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
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