Fed up of yacht review quality!

[AJAL]

Hello all,

Seems that reading a review on new sail yachts is a total waste of time. One proviso - the description of the yacht that any sailor can see for his/her own eyes in a few pictures. All If your read a few reviews you will probably find that new yachts are almost faultless. Worse, words selected to describe a particular characteristic, are so obscure that they may as well would have never been written. It is as if the same narrative is used no matter what yacht is reviewed. Most bizarre is their willingness to test yachts in no wind, rather than come back another day. Imagine a car review in which it is not driven for lack of petrol….

Is it because journalists will not report the snags of a boat or terrible performance because of their fear of the builders?

Would value thoughts …

[Benz]

The magazines make money when builders advertise. If the reviewers gave poor reviews, the builders would pull their ads and find a magazine that was willing to say what they want. It's just business. Surely by now buyers are canny enough to know that advertising isn't true.
Advertising isn't true.
Advertising isn't true.

[sailingabe41ds]

Yep....that happened to the car reviews decades ago. Every review on every car enede with a happy ending and you decide. Today they would make Yugo look like a BMW. It os becoming more difficult to tell the difference between an ad and a review.
abe

[Sandy Frank]

Industry is way too expensive for a consumer reports style review, thus it is entirely based on manufacturer granted access.

Any review pointing out flaws like thin hulls and a over reliance on glue is going to lose access to Beneteau group boats.

[Stu Jackson]

Nothing new to see here. It's been this way for decades.

[TrentePieds]

Editorial copy in glossy mags is only fill between the ads. No "journalist" worth his salt would ever tell the unvarnished truth, would he? His continued tenure as an accepted and employable scribbler depends on the quality of his prevarication.

So why even worry about it?

TP

[Mike OReilly]

As a professional prevaricator (semi-retired now), I agree with all my cynical friends here. Mags who do these reviews are not likely to bite the hand that feeds them. Journalists aren't told what to write, but it's clear that hard-hitting reviews do not sell ads.

That's not to say there's no value in them. A lot of the positive comments are likely to be accurate. Just don't expect to learn much about the faults.

[C420sailor]

I stopped reading gun mags when they began to praise piles of **** like the Hi Point. Boat/car/whatever mags are no different.

[TrentePieds]

Well, Mike - I believe your are in Twanna, and that you just may be old enuff to remember the "Oatmeal Savage", Jack Webster. There is one journalist who not only made a fetish of laying the truth bare, but also managed both to survive in the trade and to do very, very well for himself.

Shall we agree to grant HIM special exemption from my generally acerbic view of what Dr.Foth referred to as the "inky-fingered tribe" :-)?

TP

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Well, Mike - I believe your are in Twanna, and that you just may be old enuff to remember the "Oatmeal Savage", Jack Webster. There is one journalist who not only made a fetish of laying the truth bare, but also managed both to survive in the trade and to do very, very well for himself.

Shall we agree to grant HIM special exemption from my generally acerbic view of what Dr.Foth referred to as the "inky-fingered tribe" :-)?

TP

Of course... the old Scotsman himself. Those were different times... back when journalism had respect for itself, and understood that it wasn't just about making money. Sadly, those days are mostly gone.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Those reviews are often nothing but poorly reworded press releases. I love it most, when they journalist admits in the first few paragraphs that they couldn't go out sailing on review day, because the weather was too bad or no wind.

However, those reviews are useful for a few things:

• It's usually the easiest place to find out what a boat will roughly cost. Manufactures often don't publish prices and if they do, you have to add so many options to be able to sail that the published prices are misleading. In the review, they usually state how much the tested version costs.
• The not-totally-crappy journalists often place the boat in the market the manufacturer wants to compete in. In marketing materials, they manufacturer can't say, they would like to nab customers interested in a Bavaria 42. The journalists can and hopefully do. If I walk away with the bottom line "Hunter's try at making their own Hallberg-Rassy", the article isn't too shabby.
• Last, while I agree that all they say about how wonderful the boat is can be discounted, it's very interesting to note what isn't praised. If the high-points in the articles are the swimming platform, the deck lounging space and the ice-maker, most likely it sails like a dog. On the obverse, if he gushes on about how sporty and racy he felt sailing it, the interior space is most likely not wifey-conform.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

...the interior space is most likely not wifey-conform.

That's Admiral to you, Joh!

As far as boat porn like Sailing, Cruising World and Yachting, I stopped reading them eons ago.

Good Old Boat is still a gem.

For you, Dr. J, I would say that the Practical Sailor reviews I've always found to be thorough and candid, but perhaps they're not reviewing the type of boats that you're wanting to buy...?

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

While I agree that all they say about how wonderful the boat is can be discounted, it's very interesting to note what isn't praised. If the high-points in the articles are the swimming platform, the deck lounging space and the ice-maker, most likely it sails like a dog. On the obverse, if they gush about how sporty and racy it felt sailing, the interior space most likely [leaves much to be desired].

This is a good point, Joh, which also goes for boat sale ads. Always pay attention to what they're leaving out - and which pictures are absent.

Fair winds,
LittleWing77

[larsfforsberg]

It seems that media in all its forms is nothing more than filler between ads. I think it's always been that way - it's just so obvious now. People used to think that the "news" was actually news. Now we know that the networks work for big pharma and politicians - well most of us know that anyway.

[AKA-None]

I like boat porn as it shows how cheap uh inexpensive our current boat is :-)

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by dr.j.levy

Hello all,

Seems that reading a review on new sail yachts is a total waste of time. One proviso - the description of the yacht that any sailor can see for his/her own eyes in a few pictures. All If your read a few reviews you will probably find that new yachts are almost faultless. Worse, words selected to describe a particular characteristic, are so obscure that they may as well would have never been written. It is as if the same narrative is used no matter what yacht is reviewed. Most bizarre is their willingness to test yachts in no wind, rather than come back another day. Imagine a car review in which it is not driven for lack of petrol….

Is it because journalists will not report the snags of a boat or terrible performance because of their fear of the builders?

Would value thoughts …

Could be, fare of no longer getting access to products or of legal action due to negative opinions not quite expressed the right way.