WoodenBoat's really, really hare-brained "false cover" idea

[Garret]

And yet, here I live in Vermont and still haven't received my copy...

That's 'cause they come out of South Burlington & since that's Chittenden County, nothing else in VT matters.

I say that only half in jest. I get so frustrated with the county in which I live sometimes - it's got a serious attitude problem when it comes to the rest of VT (aka "real Vermont").

[Bob Cleek]

Mr. Cleek, regardless of whether we agree, or not, you owe Mr Breece a - public - apology. Regardless of how strongly you feel about the subject, your personal attacks on him are entirely unwarranted, not to mention rude and plain old offensive.

I'm sure Mr. Breece is a nice guy. (I doubt WB would hire anybody who wasn't.) I also presume he has a sense of humor. Whether or not that's the case, they pay him "the big bucks" to "take the heat" and if he can't take the heat, he needs to get out of the kitchen. As a subscriber, he works for me. I expect him to be able to take a good-natured ass-chewing when he's got one coming. This ain't the Special Olympics. Not everybody gets a prize.

[Bob Cleek]

Is it “hare” or “hair”?
I washed my sons cloth diapers on the boat. Rinsed em in our poop bucket, rinsed em again, washed em in seawater with soap, gave em a freshwater rinse and hung em in the rigging. Every day for about a year.
Andrew Breese is a very pleasant fellow , having met him at Antigua Classics last year.

it's "hare." As in "rabbits," which have small brains. The same is true of the term, "hare lip."

[BBSebens]

If anybody wants my collection dating back to 1980 or thereabouts let me know when you’ll next be in Hell and you can have them. . .

sign me, in full on decluttering mode. . .

If Hell is anywhere near the Pacific NorthWest, I'll gladly relieve you of the collection.

[rbgarr]

Ain't that the truth! Thanks for helping me not feel guilty when I glaze over and don't read every issue "cover to cover" anymore. There's an article or two of interest in each issue, but most of it has become predictable and formulaic. WB's content used to be pretty sophisticated. It was the magazine for wooden boat "owners, designers, and builders," or something like that. Now, more than half of it is the magazine for "dreamers and newbies." I'm not knocking dreamers or newbies, I just resent having to see a magazine that used to be full of useful and interesting information now more than half full of fluff and filler like "Getting started in boats." How long's that been running and they still aren't finished getting started? The latest installment of that was "Meditations on Hiring Professionals to Work on Your Boat," or something like that. Do they really expect people to pay for that kind of information? Maybe people do. Maybe a lot of us outgrew WB a long time ago. I'm really not sure.

I get the most enjoyment out of spending winter hours by the fire reading OLD copies of WB. It reveals just how far we've come during the past forty years and makes me, once again, feel fortunate to have lived through the period of wood boat appreciation and skills revival in all the forms it has arisen. I like the 'Getting Started' series and believe it serves 'newbies' very well. WB subscribers tend toward the oldest among us (to say the least) and whatever they can do to attract younger audiences is all the better.

I haven't seen the newest packaging but will be interested to do so.

[Don Z.]

If Hell is anywhere near the Pacific NorthWest, I'll gladly relieve you of the collection.

Sure, I thought it was in Michigan. Northwest of Ann Arbor or thereabouts... If you make it to Lansing, you've gone too far.


https://www.google.com/maps/place/He...3472!4d-83.985

[BBSebens]

Oh, interesting. I assumed that his location referred to a metaphorical location, rather than a physical place.

[AJZimm]

Ah - but they're actually mailed from Vermont - not Maine...

Ah, that explains it.

See, for the magazine copies to make it here, they have first to be put on ice boats and sailed down Lake Champlain and then get loaded on to dog sleds. They go by dog sled across the frozen St. Lawrence, through Montreal and traverse the entire length of the Canadian Shield until they reach the Canadian Prairies, where they are loaded onto Komatiks attached to snowmobiles to be driven through Prairie blizzards to the foothills of the Rockies. From there, they are strapped to the backs of Mountain Goats and led up over the high passes and through the valleys by a race of tiny mountain people, who, when they reach the Coast Range, turn the load over to the Raft People of the Fraser River, who make their living rafting logs downstream to the sawmills. At great peril, the rafts make their way through the rapids and whirlpools to the river mouth at Delta, BC. There, fleets of dedicated sail and oar enthusiasts row and sail the magazines across the stormy Salish Sea until they finally reach the shores of Vancouver Island, where bicycle couriers meet them, pick up and deliver the magazines to our doors.

