We Want to Hear From You

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Matt, I'm sure we all have our individual set of desires when it comes to articles in WB, but one thing I was wondering about since the creation of this section, is how a modern print media adapts to the innovation offered in this forum, Facebook, twitter, myspace etc.

Journalism sometimes lags behind in this hispeed information age... Perhaps some integrated stories that have WB magazine presence, as well as forum and facebook presence is a way to boost overall interest in the what WB does. Rather than redundant posts, perhaps technical portions remain in the magazine, and reader builds of WB offered plans on facebook, and the forum in a more formal process. ... but keeping the fun in it.

[Bill R]

Loved the Shantyboat article.

[earling2]

I think if the average, non-wooden boat person got hold of a current issue, they'd get the impression that wooden boats are elitist and/or for perfectionists, based on the This Old House sized budgets that people seem to be working with. Love the magazine, I probably have 95% of the issues, but as the years pass, it seems to reflect wealth and leisure more than it used to. I would love to see regularly posted adventure/gunkholing articles in wooden craft.

[john welsford]

I understand why you are surveying forum members, and their input will be valuable. But in order to maintain circulation, or increase it, it would be very helpful to know what those who have an interest in wooden boats but who do not subscribe to the magazine or the forum would like, find out what it would take to bring them into the fold.
Hard to do, but perhaps a questionnair at the wb stand at boat shows, with prizes as an incentive for those who take the trouble to fill the forms out and put them in "the box"?
John Welsford

[C. Ross]

Matt
Thank you for doing this.
First, I'm sure you keep track of article categories carefully, and there seems to be a good balance between new builds, restoration and maintenance, home builds, designs, historical features, etc. My view is that I am only going to buy or build a new boat every couple of years, but I use my boat weekly (most days in summer). I'd like to see more articles about how to maintain, restore, renovate, and use my boat. There are some articles that have been go-tos for me: the chemistry of wood bleaching, caulking, painting, varnishing. If you look at the active Forum threads, some of the longest running and most widely read are vigorous discussions about various techniques for repair, maintenance and restoration. I also read articles about seamanship carefully and always learn something. I would love to see more articles about various wooden boat shows.
Second, I acknowledge this is a parochial interest, but I own a 36' power cruiser. While there is a very active market in runabouts, the cruiser market is languishing badly. I worry that the declining value of cruisers means that they will not be maintained and will disappear. And while replica runabouts are built, I am not aware of significant construction of new wooden cruisers. Won't it be a shame if the last Monks, Elcos, Matthews, Lymans, Wheelers, Trumpys, Richardsons, Grandys, Taylors, Owens, and Blanchards disappear because of disinterest? I'd like to see WoodenBoat put some focus on these boats, and at least help document them before the last ones are broken up.
To Mr. Welsford's excellent comment just above, I agree and think the "getting started in boating" series have been excellent.
Thank you
Cris Ross

[Roger Cumming]

The magazine continues to be an excellent source of information about wooden boats. As one with an interest in wooden boat building and design but little firsthand experience in it, I would like to see articles about builders' current practices and techniques. Are computers having any effect in modern wooden boat design and construction as they are in every other industry?

[JonWilson]

Seeing all the interaction here is already exciting. And in the category of Be Careful What You Wish For, we're all hoping we can manage to keep up with you! Thanks for being there.

[landlocked sailor]

Jon, the irony of you as a junior member is rich! I cannot get this image out of my mind. http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl...44l0.10.2l12l0

Rick

[rufustr]

I subscribe to the Magazine because I think subscriptions somehow help the magazine to survive.

I now have both hard copy and digital subscriptions because I find it hard to wait several weeks after new issues are discussed here and the arrival of my hard copy.

I see this as a significant problem but it is caused by postal issues not of Wooden Boats making.

I am looking at my shelf of Wooden Boat Magazines now. and I read and reread every one.

My favourite parts of the forum are the Building and Design sections and I would like to see more emphasis on these subjects in the Magazine.

I read elsewhere the suggestion that the Annual Small Boat Designs issue be offered to long term subscribers as part of their subscription, and think that may act as a good inducement to perhaps commit to a 3 year subscription.

Thanks for an iconic publication.

(Edited to add that I already have a 3 year subscription.)

[JonWilson]

Yes -- ever a junior. That picture sure brings it back, when WB was literally a kitchen table operation, back in the woods.

