YM Then & Now

[Guest]

I've been reading Scuttlebutt for three years now and I have often read criticism of the current magazine vs. the "good old days". They never said whether that was the Des Sleightholme" variety, or the Andrew Bray or Geoff Pack varient, but always "wasn't it so much better, didn't they write such challenging articles, they've dumbed down" etc.

Well, in January I paid £25 to the RNLI and a chap gave me almost every YM and PBO from the past twenty years and I've reached a conclusion I wanted to share: the current mag is an infinitely better read than any of the previous "looks".

Why? Well the layout is better, the charts more accurate, the photos are in colour (and generally of a higher standard), the for sale section enables colour photos, there is ALWAYS a balance of the technical and the entertaining, the reviews are their best ever, ... the list goes on.

I don't know how it is for you, but I start with the letters section, read True Confessions, then Libby, and then Tom Cunliff's piece. Then I look for the meat.

Read back through the older copies. There are some gems - notably from Des Sleithholme, and you can see where a lot of the current features come from, but it was no more advanced than it is now.

I suppoese sextant use was very technical - but well done to death - but the elements of navigation were no more advanced. The current (long running) series on manoeuvering dwarfs anything previous - and is probably MORE technical.

Mybe the lon-time readers of YM have just leaned more as the years have passed? This would make articles on light air sailing seem "old hat" - and they already know everything there is to know about spinnaker handling (mostly a PBO topic?) - who knows?

When I was in the USA - living on my boat and sailing constantly - I thought Cruising World was the pinnacle of sailing magazines. These days it's a positively nasty, thin, rag with none of it's former glory. It pales in comparison even to the worst mag on sale in the UK.

So come on "old timers" from 1980 onwards, what was "better" then? (other than "The Cruising Scene" ...)? I can't find it!

ps. I noted frequent comments about the journalistic independence rom what the owners wanted in Des Sleightholme's book "Funny Old Life", so I suppose some things never change ... even this month's articles have provoked comments about "don't want to offend Hunter etc.".

pps. Yes, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the Baltic have been poorly represented consistantly!

 

[Guest]

I found a few old Yms hidden away in lockers on my new boat. Early 80s issues. The layout was not so good and the pictures were not all in colour but there was a lot more of the printed word to read. Not just ym but all publications now are much more style than substance. lots of glossy colour photographs and clever computer graphics but they are read in minutes. Standing in Smiths with all the other sad types i have read three mags in no time at all, certainly before the staff have had time to call for security.

 

[Guest]

I rather agree with Kirky. Yes, they are more glossy, but largely irrelevant and full of journalese. Many of the technical aticles on navigation are flawed, often in principle. What I liked about Des and beavis, was that they informed AND amused. There is nobody in any yottimag capable of doing that anymore. And that applies also to YW and PBO, which have become humourless. Though perhaps they just take life too seriously. After all, yachting is supposed to be a pleasure, a release from the stress of everyday existence.

William Cooper

 

[pvb]

There\'s lots of humour in PBO...

Just take a look at the circuit diagrams they publish for DIY electrical projects! (Usually corrected a month or so later). And what about the formulae? (See current post on PBO forum). Bet the PBO staff have many happy hours chuckling about the hapless readers trying to follow the instructions.

Sorry, but I tired of PBO many years ago, when it became a bit too much of a maritime version of the "Blue Peter" programme.

YM, on the other hand, has been a constant companion for more years than I care to mention. It's still good, although I don't now get the same inspiration I remember receiving years ago from Des Sleightholme's articles. Probably my age!

 

[VMALLOWS]

I'll date my comments from 1983: probably about when I started buying the mags.. (YM & PBO)....bought the first boat in 1984.

I certainly learned a lot from the mags in the early days, probably because I didn't know a lot before! and the 'adventure stories' were always thrilling and enticing. Would I have crossed the channel in 1985 without those articles on RDF and those wonderfull Ch88 transmissions? and what to expect in Cherboug ... or Poole?
Would I have known about DECCA when it arrived for yachties?

Of course when it comes to the 'basic' information the mags are now becoming repititious for me but I guess not for the new sailing intake. So now I agree its the letters, editorial, 'coast-to-coast' , 'experiences', occaisonal not-too-exotic adventure..... that keep me subscribing. Although I've been to most of the places featured, I certainly keep all the 'pull out port guides' since they're usually better than anything I've got in my dating pilots.

Where I do complain is the (fairly recent) tendency among the IPC magasines to 'share' information to the point that I am reading IDENTICAL letters in both YM and PBO (I don't read the other two) ... and I suspect much other coordinated material. I try to decide which to drop but strangely one always seems to be 'good' one month and the other the next?

