Reving Up My Blog. Sail-Delmarva

Mar 26, 2011
3,677
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
I began blogging about sailing about 15 years ago. I'd been sailing for 20 years already, but I'd just started cruising with my family and I had a new-to-me boat that needed tweaking.

A few years later I started writing for Practical Sailor, Good Old Boat, and a few others, but mostly the first two. By last count I've had nearly 600 articles published, ranging from product testing, to DIY, to how to sail better. My blogging slowed down, in part because I was busy, but also because the publishers didn't wanting me posting images and text that might eventually end up in articles. It was a fine line.

After all of those articles I'm a little burned out, or more accurately, I feel like I've researched an written about most of the things that interested me. My the pot of new ideas is nearly empty. Good Old Boat closed this spring. Practical Sailor has moved to an all-digital format and lightened up on product testing. It may not seem like it, but product testing articles are among the hardest and most expensive to produce. They take endless time and require the purchase of materials. DIY is easier and talking about sailing is nothing by comparison, even with the research time. (I'm still testing bottom paints.)

I'm still writing for Practical Sailor, although a bit less. I need a pick-me-up. Something to do that feels worthwhile.

So I've begun revamping my blog. It contains about 675 posts on all sorts of topics. I've started at the beginning, poking through them one at a time, revising where anything important has changed. New products or opinions that have changed with experience. Inserting bits and pieces from published articles in some cases.

It's free. There's no fire wall. Though I hope to post considerable new stuff, I'm also hoping you will go back to the beginning and have a fresh look at the original stuff as well. There is a lot there. Most of it is categorized (see the side bar) and there is a key word search.

Cheers! [ I can see that I'm going to buried with revisions for weeks!]

Sail Delmarva
 
Jan 11, 2014
12,746
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Cheers! [ I can see that I'm going to buried with revisions for weeks!]
Being optimistic? ;)

I have always found your articles valuable and informative in your writing for GOB and PS. I look forward to reading your revisions. Maintaining a blog is not as easy as many may think. Your efforts will be appreciated.

The recent hires at PS seem to be taking the publication in a much different direction than it has followed for decades. It is unlikely that I will renew my subscription when it expires later this year. The industry and its consumers benefited from a fair and critical analysis of their products. It was telling that an early video by a new hire, offered an unsupported and ultimately inaccurate assessment of the Key Bridge disaster and then read Amazon ads for fuel additives. This took PS to a new low and one I won't support. If this is the direction PS is going, then curtailing your relationship with the publication is warranted.

There is a market for product reviews and testings that doesn't amount to the regurgitation of marketing materials with superficial criticism of alleged "flaws." I'd subscribe to it in a NY minute if one appeared, since PS seems to have chosen a different path.

Drew, I wish you the best as you work towards reviving your blog, I look forward to reading it and relying on your advice and insights.

Fair Winds, Friend.
 
  • Like
Likes: Leeward Rail

Rick D

.
Jun 14, 2008
7,182
Hunter Legend 40.5 Shoreline Marina Long Beach CA
Wonderful! I have always learned from your tests and reviews and look forward to paging through your blog.
 
Jun 21, 2004
2,782
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
So I've begun revamping my blog. It contains about 675 posts on all sorts of topics. Cheers! [ I can see that I'm going to buried with revisions for weeks!]
Sail Delmarva
Thanks so much for making these posts available. Look forward to reading them.
 
Sep 24, 2018
3,287
Catalina 30 MKIII Chicago
You have some well written and very informative information. I reference your Hood article every time I service my furler and check out the other articles every so often. I love your idea for the snap on window covers!
 
Mar 20, 2015
3,212
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
Triple thumbs up.
Your writing is always great IMO. It's a breath of clean air compared to much of the sailing related crap being posted online.

Fwiw I agree with @dlochner, PS seems to be going down a dark path.
 
Apr 8, 2010
2,091
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
Good to have access to quality material, and much thanks to the OP. :)
Good Sailing Magazines still available?..... ohhhhhh my. :( Not much out there.
I was also very happy with GOB, and would have stayed the course even with some price raises.... but they did not even bother to ask...
I dropped the older "coffee table" US-based ones over a decade ago, and now receive only Practical Boat Owner and Yachting Monthly, both UK sourced. Damned Good reads, cover to cover, BTW.

As Jim M once said when contemplating The End: "weird scenes inside the gold mine..." :frown:
 
Mar 26, 2011
3,677
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
It's great to hear the words of support. Better than the paupers pittance writers earn. I am also very glad I had the opportunity to build savings through engineering and consulting!

Because I am cleaning up older posts, the next few weeks will see a lot of material moved from deep in the archives to the front, it is has been heavily updated and sees fresh. I just put together a video of hand stitching an eye and added it to a 2012 post. I didn't know anything about video in 2012, but I had done some clips for Good Old Boat and I glued them together using ClipChamp this morning. ClipChamp is free and pretty handy If you don't need to get too elaborate.

The actual articles for Practical Sailor and Good Old boat were long and got deep into the weeds of testing, breaking nearly 100 samples, in all sorts of ropes, with also sort of sewing methods. It's not that I don't know how to do conventional splices. Of course I do. But sometimes a sewn splice is ...
  • More compact (shorter, which can be important in tackles etc.)
  • Possible (splicing old doublebraid is a nightmare, such as re-doing a tackle)
  • Accurate (You can get exactly the length you need every time)
Generally it will be as strong as a tucked splice (many safety and climbing ropes are sewn), and durability depends to some extent on covers (heavy duty heat shrink can work, but I like webbing for rough use). I've never had a failure. Of course, I've never had a splice fail either. I've had a few overloaded ropes break inside knots, the result of fatigue and long use.

Sewn Splices (the video is in here)

 
Last edited:
Aug 11, 2011
955
O'day 30 313 Georgetown MD
I have bookmarked your blog. My guess the most common response to posters questions will be "GO TO SAIL-DELMARMA"s blog for the answer. :clap:;)