PassageMaker Magazine

I was wondering how many folks here (besides me) subscribe to or read PassageMaker Magazine?

I find it pretty interesting.

I read every issue faithfully, as there is always at least one article that is worthwhile. It doesn't have the same allure that it once had, but whether that is because they have already covered much of the good stuff that can be covered, or whether I am a more knowledgeable boater than I was when they started publishing, I don't know. Probably a bit of both.
But it is still the best in its field for sure.
And I still have every issue they published. (Except for the ones I can't find.)
I buy off the stand. I subscribed years ago, but my issues often didn't arrive for up to three weeks after they were on the stands. Back then of course I couldn't wait so ended up with two copies of each issue.

I have a difficult time shelling out the bucks for a magazine devoted to "high end" boats. Ya gotta laugh at the maintenance articles that end with, "Tell your captain...."

I love it.

ancora said:

I have a difficult time shelling out the bucks for a magazine devoted to "high end" boats. Ya gotta laugh at the maintenance articles that end with, "Tell your captain...."

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I guess you read it at the library rather than paying $5 for a copy?

My boat (not "mine", but one like it) was featured in the magazine a few years ago. I never thought of it as "high end", but I suppose compared to some boats I've seen, it could be.

So I read the reviews even though they are usually for larger more expensive boats, I read the maintenance articles and the answers to reader's questions, and I read about the cruises others have taken.

I enjoy reading.

We had it for a couple of years, but let it run out this year. We liked it, but I, personally (I won't speak for Bess), just got tired of it.

I bought a couple copies and frankly didn't care for it. Nice boats but nothing we're interested in.

Tough audience. Give us any magazine text that is in English, let alone boating related and the beers are on me. Last years issues are current.

rwidman said:

I was wondering how many folks here (besides me) subscribe to or read PassageMaker Magazine?

I find it pretty interesting.

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I loved PASSAGEMAKER when it was more of an enthusiast magazine. There were many interesting articles by semi-professional writers that wrote of projects done on their boats. It was not too polished, but gave very useful info.

The main purpose of a magazine is to sell advertising. Editorial space and articles cost money for content and publishing. That content is limited to just what it takes to keep the reader involved. When the new owners took over, it seems that they understood this very well. Can you give a truly objective evaluation of a boat that is manufactured by one of your big advertising accounts. I will leave that for you to decide.

I feel that the interest of their advertisers took precedence over the interest of their readers. One example is the conversion to LED lighting on a 36' express boat. It was done by installing new light fixtures by one of their advertisers. I changed the lighting on Moonstruck, which is a much larger boat, for a fraction of the cost. Their cost was about $3500.00. My cost was more like $500.00. No light fixtures could be sold doing it my way. I just used compatible LED bulbs.

I do not fault their business model. I have never run a magazine, and do not know the problems involved. I do know that it is a competitive world out there. Staying alive is the name of the game. I just choose not to subscribe anymore. It is also very expensive compared to others especially when the number of issues is considered.

Just my two cents.e\

I loved PASSAGEMAKER when it was more of an enthusiast magazine. There were many interesting articles by semi-professional writers that wrote of projects done on their boats. It was not too polished, but gave very useful info.

I agree. I still subscribe,but am unlikely to renew.

John

I've been trying to take a digital subscription without any success - their website is not working properly, I cant even buy back issues as the checkout process involves a login that wont work. And 'new registration' doesn't get anywhere either. So I emailed their subscriptions contact - email has just bounced back. Are these guys still in business or not?

I used to, but when they strayed from their core market, I dumped them. Then there is their "forum" and web site... Hahahahahahaha!

Don,

First, sorry for the hijack. I made the same conversion from halogen to led. I bought the "bulbs" from ebay. Installed 18 lights at about $5.00 each. Going into our third season with them. No problems so far.
YMMV

Rob

Its the only magazine I read.

I think the magazine is interesting, and informative.

Yes it has allot of articles about new boats that are out of my price range boats, but it also has articles about other boats. Thinking about it, if My boat was new the cost would be out of my price range.

