Matt Trulio

You have been playing nice indeed, my friend. Not at all upset. All good here.

Your suggestions have serious merit. Like-sized/hull type boats with the same power going head to head is a great idea. It's also one the industry has resisted, as you can imagine, but with the downturn (that's understating things quite a bit) in the market the game has changed.

Earlier in this thread I listed the stories in the last issue. It was a pretty big list. Wonder how we got them all in, especially in such a thin issue? Very simple—economics. Boat tests are expensive for builders and magazines. Ergo, in times like these we have a lot fewer of them. And even with a skinny magazine, the "feature well" opens up because you don't have to pack the magazine with boat tests. The days of ten tests in an issue are, in my opinion, gone and not coming back.

So we have to be a lot more selective and thoughtful in how we present a far more limited numbers of tests. Like you, I would rather see head-to-head comparisons than random boat tests, regardless of what anyone thinks of them, that have no comparative context.

So I love the idea. Obviously, I'm not the only person involved with Powerboat but I love it. It certainly had occurred to us before—hence the various round-ups we've done in the past few years—but to be honest it's been tough sell with the industry, which can be quite thin-skinned. That's because frankly, one builder will "win" and another builder will "lose."

But the game has changed. I believe that to properly promote/display/ its products the industry will have to take chances. Head to head testing is one of those chances.

Padraig

I seriously believe that performance boat mags will need to change and innovate or will disappear. The same old S**t doesn't work anymore.

I don't know how and I know it will be expensive but they need to do tests and evaluations independent of the manufacturers.

While I have been a PBM basher at times I would much rather have them change and thrive then go belly up.

Take care and Merry Christmas, Matt.

Matt Trulio

Agreed.

The trouble is: Go-fast boats are expensive. Consumer Reports can buy 10 refrigerators, for example, and test them independently. But boats are such big-ticket items that magazines have to work with manufacturers or they simply don't have access to their products.

But ... I hear what you are saying and I completely agree with you. Print media is facing previously unheard of challenges—for the first time in history the ad dollars spent on online advertising surpassed the ad dollars spent on newspaper advertising this year—and it needs to create a more-compelling product That's essentially what you're asking for. It's also what you deserve.

Merry Christmas to you, too, Padraig.