Boating and cruising magazines

[SailingSeaGypsy]

I'm a sub to Latitudes and Attitudes (formally Cruising Outpost). Good enough content with actual cruisers. To be fair, it does have its fair share of adverts, but that just seems to be part of the most publications these days, print and online.

[Tillsbury]

I use Readly from NZ. Mainly for Yachting Monthly, which is far the best yachting mag imo, although aimed at the “average” uk sailor with a 30-50’ boat cruising the Solent and rest of uk. It has good articles about seamanship. I also read Practical Boat Owner which is ok, but has a fair bit of fluff masquerading as jokes, and is aimed at the bottom-end budget sailor. Some handy diy tips occasionally. Sailing today has some stuff but generally lower quality, lots of articles about chartering around the world. Yachts and yachting is racing-oriented but interesting in parts if you already have readly. Cruising World gives an insight into the US sailing scene and is fairly old-school but has interesting reports from cruisers around the world.

YM is the only mag I used to subscribe to, but if you have readly you may as well get the lot. On an iPad Pro it’s like reading the magazines, and you get several years of back issues too of course, readable offline once you’ve downloaded them.

[Lake-Effect]

I like Practical Boat Owner, even subscribed for a bit til the subscription jumped up to equal the newsstand price. I still pick one up now and then.

I also like Good Old Boat.

One magazine which might have limited appeal here, but is right in our current sweet-spot of micro-cruising, is Small Craft Advisor. They've hit their stride, and the content is a nice mix of technical, DIY, seamanship and cruising/adventures in smaller boats.

[gonesail]

Cruising World was a good read about 10 years ago .. but is now useless. Good Old Boat is OK but at times weird and expensive.

[S/V Adeline]

I really used to enjoy Bluewater Sailing but the subscription lapsed about 20yr ago, not sure what they offer now.

[Shrew]

I stopped all my subscriptions years ago. If a boatshow attendance includes a free magazine, I'll sign up and store them in the bathroom to kill 5 minutes of time.

I found that if you remove all of the ads, then all of the new boat reviews (I'm not in the new boat market, and they boats they're offering are rarely in a class I'm interested. ("5 new center consoles for 2020!!")) What is left are columns and a few articles.

The 'Destination' articles are rarely somewhere I will ever be. And if I'm there, it won't be with a boat.

The columns and articles (if they're how-to) are often too light in detail to actually attempt to tackle the job on your own. At best, they give you key words to use to do your actual research.

[Pendragon35]

Another vote for Good Old Boat. Solid, balanced information. Full disclosure: I am the author of an article in the current issue.

[Tillsbury]

I’m not in the market for a new boat, but often read the reviews. They can provide great suggestions for improvements to your existing boat.

[valhalla360]

Do they still print magazines?

[drewm3i]

Practical Boat Owner is great!

[SV Siren]

Yet another vote for Good Old Boat...the only rag I subscribe to. You can get either paper or downloadable file for those who don't want to have a hard copy. Just save it
and your good.

[Charlene001]

Which one is the best magazine to read ?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Charlene.