Boat design and Boat journalism

Getting close to the end of progressive darkness here, and I've spent way to much time staring at my phone waiting on weather windows. Figure it's worth a shot at a lively topic as I've another 17 hr boat ride ahead.



I've been reading my industries trade publication since the age of 10. Rapidly closing in on 3 decades of excitedly racing to the new boats and gear section. Recently an article appeared about a boat built in my locale. It used a lot of flowery language about "game chsnger" and "future proof" when taking about the vessel. The boat is an esthetically pleasing boar and had beautiful photos to accompany the article.

Problem is, that boat is likely the worst boat I've seen built in my adult life. It missed speed goals top end by 50%, it's brutally slow at cruise. The goal was shallow draft, in an effort to maximize this goal its borderline impossible to drive. It's modern autopilot cannot drive it in a straight line, it has to be hand steered by only one main to maintain some semblance of tracking. Conversely it crab walks horribly on gear and was the butt of almost all the seasons jokes. It's gear layout beggars belief, it took weeks of reworking by a team of trades to rework it after sea trials. The worst part is that it's so poorly trimmed, it ended up much deeper as it looks like it's popping a wheelie with its net on. The litany of "oops" is so long it's not worth even addressing. The most shocking part was an NA was involved in the project according to the article.... honestly most of us thought it was a home built napkin boat.


The disconnect between the article and the reality of the boat is staggering. Logical conclusion is the question of how much boat journalism is fluff and how much is actually useful. I realize some of the yacht companies fund yacht rags so it's a conflict of interest but not so with this trade publication.

How where do you go to find good boat journalism? What sources do you actually trust to give an honest opinion on various designs?

Have been prepping fly across the continent to see a hull design and potentially license it's use. Article that motivated me showed up in a similar publication with similar verbiage. Makes me wonder it's actual merit.

 

Are you at liberty to disclose any further details of this beast?
A photo or two, or a link to the article?
Which trade publication is the article in?
I always enjoy reading the articles in the Baird Publications (Work Boat World and others) and Ship & Boat International - I wonder what they would think about the new vessel mentioned above?

 

Sounds like the owner should have had performance based results as part of the design fee. I worked at a yard where the boat came 5 knot under the specified speed, and putting that contractual obligation right was VERY expensive.
I see the flowery language used a lot, seemingly by people who have never actually spent anytime working or living aboard a boat outside of a marina. Mores the pity.

 

A sorry story in the first post and I have to wonder if there are connections between the parties that we don't know about.For instance,is the writer related to the man at the bank that approved the financing?I would guess that nobody in the immediate area would have the slightest interest in buying the boat if the owner tries to move it on and recoup something from the saga before commissioning something a bit better.The writer must have had some reason to commit to print a series of words that don't reflect reality.Was the weather so bad on the date(s) of his visit that he re-told a tale that he was fed,in order to fill some column inches?It certainly casts a lot of doubt on the value of opinions expressed in those pages and that kind of reputation will take years to shake off if honesty ever sets in.Friends with publishing connections have told me that periodicals are basically paid for by the advertisers and the cover price covers the costs of the distribution and sales network.If the advertisers learn that the veracity of the written word is a bit doubtful and the readers are deserting it.......

A long while ago,a local builder had gradually been increasing the size of the biggest boats in their range and were approached by a customer to make a 20 foot jump in size as he liked the general style of the range.A contract was signed and specified a speed of 27 knots for acceptance.The tooling was made and a prototype was built (the boat was GRP) It was ready for commissioning trials and achieved 12 knots.End of story for the company.

 

Sadly these words are more often than not used by the designers and/or shipyards themselves, not the journalist per se.
The designers/yards create a narrative, to ingratiate themselves in an attempt to separate themselves from "others" to be seen as "the best" or "the ones to listen to" or "the most creative" in the market. It is ostensibly done because, well.., they are the diametrically opposite of what they are claiming and projecting, and wish to catch up from those with an establish brand name/track record.

So, they write the narrative (not the journalist) often pay a publicist to contact several magazines, or /if when they (the designers/yard) approach the magazine directly, the first question asked is, will you also be placing an advert in our magazine.?? Thus, this ensures that their words are pretty much copied verbatim, so those flowery words go from the keyboard of the designer/yard directly into mass print, without any critiquing on their technical claims.

And from that moment on, those words are repeated ad nauseam, and thus full circle. When said designer/yard is mentioned in the press again or spoken about, they then repeat those very same words, in describing the designer/yard. As the old saying goes....the squeaky wheel gets the oil!

So it becomes a cycle of...Repeat repeat and repeat, and then people start to believe it....
Sounds familiar???

 

Sadly as noted above, true technical critiquing has gone. These magazines as noted, merely repeat the press releases from the designer/yard.
Their MO, is keeping the magazine running ..i.e. money!....paid adverts..and so the cycle begins.

I do not know of any magazine these days that is truly independent and providing real hard core technical critiquing of a design/review.

For context. If the same review/advert is placed on the TV, in the UK, it would be against the traders description act and thus be illegal, or they would face many legal issues against their false claims. But once in print, one can say what one likes with impunity...go figure!!

