Conference unifix::sailing

    I too received my SS tray last year and during the summer, it hangs
    on the bulkhead in the main salon on the boat, in the off season,
    it hangs over the mantle in our livingroom. Its real nice.
    
    Also, I use to get all the sailing Mags. Now only Crusing World
    remain with a occasional copy of Wooden Boat even though I have
    a fiberglass boat. Those are the two best mags on the market.
    
    Paul

    I understand that the SS tray is restricted to Auxiliary inboard
    boats only?  What about a 26' with an outboard?  Would they accept
    that?
    
    I agree with the magazine selection, CW seems to be one of the
    best in the bunch.
    
    Bob

    Well, my choice is for sailing world, same editor, different
    priorities. It is a great magazine and I imagine that CW is just as 
    good. I too have read most of the book, cover to cover, within 
    about 2 days of getting the newest issue. Then I go back and read it
    over a few time before the next one comes. 
    	As for the tray offer, it's only valid on new production boat.
    If my boat was still being produced I'd have tried already, but S2
    doesn't make a 6.7 any more. Sailing World's great and it really makes
    me want to look for some regattas to sail in this summer. No, I haven't
    been on my S2 yet, and I am anxious.
    
    Geoff
    

    I just subcribed to CW. The offer came in the mail, and what a deal ! 2
    years for $19.95 with a money back, full refund, anytime, even up to
    month 23. They must believe in their product.

    re. 2: You are right.I am sure that the offer is for inboards,but if
    the make of your boat was available with inboard or outboard why not
    send yhe card in.They don't have to know.Besides they are usually good at
    it.Besides I also believe that Corea gets the tab  for the tray
    probably in return for its advertisement at CW. 
    re. 4: Don't forget to send yor card for your framed plaque-I am sure
    they recently changed from the tray to the frame.-Doesn't matter the
    age of your boat as long as you bought it whithin the time they specify
    in the instructions.By the way the card has to be sighned by the
    seller,previous owener before send in.
    
    
    

    My boat was 22 years old when I bought it 18 months ago. They still
    sent me the tray.
    
    Paul

re .0 and others:

Yes, Cruising World is a fine magazine (I've been a subscriber for 
thirteen years). But it has one really major flaw that it shares with 
every other magazine except Practical Sailor. Quite simply, Cruising 
World (and the others) won't risk offending advertisers and as a result 
it is a far less valuable magazine than it could be. 

Example: The February 1990 issue has a story about the capsizing and 
eventual loss of a 45' sloop. A scary story, but one that does virtually 
nothing to increase our knowledge of safe sailing and well-built boats. 
If the story had been in a magazine like Practical Sailor, we would have
learned (among other things): 

  Why the half-filled water tanks broke loose .....

  Why the mast came down, was the mast deck or keel-stepped, what was the 
  rigging size, what was the mast section, was the rigging wire or rod .....

  Why the the ports in the hull failed, how they were installed, were they 
  lexan or acrylic, how big and how thick they were .....

  Who built the boat .....

  What design features contributed to the capsize .....

  Why did the interior of the boat disintegrate .....

  And on and on.

This is the information that would be really valuable to those planning 
and/or dreaming of extended cruising (the very group of sailors Cruising 
World tries to serve). By not discussing these questions Cruising World 
does a major disservice to the sailing public. We must depend on talking
to other sailors and on sources such as SAILING notes. That this
information is important and unavailable is shown by Note 1046, for
example. Read the boat reviews in Cruising World, Sail, and others.
Never an unkind word, every boat is marvelous and sails well. 

Were I to subscribe to just one magazine, it would be Practical Sailor. 
The articles on what worked and what didn't in the CSTAR, for instance, 
are quite useful and are the sort of article that any serious sailing 
magazine should print.

    The last issue of CW left me cold, too much about exotic recipes and
    places that really do not interest me. But on to my point.
    
    CW does not always publish the correct information. Several issues back
    (the Safety at Sea issue I believe) there was an article on EPIRBs. The
    article stated that the way to determine if your EPIRB is putting out
    a signal was to turn it on (BTW do this 5 min. before the hour only) with
    your VHF on and tuned to channel 16 and you will hear the undulating
    tone of your EPIRB. This is not true, I tried it and it did not work.
    I then called the manufacturer and was informed that the article was
    wrong, the correct way was to use an AM radio tuned the the frequency
    range of the EPIRB. I tried this and it worked. I wrote a letter to
    CW and informed them of their error and stated what I had done. I never
    received an acknowledgement nor did I ever see a correction published in
    the following issues. ( Of all the issues to blow it? the Safety at
    Sea issue)
    
    This is not the first time I have written to CW about erroneous information
    that they have published and not once did they ever publish a correction.
    