That being the case, the magazines really should be shipped encased in buffalo hide.

[Garret]

OMFG!!!

I just got my issue today - though it didn't have to travel up a not yet frozen Lake Champlain.

I can't believe how my day - nay - the entire rest of the year - is ruined. The false cover folder folded over & tore perfectly on the perforation (why won't TP do that?). The back cover is perfect, but I can't believe the sacrilege - the real front cover has a tear in the bottom that's almost 1/4"!!!

I can hardly bear to touch it for fear that the cover might tear another 0.010".

Interesting double Save a Classic page though...

[Bob Cleek]

Well, guys, I had a nice email exchange with Andrew Breece, the WB publisher. As I anticipated, he's a nice guy with a great sense of humor. We're on the same page. He realizes the "tear off cover" wasn't the best solution and will be trying other alternatives in search of something other than a plastic cover. I fully support his efforts in that respect.

In the meantime, I encourage all of you to put your plastics in the recycling bin. Those of you who haven't outlawed the use of plastic and styrofoam food containers, cups, and drinking straws, like we have here in my neck of the woods, need to get with the program!

[signalcharlie]

And yet, here I live in Vermont and still haven't received my copy...

THAT made me laugh Rich Drive down to Florida, we'll lend you our copy. Just to warn you, I tore the cover off, and the top bit has a little bit of paper sticking out now. I think the mail deliverer rubber banded my mail and the false cover, cover and first 17 pages have a small tear amidships, about 1/2 inch deep. Meanwhile the stern cover is in great shape. I hide from the Skipper when I'm reading this issue of WB so that she doesn't taunt me about the tattered rag. I'm planning to put the issue in our local Little Library out by Navarre Beach when I am done, hoping to infect some poor unsuspecting tourist with the wooden boat virus, like Reynard did for me years back.

OBTW I got a nice response from Andrew at WB that they are tweaking the cover, not done yet.

Insert random wooden boat photo here...

BEA5AACF-E6F4-48E0-9339-33FDD09DCC0B.jpg

[Oldad]

Got mine yesterday. Much ado about nothing... an unnessary waste of money at worst.

[Hwyl]

I for one welcome the change and am glad to see the plastic gone.

Plastic bags are very difficult to recycle cost effectively.

I read the magazine (almost) cover to cover.

[rbgarr]

Haven't got mine yet. I have a sneaking suspicion Margaret snagged it out of the mail and has wrapped it for opening tomorrow when the kids and grandkids will be here for a Dec. 26th Christmas celebration with us geezers.

[Rich Jones]

Mine finally showed up yesterday. I don't think the change is going to be life altering for me. The little tab left after ripping the cover page off is hardly noticeable.
We'll see what the future brings with how many issues get damaged in the mail.

[David G]

Well, the pages are sorta stuck together on some of the fold-outs in the early issues.

I'd imagine. The ones from the 40's & 50's?? <G>

[Jim Ledger]

Dear Mr. Breece:

I realize I may have been a subscriber longer than you’ve been wearing long pants.


Bob Cleek
Petaluma, CA

Could be that if'n you'd been subscribing just a little longer you mighta recognized what once went around coming full circle. Here ya go, old-timer, issues seventeen through twenty-one in their brown paper mailing wrappers.

[Hwyl]

Well said, Jim.

[jseymour]

My copy got to me in good order.

Apart from being more environmentally friendly, I think that the new cover is also easier to open.

I dearly hope that Woodenboat never goes to a digital publication.

[rbgarr]

Mine came yesterday and wasn't mangled during shipping or stuffing in the mail box. I like it fine. If it ever does arrive damaged I imagine WB will send a replacement. Excellent series about Ernestina Morrissey under repair down the street from us.

[David G]

I hope they never go to all-digital.

Hard copy is much easier to navigate, and more satisfying to peruse.

This coming from one who still gets NYT delivered daily... though I do use the digital version to share with friends & associates.

[stromborg]

I received my copy the other day, it was in what I would call "unremarkable" condition. Not tattered, torn or otherwise ruffled- much like any of the other paper catalogs that show up in my mailbox. Of course, I also don't exactly treat the magazine with curatorial gloves. Most often it gets folded in half to fit in the front pocket of my riding jacket (just got a new one, an Aerostitch "Falstaff"waxed cotton outfit, pretty nice so far) so I can read it during the ferry commute to and from work.

