The results of this year's reader survey are in and what a lucky lot you are....
The results of this year’s reader survey are in and what a lucky lot you are. One of the more startling figures to come out of our questionnaire was that on average you intend to spend around £315,000 on your next boat (does your other half know this…?) and that you devote around 3.8 hours of your life to reading every issue (…or this?).
Good on you, but of even more interest to me are the comments you made about our magazine. I am delighted to hear that the majority of you still want us to cover boats from as small as 20ft to 80ft or more (provided they are classy ones, of course) and that you reckon the magazine has improved recently (our sales figures reflect this too).
You have also helped clarify the parts of the magazine you really enjoy and those you feel we could improve, so over the next few months we are rolling out a series of changes and new suggestions that you think will make MBY an even better read.
First to go under the surgeon’s knife this month are our news pages, which newshound Rob Peake has transformed into a much richer feast of interesting, and occasionally bizarre, stories, interviews and gossip from around the world. Read ’em and weep! You’ll also find the first of our new mega-tests reviewing five leading contenders in the same category of boats – 50ft flybridges, in this instance (see p42). It’s almost impossible to get boats of this size together in one place but luckily we have a supercomputer that can analyse and recall every last detail of the boats as we zip around the country testing them – he’s called Dave Marsh.
Finally, thanks to everyone who rang, emailed and wrote to me supporting last month’s suggestion that the London Boat Show might fare a whole lot better if the dates were moved from January to March. It seems I’m not the only one who thinks this might make a big difference. National Boat Shows take note.