[switters]

In Colorado we cant rely on finding the magazine on a regular basis. So I was very happy when the latest issue showed up in the mail and I took the plastic off. My first thought was Harry Bryan? I thought no, just because i read the lady bug article 60 times doesn't mean that I can recognize one his boats. But I did.

Wooden boat has also inspired me to build some kid friendly boats, and a guy I know has started to do after school workshops with kids to teach them about simple things that some fathers dont seem to teach anymore, like using power tools and rewiring light switches. And, building one sheet skiffs; so I was very happy to pass along the article on using boat building to teach math. Excellent! And the getting started in boats feature is usually one of the first things I turn to.

[Old Dryfoot]

Yes -- ever a junior. That picture sure brings it back, when WB was literally a kitchen table operation, back in the woods.

[mcdenny]

RIck, You beat me to it. Jon Wilson as a junior member!

Jon, Do you feel reincarnated as a newbie in digital media? You can change that tag line, you know.

[Sailor]

I agree with the "unlimited budget" idea. We need some everyday joe type of information because most of us are just everyday joes when it comes to our bank accounts.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Great idea for an index category!

[RichKrough]

I have been an off and on reader and subscriber of Wooden boat for 20 years. I always have viewed Woodenboat as esoteric and the boats too high maintenance and unobtainable ( like the women in Playboy) for sailors like myself. But I wouldn't want you to change. We all still need to dream.

[John Bell]

This year I let my subscription lapse after about 15 years. In that time, Woodenboat has served as inspiration through building of three boats of my own and the development of some of my own designs that I've been fortunate enough to have seen built in modest numbers around the world. But in the last few few years I realized that I wasn't enjoying the magazine as much, mostly due to my changing interests. These days I'm much more focused on using my boats rather than building them. So for inspiration I now tend to seek out more stories about pushing the limits of small open boats instead of how to build them.

I loved all my back issues and frequently went back to re-read favorite articles and photo-essays. But my little office was getting precariously close to "hoarder" status with 15 years of WBs and about 20 years worth of MAIBs and I gave them all away last week to a fellow enthusiast friend who I'm sure will love them very much.

I'll probably pick up an issue of WB off the newstand every now and then when I see something of specific interest to, but I just don't see subscribing again for a while. Instead, I'm planning to do more boating and less reading about it.

[JonWilson]

This picture (February 1975) grows more hilarious every day -- even though it still seems like only last month that I was taking the Jeep down the 3/4 mile to the phone on the old White Pine to make calls.

[wbrobin]

These days I'm much more focused on using my boats rather than building them. So for inspiration I now tend to seek out more stories about pushing the limits of small open boats instead of how to build them.

John,
You might be very interested in an article coming out in our March/April issue about a man who sailed his 14' pram from Iowa down to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Coast to Maine.

Robin

[John Bell]

John,
You might be very interested in an article coming out in our March/April issue about a man who sailed his 14' pram from Iowa down to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Coast to Maine.

Robin

Thanks, I'll definitely look for that one.

[jimmy lee]

I like this new thread. The current issue with the Shanty Boat, My Wife liked it also. I enjoy any article that is related to a Wooden Boat. The info on this forum is priceless. I also, only subscribe to Woodenboat Magazine. Thanks Guys.

[almeyer]

I agree with the "unlimited budget" idea. We need some everyday joe type of information because most of us are just everyday joes when it comes to our bank accounts.

+1. The "big boats" are enjoyable to read about (and dream about), but I especially enjoy the articles about small craft. The recent series on Arch Davis' Peapod was especially good. Also really fond of the Apprentice's Workbench series.
Al

[Chris Coose]

I have been accused of being a provincialist down in the Bilge, and so I am, and so I don't have a lot to add cept if you filled the mag with articles regarding the fellows at the Johns Bay Boat Company and what they are up to or what it feels like the first time you enter Seal Trap at half tide, I'd be plenty pleased.
I have been away, up until this past year, as a subscriber and found a nice handling magazine with a good move to simple and unpretentious graphics.

[elf]

Took me a while to realize that your Shanty boat is just another name for what we call around here a houseboat. Woods Hole has a fabulous collection of them, hauled in to Eel Pond for the winter and back out to Great Harbor for the summer. They are nearly all eternally under construction and improvement and objects of real substance, like the shanty boat on the cover.