On the subject of digital editions, see above. I rarely even peek at the digital issue WB sends me, it just isn't the same as flipping through the pages. I like the size of a magazine too, trying to read it on my I-phone would make the pictures too small (the phone is a "5S" or something like that, my millennial daughters seem to think it is just about obsolete but it works for me...but then I just went from gore-tex to waxed cotton so they may be on to something).

[Larks]

Have they never heard of an “envelope”?

[Bob Cleek]

Could be that if'n you'd been subscribing just a little longer you mighta recognized what once went around coming full circle. Here ya go, old-timer, issues seventeen through twenty-one in their brown paper mailing wrappers.

Of course I remember the envelopes! They were fine. If memory serves, they also came in a paper sleeve for quite some time. The last time they tried simply putting an address sticker on the covers, everybody raised holy hell because their copy was coming all chewed up and because the mailmen were bringing them home to read before delivering them! Those were the days, my friend.

[Gary Davis]

Mine arrived before Christmas without issue. I've often wondered about the plastic bag but figured they had their reasons.

Why does the false cover have to be removed? Do you recycle the false cover, burn it, or pass it along to the landfill?

[Peerie Maa]

Anyone remember those damned annoying tear out post card things that were bound in? Those did tick me off.

[Ian McColgin]

Not sure there need be the false cover but at any rate it's better than the plastic bag. Well done WoodenBoat.

[BrianM]

I have all issues starting with # 28 I think. I USED to revere my WoodenBoat magazines because there was really no other source of information with good illustrations until "The Forum" was born, and Google followed soon thereafter.

I like the paper envelope idea. I won't remove the false cover.. I've always left the rags "as received", so many of them had a material similar to card-stock which was BOUND with the same STAPLES (remember those???) on the outside.. I think they were "Last Issue" warnings to renew my subscriptions.

The more paper the better but honestly, I rarely go through my old issues as I can find pretty well anything I want to know on the web, and five variations on the same theme.

The magazines I always valued the most were my dad's collections of 1920's and newer Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Mechanics Illustrated (MiMi!!!). He bought them used by the crate full for a quarter a piece and they were lovingly paged through page by moldy mildewy page.. THE BEST!!!

[David Satter]

I agree with mmd well said

[DGentry]

In the future, of course, those magazines with the extra covers still attached will be the ones most prized by collectors.

[MalabarJr]

In the future, of course, those magazines with the extra covers still attached will be the ones most prized by collectors.

Yeah, They'll be like Inverted Jenny's someday.

[Howard Sharp]

I subscribe to WoodenBoat magazine, the New Yorker, Harper’s, Messing About In Boats, TSCA magazine, etc, etc. WoodenBoat is the only magazine that arrives in any kind of cover. All the rest arrive naked as they were born, no cover, and never damaged! They have a little address label that peels off quicker and with less fuss than any cover. I appeal for WoodenBoat to be delivered au naturel, as it was meant to be.

[Tom Lathrop]

I agree with Bob and don't think he is overly upset about what some claim is a trivial matter. To me, it ain't trivial. Another issue which is big for me and no one has mentioned is how these are cataloged and stored. Looking at the date on the spine along with much of the contents is how they are stored and how I see which one I want to look at for the umpteenth time. No obvious date on the spine and it's easy to get lost in finding the one you want or seeing that they are in the correct order. This was one of Woodenboat's differences that many of us appreciated and made good use of.

The argument that this is trite and the attention should be directed to other more deserving issues is so over used by some that it is like the crying wolf thing. I ain't mad about it but will cancel my subscription and buy at the newsstand if I want the copy. Not because of being upset at Woodenboat but because that will suit me better.

[jpatrick]

I just wonder why there's a sacrificial covering to protect the front, but nothing to protect the back.

Jeff

[Nicholas Scheuer]

I haven't received an issue of WB yet which the Postal Service has destroyed, but I fully expect to at some point. I've got a couple of decades of WB in recycled boxes out in the garage, but no longer save them, and periodically I discard one of the boxes full of old issues. Nothing against WB, it's just that I finally realized that I NEVER go back to reread anything in a "saved" magazine, and WB was not the only magazine being boxed for posterity. Lem'me tell'ya, my "posterity" won't care. I think the idea expressed below has much merit.

Two of the magazines I receive through the mail come in wrappings made using potato starch and are claimed to be 100% compostable.