Curiously a certain competitive magasine from a different stable seems to want to follow a very similar format rather than develop its own style and to me has nothing to offer.

...................

Can only agree regarding CRUISING WORLD. I used to subscibe but at some point it went down hill for me. The last issue I have says 'A NY Times Company' so guess it was taken over like many small US independents. I seem to remember Ziff-Davis buying up much of the 'outdoor-world 'market in the 1980s.

...................

 

[stevebirch2002]

I agree that the more experienced get less from the basic articles but I certainly enjoy PBO and Sailing Today. The pull-out Harbour Guides are excellent and the For Sale is always the first place to look. I think that the new boy on the block "ALL AT SEA" may have the right idea with a free issue that is paid for by the advertisers but even this is now being charged for, albeit a very modest sum. In the USA there is a wonderful publication called "GOOD OLD BOAT" that seems to put our offerings to shame, though this publication is not owned by a conglomerate like all of the UK (IPC etc).

Albin Vega "Southern Comfort" V1703

 

[Guest]

Duff old boats....

that were around in the fifties and sixties probably produced more laughs and semi disasters compared to our posh ones now. You know, converted old lifeboats, tore outs, cemented bottomed jobs etc... It seems fairly rare now to see a group of young lads in an old wreck having fun.

 

[AndrewB]

YM used to be far better value, here\'s why ...

Why has YM become so expensive? Over Christmas I was using YM to compare how prices of yachting gear have changed, and it dawned that nothing has increased over the last quarter of a century as much as the magazine itself. Look at these prices comparing the November 1977 issue with November 2001.

...............................................1977..........2001.....%Increase
Yachting Monthly........................55p...........£3.20........581
4 yr old Contessa 32 (small ad)..£15,750..... £60,000........381
Retail Price Index (Jan 87=100).....47.5..........173.6.........365
Budget 6 man liferaft (in valise)....£415..........£799..........193
8ft inflatable (Avon, Plastimo).......£250..........£511.........204
Budget fixed VHF........................£285.........£229...........80

So why is YM 60% more in real terms? Because its bigger? Well, no actually. The November 1977 issue of YM was 256 pages long of which 101 were devoted to advertising, in November 2001 it was 180 pages with 88½ of advertising. So on a per page basis it has more than doubled in price, in real terms.

Because its got more in, then? Well there are far more full-colour pictures. But this has been bought at the price of content. A 3 page cruising article by the Pardeys in the Nov 77 issue contains 2,650 words; a similar 4 page article by Justine Oliver in Nov 2001 contains 2,100. So, typically there are two-thirds more words per page. In other words, in terms of written content, it has more than TRIPLED in price in real terms.

So are the articles three times better perhaps? The Nov 77 issue (and I picked this pretty much at random) had articles by Eric Hiscock, Colin Jarman, The Pardeys, The Cornells, Bill Beavis, plus Des Sleightholme illustrating dinghy handling. Today’s contributors may prove their equal, in time, but hard to believe they would be better.

So, YM, you give us punters a few extra pretty pictures, and think you can charge us three times as much as much? We must be suckers!

 

[billmacfarlane]

Totally agree Bill. Both Des and Bill Beavis wrote excellent informative articles that informed and amused and occasionally made me laugh out loud. Bill especially had a very offbeat way of looking at things.Would Des and Bill be employed in a modern sailing magazine ? Would they want to be ? I suppose modern magazines in general reflect the times to a certain extent. In these days of the big on effect , short on attention span , world , magazines in general seem to be big on the colour piccies but short on the substance ie words.

 

[kimhollamby]

As someone who sits in the middle of all the magazines I can assure you of one thing...the editorial teams compete at least as strongly as they would if they belonged to different companies. There's no co-ordination or sharing of content that I am aware of although it is true that a number of reader letters get unwittingly duplicated because they are often sent to more than one title.

Ironically, perhaps you would see less duplication if there was a degree of co-ordination but that would also lose the competitive edge which has, in my view, greater benefits.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[HaraldS]

Have been reading yachting magazines for the last 35 years and YM really was the first as my father had subscribed to it. English not being my first language it was a good eductaion learning the terminology. So I think between 1965 and 1975 I read every copy, later it gor very spotty and in the last five or so years I think I bought every other issue at some airport.
Many years back I was convinced it was the best of the yachting magazines, but that is a long time ago and memory keeps the good impressions. Certainly everything was a lot simpler.
Today I read many of them and YM doesn't rank at the top any more. For my taste it has become less international and more focused on the Solent clientel. Also maybe a little bit narrow minded and I don't remember that from the past. At the top of my current list: Latitude 38. Really miserable in appearance, with no color and cheap paper, I find the very enjoyable reading.