In the pubs…Q3 2005...

What’s available to read, not where to drink!

For descriptions of the magazines, please visit our magazine websites page.

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Cruising World in August featured yours truly Alex's article about free ENC charts and affordable charting software which has started to create a ripple in the industry (we noticed Chuck Husick immediately followed with his own piece on the subject in Boat US Magazine in Sept). Interestingly, no one seemed to know about this until Alex revealed this well kept government secret to the world. We always love readin the Bernon's Log of Ithaka, and the last two installments were up to snuff. We love the way they have with words and imagery.

SAIL in August featured Pocket Cruisers while September featured the best new boats. We already have a boat, so this was way too much boat coverage for us.

Lats & Atts just keeps getting bigger and better with every issue. Bob even explained that they never figured out that they were supposed to cut the amount of editorial if they had fewer ad pages, so they just kept adding more editorial until the ad pages grew, too. And Bob's editorials reveal that he's really a very sensitive kind of guy trying to hide it all under those big tattoos for protection. We're not buying it anymore!

It seems that Practical Sailor is back on track with tough subjects, thorough investigations, and lots of them. From two different looks at VHF radios, to fairleads, windlasses, compasses, mast climbing systems, DC panels, inflatables and surveyors, this quarter produced volumes of valuable and practical information like that we've come to admire from PS.

Blue Water Sailing continues to cover the secret destinations for cruisers that few others tackle...and this quarter added some uncharacteristic destinations from the Saint Lawrence Seaway in July to the great loop through America's heartland in September.

Windcheck does a great job of covering Long Island Sound sailing issues, period. The balance between cruising and racing is ideal and there is always a great human interest story. Junior Sailing was covered in every issue. Keep it up!

Soundings did a wonderful feature on catboats in August and a great article on Billy Joel - the boatbuilder from Oyster Bay - and his radical new boat design in September. In Gulf Stream Gales Parts I and II, Soundings analyzes what happened to the vessels caught in the early season storms and monstrous waves, including Almeisan and Tom Tighes tragic last voyage to Bermuda. And don't miss "The art of Gunkholing" in the July issue; the top 10 gunkholes:

1. Damariscove Island, ME
2. Muscongus Bay, ME
3. Pulpit Harbor, ME
4. Quissett Harbor, MA
5. Cape Poge Bay, MA
6. Selden Creek, CT
7. Wye River, MD
8. Muddy Creek, MD
9. Morgan Island, SC
10. Hillborough Bay, FL

DIY had another great issue which featured among its many valuable items a guide to buying a classic fiberglas boat, how to optimize the performance of your transducers, doctoring the hardware installation in cored decks, and repowering with a stern drive. It also included an uncharacteristic and very informative article on sail trim, with photos that illustrate right and wrong sail shapes. Bravo DIY.

SAIL magazine launched its own version of a DIY-type magazine called BoatWorks and you can get a subscription to it if you renew your SAIL subscription for $10.  Honestly, are there that many people DIY-ing? 

Offshore magazine did its annual Best of the Northeast issue, which frankly comes up with the same results every year. Things just don;t change that much around here. But as always, the best are the funniest, scariest, perfect moments, best gadgets and the photos. But I have to take issue with the winning photo being enhanced with Photoshop. Still, Offshore covers many ports of call, recounts lots of special memories and covers destinations from Bristol to the Bay of Fundy, and Mystic to Gloucester this quarter. The August issue had several nice article about cruising with pets.

Ocean Navigator had a useful telemedicine article in the Jul/Aug issue as well as a nice concise review of watermaker technology and a great section on efficient weather routing in Sep. They were one of many magazines that covered repair of cored decks this quarter. Is that cored boatbuilding technology is beginning to show its age? And, sorry but the Ocean Voyager Ocean Almanac was uninspired. The issues still get thinner with every month.

We're adding Boat US Magazine to the collection this month because with each passing month I find myself reading more and more of it. I read the last issue cover to cover. The reason? They cover safety issues from the perspective of access to claims data and USCG reports; they offers ideas about optimizing insurance coverage, meeting regulations, pending legslation, knowing rules of the road and exhibiting courtesy. I find they have extermely useful information that is not covered in other magazines, so we've included them in our listing. In the September issue, they even show how to create a solar lunar table to predict when fishing will be best! They also covered the rogue waves that have been reported with increasing frequency, including the details of the rescue of the crew of Almeisan. As a result of this article, I will be adding swim goggles to our ditch kit.

This quarter, we also had a visit to Ireland and picked up a couple of European publications. It's always fun to see how news is covered on the other side of the pond. Practical Boat Owner is a genre we don't really have in the US. They cover both sail and power as well as topics from safety to finding the right boat, and from medicine onboard (great little piece on managing broken bones in the August issue) to DIY projects like curing osmosis. Yachting World did a special 12-page feature on the America's Cup that was exceptionally well done and such a different perspective from the good 'ole USA point of view. They also provided spectacular coverage of the Classic Regatta and Antigua Race Week. The photography was awesome. Seahorse, the official publication of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, carried a provacative look at Valencia and a fantastic supplement about the Volvo Ocean Race, Life at the Extreme. Why don't we get coverage like that here? It surely could drum up a little interest in what's shaping up to be the first real general interest big news sailing event.

Note to publishers: 

If we didn’t cover your publications, it’s because we either don’t know about them, they are regional outside our current territory of coverage, or we just do not subscribe at the moment.  If you send us copies, we’d be glad to include them in our review.  Thanks so much, and keep the news flowing and the dreams growing.