New: SPORTBOAT magazine Vol 1 No 1

[Last Tango]

While wandering through my local Barnes & Noble yesterday, I came upon a new high performance boating magazine.

Spring 2011 is the first issue. Same folks as HOT ROD and MOTOR TREND magazines (and many more). Very nice mix of articles and manufacturer coverage.

Pgs 16 & 17 have pictures of the 35ZR open bow, and a short write-up.
Pg 50 has a picture of Craig Barrie, VP of Sales and Marketing at Donzi, and his opinion of the future of high-performance boating.

Plenty of excellent articles on Mercury Marine engines and the new M8 drive, Ilmor's new MV8 engines, Bravo One service tips, boat rides in new stuff, etc.

Apparantly Vol 1 No 2 will hit the shelves in late April as the Summer 2011 edition.

I felt it was worth the $6 cover price for all of the excellent content. And it wasn't just 15 stories about Lake Havasu boat builders, like the "other" magazine.

[Carl C]

35ZR Open Bow?

Their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sport-...2433909?v=wall

[Last Tango]

Yep, OPEN bow 35ZR.

There has to be something in there somewhere about putting the bikini girls up front and then "blowin' their tops off."

You don't see many open bow performance boats at the East Coast poker runs. Must be a Lake Havasu thing. Hard to find any West Coast builders who DON'T build an open bow go-fast.


Nice article about the development of the Mercury 1350 motors.

[Sweet little 16]

I'll pass, not worth it.

[Planetwarmer]

I saw the open bow 35ZR in person at the Tulsa boat show (of all places). Its nicely done.

[pipnit]

I'll pass, not worth it.

What is it, fifty bucks an issue?

[Sweet little 16]

What is it, fifty bucks an issue?

No , but the contents listed are OLD NEWS and will be even older when they come out next month.

[zelatore]

I saw it when I was in a West Marine a week or so ago and picked it up.

Seems to be better written/produced than the average sport boat mag, which is to be expected as these guys have been turning out stuff in the auto world for decades. The content was a little light but was interesting. I might pick up another issue to have a look - too early to make any decisions, but I have reasonable hopes they'll do well.

I finally let my Powerboat subscription lapse - the writing/articles were just pathetic. Gee, this issue has a report of a boat on Havasu. Just like the last issue, and the next issue.

BTW, when the heck did rack rates on magazines get to $6/ea??? Crazy, but they're not the only ones. If the next issue is decent, I'll look into a subscription. After all, I need more magazines like I need a hole in my head...

[Carl C]

Their web site says they are a quarterly publication. I will look for it locally. I also finally & reluctantly let Powerboat go.

[Planetwarmer]

I bought it last night. I dont mind supporting a new mag. The reason that a magazine sucks is because they dont have cash flow coming in to pay top-notch employees. If we want a good boat mag, we gotta pay up. I think HOT ROD/Motor Trend mags are good, so I trust the publisher to get better over time.

Sport boats are a tough subject to fill a magazine with for a majority of the year.

You could always send in topic requests.

[CHACHI]

35ZR Open Bow?

Their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sport-...2433909?v=wall

Vicky Newton was the publisher of POWERBOAT, went to PERFORMANCE BOAT and according to the FB page is now with this publication.

I would imagine the contents would be similar in all the rags.

Ken

[Carl C]

Vicky Newton was the publisher of POWERBOAT, went to PERFORMANCE BOAT and according to the FB page is now with this publication.

I would imagine the contents would be similar in all the rags.

Ken

Besides the fact that Powerboat went to 6 issues a month it seems that they weren't spending much money. It is now mainly boat and product tests and race coverage. People want project boats to follow, prop tests, shorty tests on various hulls etc. That costs money but makes for useful, entertaining reading. It has also bugged me that a photographer can't snap some pics of hull bottoms before the test boats are dunked. Just show up and drive them and publish some specs and how great they are, what a job! Also, Boating and MotorBoating mags seem to still have plenty of advertisers. What's up with that?

[Last Tango]

... Also, Boating and MotorBoating mags seem to still have plenty of advertisers. What's up with that?

Those two magazines have a broader reach and speak to a more diverse group of boaters.

I believe we wouldn't be happy here unless the magazine was only about Donzi's (maybe an occasional Cigarette, Magnum, American Offshore, you get the jist - Don Aronow boat companies) was published by the factory directly, included all of their test and development specs, was only about your specific boat, and came out every week. Maybe twice a week.

I'm ready for a new face in the boating magazine arena. $6 a copy for a quarterly magazine does not seem unreasonable to me. I'll buy Vol 1 No 2 and see how the content goes. I hope they didn't shoot their wad on No 1.

What may be old news to some is news to others. I don't mind reading about stuff I already know as long as it presents a new slant or updated material. POWERBOAT was also old news when it got to my house. But, I don't live on the cutting edge of the marine industry so "old" news is fine for me.

I particularly liked the article on servicing your Bravo One drive. I am not a mechanic, but I beleive after reading that article I might actually try some maintenance that doesn't include signing a credit card receipt.
Hopefully, next issue, they will talk about how to change the water pump impeller and the theromostat on a 350 Mag MPi. LOL!

[Carl C]

Those two magazines have a broader reach and speak to a more diverse group of boaters.
I believe we wouldn't be happy here unless the magazine was only about Donzi's (maybe an occasional Cigarette, Magnum, American Offshore, you get the jist - Don Aronow boat companies) was published by the factory directly, included all of their test and development specs, was only about your specific boat, and came out every week. Maybe twice a week.
I'm ready for a new face in the boating magazine arena. $6 a copy for a quarterly magazine does not seem unreasonable to me. I'll buy Vol 1 No 2 and see how the content goes. I hope they didn't shoot their wad on No 1.
What may be old news to some is news to others. I don't mind reading about stuff I already know as long as it presents a new slant or updated material. POWERBOAT was also old news when it got to my house. But, I don't live on the cutting edge of the marine industry so "old" news is fine for me.
I particularly liked the article on servicing your Bravo One drive. I am not a mechanic, but I beleive after reading that article I might actually try some maintenance that doesn't include signing a credit card receipt.
Hopefully, next issue, they will talk about how to change the water pump impeller and the theromostat on a 350 Mag MPi. LOL!

Actually I really enjoy Boating mag the most. There is just a lot of good useful general boating info. For example I just learned that it is illegal to do a VHF radio check without identifying yourself and hailing a particular vessel. You can listen to a radio exchange and then when they sign off you can identify yourself and hail one of those vessels by name and request a radio check. There were some other basic VHF rules that I did not know, like since I don't have a radio license I need to give my boat a name. I've been using "little yellow Donzi" but not on every exchange. I read the mags to learn stuff like that and not just read boat tests is what I'm saying I guess.

[zelatore]

I get most of the 'big' boat magazines through the office. Sea, Yachting, Power and Motoryacht, etc... Most of them are mildly interesting.

I used to subscribe to Powerboat but as mentioned I let it slide.

The one boating mag I find the best is actually PassageMaker. It's certainly not targeted at the sport boat market, but it's a much more nuts and bolts mag. In fact, it's probably too technical for the average Joe. After all, how many people are going to read a multi-part story about seacocks? (I'm not kidding - I bet they spent 15 pages over two issues on the subject!)

But when they do a review they actually tell you something about the boat, including the things that aren't good. Too many other mags just sort of give you some pretty pictures and tell you how wonderful EVERY boat is.

If you have an interest in cruising boats, pick up a copy. It comes out 10 times a year. Although they spend most of their time on large trawlers they also cover smaller boats as well such as the Ranger tugs or other trailerable boats and like I said, the tech is great.