Kevin Whilden wrote: > > At 08:13 AM 8/13/00 -0400, John Winters wrote: > >Some years back I complained to Sea Kayaker about their reviews and told > >them (as well as the builders of my kayak designs) that I had no interest in > >the magazine ever testing my boats. I still feel that way even though they > >use a formula for resistance that I developed. > > > >I have the following problems with their tests: [snip] > >Any review with a subjective component has diminished value at best > >and no value at worst. Unfortunately one can't tell which. > > I disagree that a subjective review has no value, as you seem to state. In > sea kayaks, there are matters of safety as well as personal preference. Any > moderately experienced paddler can determine them. [snip] > For instance, a recent boat that I tested > had seams that leaked and deck rigging that ripped off the boat under > strain. If I was in the market for a new kayak, I would consider such > information alone quite valuable. Kevin, in ten years of reading SK reviews I have *never* seen any mention of a flaw like "seams leaked" or "rigging that ripped off the boat" in a SK review. How come? What happens to a report from a tester (such as yourself) that contains hard-nosed (but damaging) information such as that? Could be I missed reports that detailed serious flaws, but I don't think so. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Aug 14 2000 - 01:41:21 PDT
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