    I find this to be irresponsible journalism and it makes me suspect
    about all of the other articles that I have read in their magazine.
    
    My sentiments are with Alan, I am more interested in knowing about
    the whys and wherefores than just knowing something happened. What
    caused it? mechanical? design? material failure? or human error.
    
    Alan also stated that CW will never write a bad review about a boat.
    He certainly is correct there. They will not ever right a review about
    anything, unless you advertise in their magazine. Have you ever seen
    a review about a Catalina in CW? Catalina does not advertise anywhere.
    
    I have a gift subscription, as I would not renew myself. Next year I
    will ask the giver to forget CW if they do not mind.
              

    re. 7: Of course CW has the flaw of showing everythingh rosy .
    As a matter of fact in reality the Offshore magazine wins thumbs
    down over CW.
    However,different folks different strokes Alan.It is not fair to
    compare CW with PS. One is a magasine which tries to relax you and
    make you see mostly the good part of life in the water and the other one
    is like a consumer's report. How about Glamour magazine,does it
    shows ugly women or bodybuilding,does it shows  plump bodies like mine?
    Of course not.Now if we  want to know specifics we go and buy the
    books written for these specifics.Like anchoring or rigging etc.
    I wonder if a magazine showed eaqually the good and the ugly how
    many people will read it.In my case although I know that Offshore is
    more "honest" than CW in presenting equally both sides I choose CW.
    Like I said who needs more reality?
    Have a nice President's day everybody.

re .9:

Rare oh so rare is the book (let alone magazine) that gives an honest 
appraisal of what is good and what isn't by manufacturer and model 
number. BOAT/US's product tests (life jackets, flares, and anchors -- 
in which Cruising World was involved I think) are to be heartily 
applauded. Sure, Offshore provides a not always rosy picture of boating, 
but from the viewpoint of captain/crew inexperience, ignorance, 
stupidity, and foolishness. I don't recall any negative comments about 
particular boats or equipment (but then I'm only an occasional reader). 

Perhaps the ideal magazine would combine the best of Cruising World and 
Practical Sailor. Would anyone like to invest in a new publishing 
venture? 

    
    I'll be your Warm Water Corespondent...   :^)
    

Cruising World is a wonderful, glossy, extra-wide magazine for cruising dreams
being made into reality.  They have some great continuing stories, like that
couple from England aboard the Ishtar, sailing along the European coast, in 
the Med, across the Atlantic, along the coast of Brazil, and now up into the 
Lesser Antilles.  

I believe that it was CW that carried the Tania Aebi story, too, about a 
young woman from New York single-handing it around the world.  

The magazine is definitely geared to cruisers and would-be cruisers.  It's not
a consumer guide in the sense of critisms but does provide spec sheets of
new designs.  

We are also slaves of 
	
	o WoodenBoat 
	o Classic Boat (out of the U.K., an upper-eschelon WoodenBoat) 
	o Soundings (this is a real nitty gritty rag that presents various
	  mishaps befalling cruisers)
	o NECN (New England Coastal News)

We don't usually pick up Offshore, although we have seen it.  

Why is the subtitle of .12 "Messing about in Boats", then fails to mention
MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS on the list of magazine?

Is it possible someone does NOT read MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS?

As long as we're on the 'my favorite magazine kick' ...

1. Messing Around in Boats - the most sweet-spirited of all boating publications

2. Ocean Navigator - specialized but real, with a lot of interesting insights
   from professionals

3. Pracitical Sailor - for Alan's reasons

4. WoodenBoat - best esthetics

5. Cruising World - for escapism

Ross Faneuf

    
    Is 'Nautical Quarterly' defunct?  Hard bound, with excellent
    photography and artwork, and some interesting stories.  It was
    shown to me by a friend, but I've never seen it sold over the
    counter.
    

    I've heard wonderful things about "Messing Around in Boats" but have
    never seen a copy at my local newstand which carries just about all the
    boating related mags printed in English.  Do you have to be some kind
    of privledged person to get a copy?
    
    Let me cast my vote for my favorite boating mag - Wooden Boat.  Don't
    even have a wooden boat but I do have an old wooden house and, to me,
    there ain't much difference.  At least in terms of the amount of time
    that has to be spent for amount of pleasure that's derived.  Wooden
    Boat is pretty useful.  I never knew how to use or sharpen a furniture
    scraper before an article in WB showed me how.  Now I use them all the
    time and wonder how I ever lived without them.
    
    WB also offers more words/dollar than any of the other mags.  And most
    of them are well written.  Some of the articles are real classics.  The
    Biography of Charles Francis Adams that appeared about 6 months back
    was one of the most memorable sailing pieces ever.  Re-read that one
    about half a dozen times.  I suppose the subject matter was more
    appropriate to Sailing World but it would have made the rest of the mag
    look bad in comparison - which is not hard to do.
    