 

I'll defer publishing the actual boat. Grandad always said never tell a man his boat or wife is ugly... even if they are. He's 2-2.5 million reason enough to question his life choices, doesn't any more.


I'm doubtful there are links of any kind from the writer to the builder or owner.

Have noticed the original writer had fairly decent ties to the industry. As the publication has merged and sold, the writers ties to the industry have decreased. Used to be fisherman who wrote, then writers that fished and then writers who covered fishing.

Suppose we're at a level where a writer honestly doesn't know or is unable to evaluate what's in front of them.

Have occasionally been given work boat magazine, like so many it's gotten a little thin in the last 20 years. But that's just all print media these days.

Leads back to the question of where good info about useful information can be found.

 

Ad hoc, I was editing my posts while yours came in.


It was a little suspect that the boat was listed for sale about the time the article came out. Granted in the speed at which print media moves its likely the owner new it would be up for sale but the writer did not.


It's a bit unfortunate that honest evaluation of boats is getting harder to find. Especially as we've globalized its not easy to get half way around the world to personally evaluate every idea.

 

I thought I would have a look at the National Fisherman site (I had a yellow paper subscription to them 40 years ago, and loved it then) and I found this article about a boat recently built up your way - but don't worry, I am not expecting you @comfisherman to comment on it!
Innovative Alaskan seiner 'Phosphorescence' sets trends in fishing technology https://www.nationalfisherman.com/innovative-alaskan-seiner-phosphorescence-sets-trends-in-fishing-technology

Reading the description, it all does rather like it was designed on a napkin (or the back of a fag packet even), and that they were often simply 'winging' it as they went along......
But I think that regardless of if this is the boat in Com's post or not, it illustrates well how flowery language can be used.

 

Sure take a lot of 18-20 cent pink salmon to pay for a boat like that.


I've been reading on the e Finn hull that won the little local competition that had a non insignificant prize to go towards building. Looks like in October they launched a prototype. The hull isn't a wild departure from known quantities, so should be a slam dunk. That said when any one feature almost exclusively wins, something has to give to accommodate. Guess it's probly worth a phone call to decide if s flight across the continent is worth while.

Admittedly my area of expertise is more in line with deck layout, usually leave below the water line to the pros.

 

The question should then be, would you buy a house without an independent survey?
Before buying second hand, best seek a professional who can then give you the the technical comments/critiquing that you require to give you the confidence whether to buy or not.

 

We are living in the age of “Capatilism Gone Wild”, the love of money and the greed with which it is amassed are driving everything, including our elected officials’ agendas.
The massive National debt is a clear indication that no one has an eye to the consequences of said greed.
Where have all the practical, honest men gone?

 

I'd guess in the case of much print media, or media in general they are just trying to fill pages in an age of stiff competition from other sources. Figure this was a couple page spread that got clicks and some pages turned, might not be any more malice than just trying to keep the job afloat.


Got to thinking about it last night, I'm going to try and chase down some archived national fisherman from the Era of boats that are known quantities. Would be interesting to see what was said at the time of the first of boats that now have 30 to 40 years of proof. It's been a decade but osu had archived national fisherman clear back to before it was national fisherman. Although back then the dominant publication was alsaka fisherman's journal, and pacific fishing.

In the way back machine, two competing companies built roughly the same size and proportioned boats. They were within 1 ton weight and 18 inches length with about an inch difference in width. Constructed with similar materials and powered and equipped with the same engines. Main difference was the the tunnel and the bow, forward of the cabin to the bow stem was the extra length. One company sold 30 some odd the other near 200. 50 years (for the oldest ones) later the one that sold less is regarded as a much superior boat. They are faster and handle weather much better and as such command near 1/3 greater value with equal gear than the competitor. Ironically the man who sold 200 of the competing boats was said to have been the greatest salesman on earth. Old joke was he went from selling the Eskimos snow, to selling them boats. I'll try and see what was written about the competing platforms when they were introduced.


On the e Finn hull the design isn't a radical departure, but every hull has its gremlins. Depending on what the gremlins are helps decide if they are worth the trade off. Hopefully the first boat gets some miles under it's keel and the owner will have some opinions.

 

It seems like there isn't a lot of upside for a magazine in publishing a negative review, and there could be real financial repercussions. The manufacturer may not advertise or loan products for review in the future, which means loss of revenue and content. Other manufacturers with marginal products may also be discouraged from lending products out for review.

Better and easier just to parrot the press release as adhoc said.

 

Trying to dig up the article on the book shelf. It was a boatd and gear segment about a new lobster boat that had been built and turner out to be finicky to load and a big squirrelly in a seaway. The builder had added a 4 or 5 foot stern extension and it had solved the trim issue and made the boat settle in. Remember the article stating that they were modifying the mold to make it longer, so subsequent boats exhibited better characteristics.

Gonna take some digging, it was a lobster boat company and it surprised me to see that level of honestly in an article.

All boats have some flavor of fault. My last one did a lot of things good, but has some fairly glaring faults. But those faults were overcome rather easily with a big main and a short season making me indifferent to its fuel consumption. Were I to use the boat for other things it would make for some unhappy days.

Hard part is figuring out what those faults are.