy of hanging on your wall. There are 16 articles so an average of 9 pages a piece. Articles ranging from kiteboarding in Tierra del Fuego / sailing in Bafffin / visiting goat herders in Mongolia / hiking in Iran.

So there is a market for printed mags, but it is in the high quality end of coffee table magazines to enjoy and read at leisure.

***edit - just counted the adverts in the recent pbo. I think that was 43 adverts over 93 pages!***

 

[rotrax]

What has become of PBO?

Latest has 9 pages of irrelevant (to me, and i suspect the majority PBOers) guff about SATCOM systems, and at least the same about electric propulsion systems...for yachts, not tenders. Thought I'd opened "Yachting World" by mistake!

Similar to motoring magazines.... in their relentless quest to seek out/appease advertisers?

My recent issues of "CAR" magazine is seemingly preoccupied with electric SUVs, most >£45k, many are more than twice that....

Both subscriptions unlikely to be renewed next year.

Might help me save up for the £1000 AIS B+ that I'm told I "need"...

I gave up PBO years ago, for similar reasons.

I did have a couple of cheques from them for the 'practical tip' bit.

I suspect you are of my generation. Just to cheer yourself up, nip into a modern Motorcycle shop.

Apart from them having two wheels and an engine, there is little I recognise these days. And I was a Motorcycle Dealer until 2008!

Times - and expectations - change. We dont change so quickly.

 

[jbweston]

I like the Marine Quarterly. Not a mag, but a very enjoyable and entertaining periodical printed in high quality.

 

[DownWest]

.

I suspect you are of my generation. Just to cheer yourself up, nip into a modern Motorcycle shop.

Apart from them having two wheels and an engine, there is little I recognise these days. And I was a Motorcycle Dealer until 2008!

Times - and expectations - change. We dont change so quickly.

I find there is something of 'natural' resistance to change as one gets older... Liking the machines of ones youth. Like swopping my Greeves for a friend's Norton for an afternoon. Opened it out on the A47 and managed a ton before I chickened out. Bit later, asked to help run in a production racer Honda 400-4 by doing a few laps of the airfield perimeter track. Nice, but not so much fun... (rather trusting of them, since it was being raced on the Saturday after the test on a Wendesday..)

Like I can't get excited about the AC with these foiling cats. Not sailing as I like it.

 

[stownsend]

I stopped buying / subscribing to pbo years ago, would read an article and realise I had read similar 2 years earlier. Thought about buying a copy recently and saw how thin it was and put it back. Had a free copy from the boat show and this confirmed that I won’t be buying it again.

 

[Wansworth]

The late 1960 and 1970s were the era of the bare hull deck assembly that allowed people like my father to engage in a wonderful pastime of fitting out a bare hull to their specification and put to sea inthe finished article and it wasthe right time for PBO and like all things they have had their day

 

[Slowtack]

I buy it once a year..... To remind myself why I dont buy it....

 

[trapper guy]

electric propulsion i would consider.....if it was powered by a diesel engine driven alternator

batteries seem to be getting worse and worse!

i recal a time in the 70's where you could take an old beat up battery that had been flat for 1-3 years, charge it up and it was still good.
these days if they are left flat for 3months they are only good for the scrapyard

 

[thinwater]

I stopped buying / subscribing to pbo years ago, would read an article and realise I had read similar 2 years earlier. Thought about buying a copy recently and saw how thin it was and put it back. Had a free copy from the boat show and this confirmed that I won’t be buying it again.

Fortunately none of the threads on a forum repeat more often than 5 years.

In fact, readers are interested in some topics more than others, and so repeats are often requested by readers. True.