Just off of the top of my head is an article about a home built trawler, and the refit of an old hatteras.

I think its very applicable to people that are, or dream of long distance cruising.

A few years ago Carey gave us a large collection of Passagemaker back issues. But outside of a couple of articles about fishboat conversions in this area there was nothing in the content of the magazine that had any relevance to the kind of boating we do, the kind of boat we have, or the area we boat in.

The ads in Passagemaker are either for things we don't need, don't want, or can't afford, so they offer no value to us, either.

There are a couple of locally published magazines (one now defunct) that have a degree of relevance to our boating so we look through them when we come across a copy. But for the most part I am not aware of any nationally published magazine that contains content that would interest us given the kind of boating we do and where we do it.

So we don't subscribe to any boating magazines and we definitely would not subscribe or even buy on the newstand an issue of Passagemaker. I'm not knocking what they do--- they obviously have found a target audience and do a good job of providing value to that audience or they would not still be in business. But their target audiences is not us, so we have no interest in what they do.

I agree with many of the sentiments posted above. When I first stumbled on PMM on an Aussie bookshop/newsagent stand by accident one day way back about 2003, I was like, "wow a magazine all about my kind of boat". It stood out so clearly from all the glossy mags produced locally which are either pitched at the fishing ilk of boatie, or all about those large ,plastic fantastics, I could never afford - or even want if I could afford them. I kept a look out for them and snatched them up as they arrived so as not to miss out. That was in the days of the originator and owner, Bill Parletore as editor, and I was so enthused I wrote in praising the magazine along the above lines and it was published with a nice editorial foot-note to my letter from him. The forum was also functional, and many now on here were then on there. I then subscribed for years until the last subscription ended a couple of months ago, but I did not renew, for all the reasons others have raised. Once BillP sold out and left the tone started to change, the forum was neglected and finally, after several attempts at restructuring, basically became defunct. All rather sad really, but I guess that's life. No magazine owner is going to stay at the helm forever, and Bill wanted to get out more an enjoy his boat. But it is rather sad that he started something a bit unique, and now it is just another glossy boating mag - a bit better than most, but it has lost the sort of special and personal touch with respect to the trawler style boats we all enjoy.

In 2008 I was selling my Camano 31, I adverised on lots of free and paid internet sites along with some of the Gulf Goast publications, not a serious inquiry for months. I finally bit the bullett and placed an ad,they are not cheap, in the hardcopy Passagemaker Magazine. About a month later I had an e'mail from a guy in Sweden, who said he had seen that ad and was interested. I thought it had to be a Nigerian scammer, after a couple of messages I realized he was legit we corresponded for a couple of months negotiating price. He flew over to see the boat, I picked him up in New Orleans airport Wednesday afternoon, he decided to buy the boat called his bank at 3am Thursday morning by 9 AM the money was in my bank account, confirmed by the guy who handles my acct. The buyer and I got the boat ready for shipment and brought it to a boatyard with a lift, by noon Monday it was on a truck with a special lowboy boat trailer headed out for Brunswick, Georgia about a week later it was loaded on a ship to Sweden.
Years ago I did have a subscription for a few years I don't now, but, if I see interesting topics listed on the cover I'll buy the occasional copy. Same for Latts & Atts.
Steve W.

Almost all of the boating magazines are delivered to my office free of charge so I get to pick and Passagemaker is the one that I read most of the articles.
The magazine is owned by Active Interest Media which also owns Power and Motoryacht and Show Management which is the company that puts on the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach Boat Shows.

I haven't read it much lately.I read religiously through the 90's.I may have to make a trip into the city and pick up an issue.

Greetings,
As has been said the "original" was excellent but since the takeover, nothing much of interest. Haven't so much as looked at an issue in nigh on three years.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
As has been said the "original" was excellent but since the takeover, nothing much of interest. Haven't so much as looked at an issue in nigh on three years.

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What he said.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
As has been said the "original" was excellent but since the takeover, nothing much of interest. Haven't so much as looked at an issue in nigh on three years.

Click to expand...

