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Old 01-01-2013, 08:13   #61
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

The high advertisement to article ratio of some mags would not be a problem if most sailors were female! My other half has a whole slew of (home improvement, clothing, gardening, etc) mags that are nothing but advertisements! She LOVES em' ....
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Old 01-01-2013, 08:21   #62
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

I know it's hard to believe, but a lot of people like the advertising and all the charter company ads and it's often why they buy the magazines in the first place! Ever noticed how many charter companies are at boat shows and how big their booths are? That's why they also command so much advertising space in the magazines. It is very easy to think that my own personal preferences and demographic are not being catered to by a particular magazine, but I have to remind myself that maybe I'm not the average reader either.
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Old 01-01-2013, 08:44   #63
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

I would say he was a warrior, rather than a war-monger, and was there at a time when a warrior was desperately needed. His running of Britain in WWII was nothing short of absolute genius - you only have to listen to some of his speeches to appreciate the mind behind them.

He was totally pro-empire, but the simple fact was that the concept of empire had had it's day.

The fact that Britain dismantled it's empire in a relatively peaceful and agreeable way (do any other countries have a club for ex-empire members, and a games for the same?) is eternally to it's (and Churchill's) credit.

Churchill did (correctly) identify that the only way the war could be won, was for the United States to become involved. A lot of his speeches were mainly targeted towards an American audience, and he took pains to make sure American reporters in the UK were relaying them back to the US!

I'll leave you with this, the last paragraph of the "finest hour" speech. An excellent example of his genius.

"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour.""
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Old 01-01-2013, 08:52   #64
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" magazine?

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Well, I feel better about that, as that was mine; they cut it for length and the rest will be in a 1-year follow up. Regarding diesel, give it a second read; they worked quite well on diesel as well, preventing hazing we saw on unprotected tanks. Certainly enough value over the life of the unit.

I took a look again and did a fast read and the filters look a potential. Seems if they really could keep the water out that the filter may be a better money spend than on a dual Racor filter!

What happens to the filters when you overfill your fuel tank a little and fuel spits out the vent?
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Old 01-01-2013, 10:04   #65
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" magazine?

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I took a look again and did a fast read and the filters look a potential. Seems if they really could keep the water out that the filter may be a better money spend than on a dual Racor filter!



What happens to the filters when you overfill your fuel tank a little and fuel spits out the vent?
That is bad. The resin is ruined and needs replaced. The manufacture (H2OUT says something about regenerating the resin, but if you think through the procedure you'll find it makes no sense. In the test boats we have a Raycor Lifeguard anti-spit back valves (Atwood makes a similar devise) and a high loop protecting the filter. No problems.

There was an installation guide, but it was cut for space and will be in a follow-up. I hate space limitations. As the picture above shows, the vent comes from the tank, into the top of the filter (via an internal pipe), then down and out through the bottom of the bridge deck (catamaran). The filter is above the fill on this boat, and on the other test boat a hose was simply run in a high loop.

As for the Raycor, who's to say you can't get water from the supplier? I have a lot of gasoline and stationary diesel expereince, but little with marine diesel. However, my gut tells me that in most cases the lion's share of the water comes from the air.
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Old 01-01-2013, 10:41   #66
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

I've been a PS subscriber for a number of years. Some issues are more useful than others, but overall I enjoy the magazine. If you don't see the value in the magazine, by all means don't subscribe. I don't understand all the posts charging bias. Practical Sailor does not accept advertising. They are entirely subscriber supported. I may not agree with them on a particular evaluation, and sometimes I don't, but I can rest assured that the results were not shaped by ad dollars.
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Old 01-01-2013, 10:59   #67
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

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[...]Some issues are more useful than others,[...]
Ti,
Overall, that's how I see it too. Unfortunately, the percentage of the useful issues declined significantly somewhere around the time when they went to glossy color pages.

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I've seen this time and time again. First, passionate zealots start the printing of a little newsletter or magazine - often times using cheap matte stock, or even #50 publisher's grade stuff ...

Then, the magazine becomes popular, and develops more than just a "cult" following. Inevitably, a big publishing house buys the mag, strips out half the articles, and replaces them with right column advertising eye sores. I'm not sure if that's the case with Practical Sailor, since I don't subscribe ... but several of my other favorites have gone down the commercial road ...

I suppose that's the sort of thing that could open up an opportunity for another startup ...
Sailor_Hutch: I think you pretty much nailed it. I don't know if they changed ownership and as far as I know they still don't accept advertising, but I suspect some beancounter was not satisfied by the return on investment. I wish them well but they are not getting any of my hard earned beans.
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Old 01-01-2013, 11:47   #68
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

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Churchill did (correctly) identify that the only way the war could be won, was for the United States to become involved. A lot of his speeches were mainly targeted towards an American audience, and he took pains to make sure American reporters in the UK were relaying them back to the US!
For sure he was pandering to US opinion (and did it well - had the gift of the gab) and he was correct that the only way to win against the Germans militarily was with the US onboard - but IMO the most sensible option would have been to do a deal with the devil (that nice Mr Hitler ).....not such a stretch as we (including the US) did exactly the same thing with that nice Mr Stalin.........and Winston could have done so whilst Uncle Sam was still supplying Mr Hitler with such things as Coca Cola (the unofficial drink of the Battle of Britain - for both sides).

and before anyone raises his less than PC attitude to multiculturalism , the British Empire could have relocated everyone Mr Hitler was not so keen on to either Saudi, Iraq and Iran - or even an oil-less strip of land south of Lebanon (take yer pick folks).

