Funny, I don't recall many features lately in CW from people out cruising in $2 million boats... Not that there aren't actually quite a few people doing that, of course...

Let's see, a recent issue featured 2 great stories about a couple of the more intriguing destinations anywhere, the Cape Verdes and St Helena... Both from sailors on pretty ordinary boats, each at least a couple of decades old...

Look at the major contributors/columnists for the magazine... Fatty Goodlander is certainly no high-end cruiser. How about Ben Zartman, going with his family about as bare bones as they come, on a Cape George 31 he built himself, and is powered by a small outboard engine. Or, Alvah and Diana Simon, voyaging far and wide on their old steel cutter, ROGER HENRY...

The same issue featuring the $2 million Gunboat BOTY also features a great piece on the legendary Argentinian circumnavigator Vito Dumas, who was the first ever to go around alone via the 3 great capes during WW II... Written by another frequent CW contributor, Thies Matzen, who cruises on Eric Hiscock's old wodden 31-footer WANDERER III... Oh, and there's also a feature on Yvon Bourgnon, who the author met in Tahiti, during the course of his circumnavigation... Aboard a 21 FOOT BEACH CAT... Do you suppose he paid $2 million for that multihull that took him to the exotic destination of French Polynesia? (grin)

Those who gripe about CW havine "lost its way" don't understand the consumer magazine publishing industry, for starters... And those who haven't looked at it in years might not know what they're missing... I think the technical stuff in CW is far better than what generally appears in SAIL, and Steve D'Antonio seems to me a far better resource than Peter Nielsen writing about the latest upgrade to his own boat... And CW showcases the wonderful writing of Herb McCormick, no one else comes close to the quality of Herb's columns and features, in my opinion... (Anyone who hasn't read his marvelous book about the Pardeys - S LONG AS IT'S FUN - definitely should check it out, it's a terrific read about a bygone world by the protoypical practitioners of the "Go Small, Go Now" approach to cruising ) This month, his column is about Matt Rutherford - another one of those high-dollar voyagers few of us can relate to, right?

Obviously, there's much about a magazine like CW that many of us might not be able to relate to, or find interesting... But, I still think it is the gold standard among cruising magazines, head and shoulders above the rest... And, the perception that it's only about people sailing high end boats simply does not square with the reality of the content...