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Seajet

Seajet

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What on earth are IPC / YBW doing repeating ill informed nonsense in the ' news ' e-mail ?!

A family dinghy sailing in Scottish waters have a capsize; it would be useful to know the type of boat, as apparently this means ' in trouble ', news to me as a dinghy sailor / instructor as almost all sailing dinghies are designed to recover easily.

The Coastguard then says ' lifejackets should be worn on deck ', which presumably means on deck in yachts and when sailing dinghies, though maybe they think one strolls around on dinghy decks judging by the level of knowledge shown.

Any dinghy sailor knows, a buoyancy aid is what one needs, a lifejacket will be a serious encumbrance preventing one from righting the boat or doing anything useful.

Most modern lifejackets are flat stowing, one-shot gas bottle jobs, manual or auto, and I can say from personal experience that when in even the smaller 75 Newton jobs one cannot swim apart from a slow backstroke, and cannot get around a dinghy to sort it out.

The glib ' lifejackets must be worn when on deck ' just plays into the hands of those control freaks who seek to impose regulations when they know nothing and won't be affected themselves...

It seems a great shame to me that YBW just repeated this stuff unchallenged.
 
Yes, it's sad and frustrating.

From my glimpses into other magazine publishing empires, I would be unsurprised if such news items never passed the specialist journalists on the sailing mags, and were posted by someone recently promoted from unpaid intern on Trouser Press Weekly, and also covering web news for titles ranging from Practical Taxidermy to Military Uniform Fetishists' Monthly. It's a tough business, and having experienced and knowledgeable journalists with the time to ask questions and follow up issues can't be tolerated (especially if you have towering layers of management and accounting to support!).
 
Little Sister,

Ta, my eyebrows did rise when I read of ' 150 jobs to go from IPC ', how big an empire is it then ?!

I suspect from my experience with BAe the talented and experienced had better watch their backs, they only show up the others...
 
Normally I would agree. However on this occasion it sounds as though this was a dinghy with children. Sailing clubs (dinghies) generally insist on life jackets, when they actually mean buoyancy aids. In this situation I can see why the coastguard might want to make the point they did.
 
Well my club which caters for dinghies and cruisers insists on buoyancy aids in dinghies; yes for small children the small permanent flotation foam lifejackets are a good idea, but insisting on them for adults in sailing dinghies or on deck in cruisers all the time is daft.

Where I do agree with recommending ( not making legally mandatory ) lifejackets for adults is in tenders between cruiser and shore.
 
Seajet said:
It would be interesting to know how many of those are clued up journalists in whatever field they cover !

I suspect I can feel gritted teeth from here by people who'd like to comment but feel they'd better not...
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Most of the journalists will be clued up and interested in the field their magazine works for. It doesn't mean any of them manage the news on the website though.
 
Woodlouse said:
Most of the journalists will be clued up and interested in the field their magazine works for. It doesn't mean any of them manage the news on the website though.
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Woodlouse,

that is pretty much what I was getting at, along with the usual Chiefs/ Indians ratio of highly paid berks versus those who actually know what they're doing...:rolleyes:
 
Seajet said:
that is pretty much what I was getting at, along with the usual Chiefs/ Indians ratio of highly paid berks versus those who actually know what they're doing...:rolleyes:
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You need only look at the inside front cover of YM to see who does what. The first and obvious conclusion is that there is a total absence of highly paid berks. I count four staff writers, seven contributors, two photographers and three people on the art and production side. Then there are two in marketing (in UK), three on website, eight on advertising. Budgets are tight in magazines, as they are elsewhere, so none of these will be a sinecure.
 
vyv_cox said:
You need only look at the inside front cover of YM to see who does what. The first and obvious conclusion is that there is a total absence of highly paid berks. I count four staff writers, seven contributors, two photographers and three people on the art and production side. Then there are two in marketing (in UK), three on website, eight on advertising. Budgets are tight in magazines, as they are elsewhere, so none of these will be a sinecure.
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In my experience the highly paid berks don't get mentioned in things like the credits for producing magazines, but they are still there...
 
vyv_cox said:
You need only look at the inside front cover of YM to see who does what. The first and obvious conclusion is that there is a total absence of highly paid berks. I count four staff writers, seven contributors, two photographers and three people on the art and production side. Then there are two in marketing (in UK), three on website, eight on advertising. Budgets are tight in magazines, as they are elsewhere, so none of these will be a sinecure.
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The two in marketing cover 13 brands not just YM or ybw...at what's this about highly paid?
 
The two boaty magazines I get have certainly gone downhill over the past 12 months as far as written content is concerned;
they appear little more than advertising carriers.
 
YM had an audited circulation of 24,741 for July-Dec 2012. That's pretty marginal for any commercial magazine and certainly not conducive to an excess of staff at any level. In common with most 'hobby' mags it's as good (or bad) as it is largely due to the enthusiasm of the staff (and freelancers).
Compare that with IPC's own Chat magazine, which scored a cool 1,222,242 sales in the same period and is no doubt known far and wide for its cutting-edge journalism. Still, every publisher needs a cash cow to keep the rest going, although you sometimes wonder why -- in hard-nosed financial terms -- they bother.
 
I have to say, my preference is to read these forums for info' and boaty chat, then if I'm going to buy a magazine it will be ' Classic Boat ' to drool over lovely designs, the odd one or two of which I've crewed on, and I'm a firm believer in keeping sailing heritage going, I will never forget my days crewing on a Falmouth Working Boat and the TS Royalist.

Maybe the magazines - especially PBO but also YM - should deal more with realistic boats, it's quite a rare person who has a million to spare after getting a house !

Boats for Coastal Use should be for FUN, and don't need air conditioning, tumble dryers or dishwashers...:rolleyes:

Come on Richard, let's see more about boats the average bloke can actually afford, and a bit about recent history as mentioned on the ' Hunter boats ' thread here.
 
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LittleSister,

sorry, yes bloke-esses too; a chum and I once sailed to Braye, Alderney and the harbourmaster greeted us with " You've just missed 'em lads, there was an all-girl crew, smashing looking, they just set off for Guernsey ! "

I have always suspected he just wanted to do without two scruffy berks, but after tacking across the Channel we were too tired to even think about crumpet...
 
Seajet said:
Come on Richard, let's see more about boats the average bloke can actually afford, and a bit about recent history as mentioned on the ' Hunter boats ' thread here.
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Given that boats as small as 25 ft now cost £50,000 it would seem that you are suggesting that more pre-used boats could be featured. This would open the door to further 'recycled articles' accusations. The magazines cannot satisfy people, no matter what they write.
 
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