I agree with Tom.
One need not take what PS concludes as Gospel, but they bring information
that can be helpful. More so than any other sailing publication I know of,
especially when it comes to new developments/products.
You can come to your own conclusions, based on what data they develop.
Certainly you don't think they falsly report their findings do you? What
kind of scientific methods would you want ? How much would you be willing to
pay for this ?
PS has time to look into and evaluate many more items/systems/whatever than
I do. They more often than not do this in a way that makes sense to me. They
provide useful information. Their readers provide useful information. And I
think that the knowledge of their readers, as appears from their letters,
would suggest there must be some value to the magazine, or they wouldn't
waste their time and money on it.
But, it's a free country.

"Charlie Morgan" wrote in message
...
On 8 Feb 2007 16:03:48 -0800, "
wrote:

On Feb 8, 12:36 pm, Charlie Morgan wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 12:48:58 -0800, "b393capt"
wrote:
...
Practical Sailor has a history of recommending and trashing products
on a fair basis, and is very reliable.

I would dispute that in very strong terms. Their testing methods are
about as
unscientific as possible, and their "recommendations" often have nothing
to do
with what product was better.
...

There are certainly some problems with PS. They are a small shop,
perhaps even a little inbred, and have limited human and financial
resources. I suspect their work is sometimes influenced by their need
to maintain some good will with the industry. Despite this, they
appear far less beholden to the industry than any other marine
publication I know. I'm convinced that they are making an effort to
be honest in their evaluations and are concerned about their
reputation. I read them. Still, your point about testing and rating
has some validity. For instance, I think their recent review of
winches was worse than useless. I've put thousands of hours onto
three of the brands of winches they reviewed and can attest that there
are huge differences in design, quality and maintainability between
them, and some have well known failure modes. Yet they missed all of
that and concluded that there was no significant difference between
the brands... So, I don't take their opinion as gospel, but I do
think that, on the whole, they do a better job of reviewing marine
gear than anyone else and their opinions deserve a sympathetic
reading.

-- Tom.

Why? You seem to agree that they have big problems, and then you ask that
they
be given some undeserved "break".

That makes as much sense as their reviews where they praise one product in
the
story and then rate another lesser product better in the final tally.

They do not use even basic journalism or scientific standards and methods.
It's
junk and it's deceitful. They deserve no special consideration.

CWM