Kudos on your comments, I too find the sailing magazine industry uninteresting and for the most part

Those of you who read AAC regularly will will know that I’m no fan of the current state of the sailing magazine industry. Just how many charter-in-the-Virgin-Islands-with-cheesecake, so-we-can-sell a-bunch-of-advertising, articles do we need? Boring, boring, dull.
But there is at least one shining exception to the above jaundiced view: Ocean Navigator magazine , which has always stuck with its goal of providing real information, written by real seaman who actually airplane tickets cheap go to sea.
One of the most valuable benefits of subscribing is their annual Ocean Voyager issue. Last year’s included not one, but two, interesting interviews with experienced cruising couples and technical articles on everything from lifeline replacement to water makers.
Ocean navigator is published by real sailors who actually get out there themselves, not some corporation with a bunch of other magazines in their stable ranging from Needlepoint Monthly to Muscle Cars for Boneheads .
And Alex (publisher) and Tim (editor) have their interests aligned with ours, unlike some spreadsheet airplane tickets cheap jockey trying to squeeze the last piece of short term profit out of a group of magazines (and their long suffering editors) who would not know a decent offshore sailboat if it fell on him or her.
While I’m on the subject, Ken McKinley, of Locus Weather, has been writing some really useful weather tutorial articles over at the Ocean Navigator blog. What I like about Ken’s pieces is that he clearly explains how big storms originate and relates that to the 500 Mb charts, which we think is an important subject for offshore sailors to have at least some understanding of.
We had a sandwich with Alex a couple of years ago and stuck him with the tab, Tim has been kind enough to mention airplane tickets cheap and link to several of our posts, and they send us a copy of the magazine as a PDF from time to time. Other than that, we have not enjoyed any special benefits from Ocean Navigator.
Kudos on your comments, I too find the sailing airplane tickets cheap magazine industry uninteresting and for the most part irrelevent. In addition to Ocean Navigator Magazine, I found Living Aboard Magazine to be in a class by itself, featuring sailing articles by live aboard sailors. Having said that, Living Aboard was folded into a section within Lats Atts last year. I hope that the spirit of Living Aboard lives on
As I am able to delve more deeply into the word hoard here, I am not surprised to agree with you on this, John. When I bought my first boat in 1999 (despite having an actual merchant seaman as a father, airplane tickets cheap I had a lubberly upbringing), I did the typical thing and subscribed to SAIL, Cruising World, and soon after, Practical Sailor. While Cruising World had some occasional how to fix it articles, I quickly outgrew them and saw them mainly as new boat porn for those considering a dock queen on which to have crackers and gin following an anchor-themed place setting acquisition at West Marine.
So SAIL and Cruising World went, and because I bought a steel boat I wished to refit in 2006, PS stayed, although it s become increasingly borderline in my affections. ON came aboard around 2003, and irrespective of the successful completion of our cruising plans, airplane tickets cheap I highly doubt I will live long enough to match the sea time and salty wisdom of many of its correspondents. Like you, perhaps, my first introduction to concepts airplane tickets cheap such as taking lines to shore in Patagonia and Spitsbergen for newbies airplane tickets cheap were introduced to me in the pages of ON, and I still enjoy the mix of offbeat cruising routes and solid technical information I find in its pages. Now, my boat porn is the annual Ocean Voyager seeing the glorious passagemakers airplane tickets cheap I will never afford doesn t inspire airplane tickets cheap envy so much as the desire to steal the great and often singular ideas I see in them.
One caveat I have is that, as a former editor and copy editor, I find too many typos in both PS and ON and it gets up my nose as it breaks my concentration airplane tickets cheap when I m reading about some calm soul on her third circ in a stout 32 footer!
A different airplane tickets cheap take on Ocean Navigator leads me to respond. I see it, in some respects, as not so different from the other magazines except that it addresses our cruising life more directly than Cruising World etc.
I believe I see ON as too often pandering to the marine industry. It is not uncommon for me to feel like the new products short articles were written by the manufacturer s advertising agency rather than by ON staff with critical consideration. One example (from memory) a year or two ago had the lead sentence of one article saying that one of those very expensive night vision spotlights was essential to safe operation. I remember it in particular as I wrote a letter to the editor pointing out my complaint and never heard a word in response. I would like to have ON be more responsible and critical in their editing.