    New Yorker is not normally a sailing mag but about 10 years ago they
    ran a lengthy write up on the first Bermuda Race (forgot which year)
    run on IMS.  One of the most insightful race accounts I've ever
    encountered.  Quite a bit different from the we-tacked-they-tacked
    account we usually see.  Again, it was just to good and, to be honest,
    too revealing, to have made it into one of mainstream sailing mags.
    
    I like magazine articles that rant and rave and keep me up at night. 
    But that type of writing tends not to sell too many Henri Lloyd rain
    suits or Harken blocks.  And the space they occupy detracts from the
    available space for ads.  But the NY Times (publisher of CW and SW) has
    to make a buck too.  But it ices me when I seen the products promoted
    in the text of the articles themselves.  Sailing World has started to
    do this and the resulting articles read like something from Glamour. 
    Please - not in my sailing mags!  
    
    - gene

    It could be interesting sometime to see some US mags to compare
    them with the offerings in the UK. I suspect it make us realise
    over here how much cheaper sailing is in the US......
                                                   
                                                   
    Pete
    

    re .16
    
    A few months back in Sailing World there was an article about spinnaker
    pole gybing technique. The photo's and writing attended to foul weather
    gear more than anything else.
    
    

    Pete, by far the best RACING magazine is published in the UK.  Seahorse
    magazine is published by the RORC.  Best in many categories including
    the major events in the US.  The articles are technical and the
    photography superb in that you can see the deck layouts and the
    mechanics of the racing boats pictured.
    
    Sailing World has finally gotten back to its racing roots but has a way
    to go.  Sail is merely a year round chartering advertising guide with
    and occasional "how to" article by by the Lin and Larry So-and-so on
    varnishing the figurehead on your bowsprit.  Real useful.  Yachting is
    a mixture of power and sail, but the sailing articles are getting
    better.  Practical Sailor is very good for product comparisons, but not
    a glossy magazine as such.  
    
    In short, the European and British magazines I have seen are not always
    as slick as the US counterparts, but often have better and more
    technical information.
    
    Dave

Re: .16

I cant let this pass without inserting a plug for Messing About in Boats.

MAB is published twice a month, usually about 24 or 32 pages, of black& white
prinitng. Focus is on small boats, mostly human powered, but an ocassional
article on some power boat topic- Focus on New England, but gaining subscribers
all over the US, and even a few in UK. Articles range from interviews with 
proffessional builders to photos from amateur builders of their projects
to 'adventure stories'- one current one in about 6 parts by a woman that did a
kayak trip up in the Artic last summer.

Its published by a guy named Bob Hicks, and is truly a 'one man band'. Bob
does it all- the writing, photography, typing, paste up, mailing- everything. 
The only place I know that its sold over the counter is at Mystic Seaport. All
other sales are by subscription.

I believe current subscription is $20 per year.

Write to MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS
         29 Burley St. 
         Wenham MA 01984

I admit to being totally biased about this mag- Bob is a longtime friend.

Re: .16 & .20,

You can call Bob Hicks at Messing About in Boats (at his home, in other 
words) at 508-774-0906.  Simply ask for a sample copy or two to look at,
and he'll gladly send 'em out.  Given the usual gloss to which we become 
accustomed, I like to suggest anyone who's a little intrigued (if not a 
lot), subscribe once - $20 for a year, 24 issues.  That way you can chance
developing an affection for it.  Besides, if at any time you decide it's
not your cup of tea, Bob will cancel your subscription and refund the
unused portion of your fee. 

If you think of it, please mention that Ron Ginger and John Spencer 
convinced you to call.  ;-)

J.

    I think there's a magazine titled Small Boat (Craft) Journal, but can't
    seem to locate a source (retail or subscription).
    
    I've seen Sail, Sailing, and a variety of Cruise magazines. They all
    seem a bit too glossy for my tastes. I'm looking for something focusing
    on the low end cruiser: (19' (biggest) and under, trailerable, single 
    sailor, weekender, etc, practical hints, fix it stuff, etc.) 
    
    Has anyone run across such a publication(s)?
    
    Replies could be posted here on forwarded to Pharos::Norman.

The December 1995 issue of CRUISING WORLD magazine has several articles 
about safety at sea. One of these is "Heavy Weather Helming", 
illustrated by a 1.25 page photograph of a late middle age fellow 
steering in a huge following sea. He is not wearing a safety harness. 

So much for "safety" at sea. 

The notes about collision and collision avoidance that were here have 
been moved to Note 2249.

The Moderator