Ditto

Used to read 'Ocean Navigator'. That has gotten very thin of late.

Al

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
As has been said the "original" was excellent but since the takeover, nothing much of interest. Haven't so much as looked at an issue in nigh on three years.

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OK, you have answered the question "Do you read PassageMaker Magazine?", the answer is apparently "no", but I don't understand your claim that there's "nothing much of interest" if you "Haven't so much as looked at an issue in nigh on three years."

I am retired and not pressed for time, so I read a lot (I have enjoyed reading since I was a child and have learned a lot from reading.) I find most of the articles to be anywhere from mildly to exceedingly interesting.

I especially like the technical answers to reader's questions and the articles pertaining to boat problems and maintenance by Steve D'Antonio.

But, to each his own, I guess.

It is interesting that a group such as on TF had the majority of responders as none subscribers to PMM. They have a demographic or target market that does not seem to include us. That's OK, but it seems they grew up and left us. Of course this is a very unscientific survey, and the majority of TF members could subscribe. However, I doubt that.

By walking away from their forum, and moving upscale, they seem to have moved into a higher income group of subscribers. After all, advertisers are interested in nothing but numbers and demographics.

That should leave a hole in the market for another mag such as PMM was in the beginning. Could a profit be made from it? I would think a digital mag could work. I don't want to try it, but maybe Moonfish could.

I subscribed from the first issue until a couple years into the new ownership. It is no longer of interest. As Marin states, it is obviously aimed at someone else. I don't mind seeing one once in a while just to see how the other half lives, but...

I started a subscription, but it was not at all what I thought it would be. The maintenance articles are good, but I don't care about the high end new boats that are featured. I still subscribe to "Practical Sailor" and "Good Old Boat" from my previous life. Much more in tune to who I am, and most of the articles carry over to our trawler.

I'm suprised about the responses.

I'm reading tonight the digital version that was e-mailed to me today. I get both the print and the digital versions and read the digital ones when I'm traveling.

This issue had articles about the new Krogen 52, and a couple of other boats I'll never be able to afford. While those were somewhat interesting, what was really great was the article about a group of boaters in Mexico. Something called a fubar cruise.

I love reading about the exploration cruises. It gives me something to dream about, and places to put on my "cruise to someday" list.

I don't mind reading about new boats. I may never be able to afford one, I can apreciate the technical aspects, and the beauty of the boats. I also get ideas how to make the boat I have better.

Sorry, but those that don't read PM are just missing out in my opinion.

I too was an avid reader of PMM yrs ago. It was like my Sears Christmas Wish Book (remember those 5 lb. books bigger than an unabridged dictionary!). Alas it outgrew even my dreams. Now-a-days I read Lattitudes & Attitudes. They cater more to sailboaters but I find them to be a lot more real-world for regular boaters like me, and they have now combined with "Living a Board". PMM became more of an advertisement for high end boats. I like Good Old Boat as well, it seems to deal with problems (and solutions) that I can apply. I will still pick up a PMM occasionally if they have a cruising article related to an area I'd like to visit or just know more about.

I'm also a former subscriber, dropped for no reason in particular, but the email stuff I get from PMM has some interesting articles. Just saw this the other day..shows there is always something "different" that we can all maybe learn a little from:

If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another

I do agree the boats reviewed in PMM are gonna be way beyond my pocketbook, but then again, ANY new boat will be out of my reach unless the Lottery Fairy waves her wand over me. I've been getting a free subscription to Power & Motoryacht for years, so when I want to dream a little I can always check out the $$$ boats there.

I like the pictures...like some other mags I used to flip through when the kids hid them under their matress...

Most of the tech articles and answers to patrons are common info or in a thousand internet places...or flat out a way I wouldn't do or can't afford it.

In the time it takes to read the mag...I can learn 20x more from the internet...though some of the cruising articles are fun to read if I haven't been there.

For someone just starting out in the cruising/trawlering life...and have the kind of oney thrown around in the mag...it's as good as the next one.

The nice thing about the internet...I don't have to carry it to the recycling bin...