They have access to a rich talent pool who can and do contribute, but they need to take care of their contributors. Ginger and I were featured in their Voyager issue (2008, issue 169). We worked very hard on the article, felt flattered to have been sought after for the feature, were promised some payment for the pictures, submitted the article pictures and never heard a word of thanks or appreciation nor were our inquiries into remuneration for the submitted and used pictures responded airplane tickets cheap to. Others I have known who are amateur contributors have shared similar experiences. After initial flush of satisfaction, I was left with a bad taste.
That said, ON is (with Practical Sailor) the only marine magazine airplane tickets cheap I read with any consistency and I do appreciate some of its articles by just those knowledgeable cruisers, power and sail, amateur and professional, who you mention and that contribute regularly. airplane tickets cheap I hope my experience as an amateur contributor was relatively unique. Others can judge directly for themselves whether they see the degree of catering to the marine industry that I observe. The boating world, I believe to be woefully served by those who carry the mantle of writing and reporting on it. ON clearly rises well above the average and I write in hopes that ON can address some of the above and become an even richer resource for the kinds of reporting and analysing that could synergistically join with AAC and what you, Phyllis and Colin are accomplishing.
I think that s a very fair comment, Mr. Stevenson. At this rather narrow end of the cruising spectrum, word of mouth and treating people professionally go hand in hand. Think of how rapidly the word can go out over the cruiser grapevine about poor service or business practices or shoddy, overhyped product. While I can certainly understand, having co-published and edited a national magazine with a shoestring budget, that it is difficult to keep contributors happy, or even paid, it must be done as a normal part of business, particularly when the contributions have been solicited.
As for the catering to the industry, the number of firms that both make items of interest to the cruiser market AND who have any sort of advertising airplane tickets cheap budget means a certain degree of apple-polishing. It s inevitable as ON can t go to Coke or McDonald s to take print ads.
That is a very disturbing story that worries me personally in that I have just endorsed a magazine that seems to have treated a great supporter of our efforts airplane tickets cheap (you) very poorly. I have to admit that back in the day, when we wrote for the mags, we never submitted to ON, simply because they did not pay what we felt was an adequate price for images airplane tickets cheap and words. On the other hand, we understood that they had a small market share and income was limited.
But none of that excuses stiffing you after agreeing to pay for a piece. I will write to Alex and ask for a response in the fervent hope that it was just a misunderstanding that will be made right now.
As to the advertorial nature airplane tickets cheap of some articles, I think that this is acceptable as long as the piece is clearly marked as such and the entire relationship between the manufacturer and the publication is laid bare in the form of a clear disclosure paragraph. Having said that, it does not sound as if this kind of clarity was provided in the case(s) you mention. I have to admit that I only read ON occasionally time is limited. Perhaps I should have been more diligent lesson learned.
This last issue of walking the fine line between supporting airplane tickets cheap sponsors and maintaining editorial integrity is one we will have to struggle airplane tickets cheap with from this point on, since we now have ads. I would ask you, and all our readers, to maintain a watching brief and speak up publicly in the comments if you think we have got the balance wrong.
Sorry to hear of your experience with Ocean Navigator. As the former managing editor and long-time freelance writer, I can speak to the issue of payment and correspondence airplane tickets cheap from both sides of the fence. First, as an editor we did our best to correspond with numerous far-flung airplane tickets cheap correspondents, but we occasionally failed, notwithstanding best efforts on our part. We chalked this up to changing airplane tickets cheap email addresses, varying customs of foreign ports and marina mail systems, and any number of communication problems with people on small boats in countless distant ports. And then as a freelancer, I ve covered numerous topics off and on since leaving the magazine in 2002. I ve always been treated well and always been paid. The editors are busy, but I can assure you and everyone else reading this that they do their very best to accommodate their writers and readers. Certainly no malfeasance.
I have become somewhat disappointed in the sailing magazines that I have subscribed to over the years. It certainly seems that most of them appear to be struggling to survive. It s very hard to publish a magazine that both tries to appeal to racers, seasoned and knowledgeable cruisers, and dreamers. And then there are the magazines that report and sell both Winnebago’s and proper yachts on the same page while being kind to their advertisers. I have been particularly