Here are a few of them on New Year's Day:


And one of my favorites - so photogenic!

[John Bell]

HOw about changing the "Resources/Products Search" section to "Tools / Materials / Techniques / Products Discussion". The "Search" designator seems to imply that people should only post there if they are looking for something they can't find. I think this is one reason this potentially valuable section doesn't get a lot of message traffic. There always seems to be discussion about tools and similar topics scattered all around the forum and it would be good if they had their own home. As more and more topics are added over time, it could become a much more valuable resource.

[Scot]

Let's see what happens.

-Scot

[Stu Fyfe]

I've been "All In" since 1984. Have every issue from that date forward. Attended most of the Shows. Exhibited my boat at three of them. 1995 Southwest Harbor. 96 Mystic and back to Mystic in 07. On the Forum daily. I'd like to see the Launchings section expanded. And it would be nice to see the Matter of Detail section return. Other than that, keep up the great work!

[Roger Cumming]

I especially like what Richard Jagels has to say each month grounded as it is in fact rather than opinion. I ignore what Mr. Kasanof has to say as I have for decades but I do appreciate that he is allowed to hold forth on matters of absolutely no concern or interest to me. In between the two are stories rich in boats, building, sailing, dreaming and boat lore. I compare Woodenboat with The New Yorker, a magazine which has survived for a very long time by featuring good writing, high standards and a price commensurate with its quality. I wish Woodenboat would become a weekly like the New Yorker.

[MoMan]

I especially appreciate the "Getting Started ... " series. Thank you for remembering that not all of your readers are highly experienced old salts.

One thing I'd like to see more of is articles on specific tools: techniques, history, maintenance, etc.

[jimmy lee]

I especially like the articles on small boats from 8ft to 16ft. Row boats, sailboats, Kayaks, Electric driven boats,and motorboats. To Matt or Tom, increasing the Launchings section, would make Me happy. I really enjoy seeing someone else launch Their build. It is inspiring. Thanks to all the Staff at Woodenboat.

[johnno]

I admit to being a magazine junkie when it comes to magazines related to my interests and hobbies. I've subscribed to WB since about 1985 and never grown tired of it. I have also subscribed to quite a few other magazines on flyfishing, on boats, on aircraft and on caravans.

I cancelled my subscriptions to all those other magazines after somewhere between a year and two, as soon as they began to effectively repeat their main content (albeit dressed up to look like something new!). They were all very well produced quality magazines but nonetheless they had little to offer after a while.

Wooden Boat on the other hand has found a great balance between humble boats and the very grand, between working boats and recreational boats, between motor and sail, between how to do articles for newcomers and sophisticated boat building craft, between a love of tradition and of the new and inventive.

My message: don't change that too much, because it distinguishes you from others.

As a side note, some boating magazines could once survive as pictorial journals of boats otherwise hard to find. The internet has changed all that and now boating imagery is easily and readily found. It's the intelligent, practical and informative journalism around the pictorials that you excel at and that's what I love so much.

[jimmy lee]

johnno! I second that to Your comments!

[Paul Griffin]

Love the magazine.

Always thought the masthead should read: "The Magazine for Wooden Boat Owners, Builders, Designers, and Dreamers"

[woodpile]

From one of those regular Joe's, just keep doing what you've been doing, overall I consider your topics "fair and balanced" and there wouldn't be a beautiful Jerricho Bay Lobster Skiff sitting in the garage if it wasn't for what you guy's/gal's do, thanks.

Don

[spirit]

I have two suggestions for new articles.

(1) Since most of us use plywood and epoxy to build our new boats, I'd like to see a balanced non-proprietary discussion of modern epoxies and their use. A beginner has access to a great deal of excellent information, but can still be easily bewildered by the different epoxies, pumps, mixing containers, blushes, glass fabrics and tapes, sandpapers, paint incompatibilities etc etc.

(2) I'd like to see some discussion (or competition) about small, shallow-bodied, highly trailerable (under 1500 pounds), at-least-two-berth, very seaworthy, semi-planing, efficient family motor sailers. I have in mind a decked, flat-bottomed 24-foot boat with a draft less than one foot, an outboard 25 HP or less, bunks on the floor, an alcohol stove, portable potty, and a simple sail rig for fun and getting home if the engine quits.