............I hear the footsteps of the Mods (goosesteps? ).
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Old 01-01-2013, 14:33   #69
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Interesting thread drift.

Churchill knew he had to involve the US, not so much to defeat Germany, as its defeat was surmised from about after the battle of Britain in 1940 and extremely obvious by Alamein in 42 , but to prevent a Soviet takeover of Europe. Because Russia was posed to overrun Germany , just it was a matter of time, as it had limitless men and potential material. Churchill and the US forsaw the iron curtain and the D day landings were more about forestalling the Soviet domination of Europe, then defeating an already effectively defeated German Army.

Churchill was correctly as DoJ a war monger. ( Leaving aside the pejorative interpretation) Certainly he saw war as inevitable and even " necessary".

Of course he proved a poor peacetime politician but before and after the war

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Old 01-01-2013, 14:48   #70
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

I recently purchased a publication from Practical Sailor entitled "Sail Buying, Sail Making, and Mainsails"

It was a decent, but (I thought) fair amount of money, given that I expected there would be at least a little practical information on specific aspects of how sails are made.

I was hoping (rather than expecting) it might deal with different threads, stitch patterns, ways of attaching boltropes and slugs, respective merits of different corner patch designs, and the like. Ideally something I didn't already know, but that was a gamble on my part.

It turned out that they were writing about Sail Makers, not Sail Making.

What is worse: what they told me about sail Makers really fell under their other heading of "Sail Buying"

Essentially they had collated what sail Makers tell us about themselves.

It consisted entirely of the sort of PR fluff I could have gleaned for free from brochures. There was NOTHING about the practical (as opposed to promotional) aspects of how sails are made.

I sent a diplomatically worded email saying I didn't feel entirely happy that they had delivered what they had described, and have received NO response whatsoever.

However I do get bucket loads of spam emails from them, which annoys me somewhat.
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Old 01-01-2013, 15:07   #71
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

I sent a link to this thread to the editor of ps.
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:00   #72
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

Nice thing about PS, the editor (me, Darrell Nicholson) is a former full-time cruiser. I spent ten years living with my wife aboard a very old wooden ketch in Caribbean, Pacific, and S.E. Asia, so I got a pretty good feel of what the life is like and what cruisers expect. I read all my reader mail and try to respond to everyone that needs or wants a response. I feel the same obligation to our readers as I do to fellow cruisers and often go out of my way to help them solve problems that have nothing to do with the magazine. I really appreciate comments like these that can help meet subscriber expectations. Feel free to share them with me directly so we can trim the sails as needed. I've been with the publication since 2005, so if you haven't read the magazine since then, it has changed quite a bit. Some like it, some don't -- but all subscribers now have complete access to our archives going back 14 years, and everyone seems to like that. In my view, there is no other resource like it. It may not be the be-all-end-all for every cruiser, but the tests cover things that no one else is doing, providing important data that they can add to their research when buying a product. I try to have at least one article that hits the mark for each of our readers--who have an amazingly wide range of interests, so this is not as easy as it seems.
If you have any more complaints or suggestions. Please feel free to contact me directly at practicalsailor (atsymbol) belvoirpubs.com. I don't respond to private messages here, so please don't write me here.
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Old 23-01-2013, 15:58   #73
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

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Interesting thread drift.

Churchill knew he had to involve the US, not so much to defeat Germany, as its defeat was surmised from about after the battle of Britain in 1940 and extremely obvious by Alamein in 42 , but to prevent a Soviet takeover of Europe.
As a matter of historical fact, it was not Churchill but the Japanese and Hitler who involved the U.S. in WWII.

The U.S. did not declare war on Germany, even after Pearl Harbor. It was Hitler who declared war on the U.S. a few days later, even though his mutual defense treaty with Japan did not require him to do so. It only required him to defend Japan if it were attacked, but not when Japan was the aggressor.

As for Practical Sailor (U.S. version), I subscribe and will continue to do so. Like TI Punch, I dont always agree, but it's your only chance for an unbiased review of a boat or a marine product. Every other sailing magazine is utterly biased.
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Old 23-01-2013, 16:11   #74
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

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it's your only chance for an unbiased review of a boat or a marine product. Every other sailing magazine is utterly biased.
Not so sure about this- it sure seemed fishy to me when they highly rated the xyz anchor and then a complete turn around on the next review, as if they were given a bad check from XYZ- I bought one after there glowing report and its useless- $400 worth of crap-
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Old 23-01-2013, 16:32   #75
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Re: Opinions on "Practical Sailor" Magazine?

It just goes to show how there are so many variables in anchoring that it is very hard to design a test. I have mentioned on here before how I once went through a big front in Key West with people dragging all around me and yet we didn't move--it turned out my anchor was hooked on a pipeline going across the harbor.
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