{"id":13005,"date":"2024-11-07T10:39:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windpilot.com\/blog\/en\/?page_id=13005"},"modified":"2024-11-07T10:39:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:39:21","slug":"the-royal-road","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/windpilot.com\/blog\/en\/columns\/peter-the-market\/windvane-politics\/the-royal-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The Royal Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPREADING THE MESSAGE TO THE SAILING PUBLIC\u2028<\/strong>
\nErrors and omissions excepted\u2028<\/strong>
\n\"\"It sometimes seems to me that certain writers in the marine business are not above misusing their purported influence to plant misleading messages in a sailor’s head. I am not tilting at windmills here: the evidence is clear to see. Has any aspect of our industry been scrutinized more thoroughly and exhaustively than windvane self-steering? I very much doubt it: all the information is out there, so technical errors (at least) could easily be avoided \u2013 or, failing that, quickly corrected \u2013 given a modicum of commitment to accuracy. I, for example, am always happy to help clear up any errors or omissions of which I become aware. Accuracy, therefore, is very much within reach, yet some writers still manage to find their way to unsupportable conclusions. While I cannot always be on hand to guide things back onto the straight and narrow, I am by no means reluctant (!) to share what I have learned over 48 years in the steering slave sector \u2013 and today is emphatically a sharing day!\u2028
\n\"\"“If you still have questions, I am only ever a mouse click away!” as I have signed off vast numbers of e-mail messages over the years. A busy half a century of active engagement in my market niche has also made a mark on the collective bluewater consciousness, and just about everyone in this little world appears to know that what sells Windpilots is word of mouth within the international cruising community. Making it all the way to the marketing land of milk and honey has taken decades of work, but in the end word of mouth simply cannot be beaten. Happy is the brand that can count on customers for advertising, especially if, like Windpilot, the brand name also becomes established as a synonym for the whole product category. Unburdened of the cost and uncertainty of buying ads in magazines, gambling on sponsorships and the insidious temptations of the advertorial, all I have to do is keep things moving in the workshop and shuttle back and forth to the airport, which I could probably manage in my sleep (if only self-steering was as reliable for cars as it is for sailing boats). The mirror might be showing me a head of white hair these days and even (if the light is bright enough and my better half has been keeping it punitively well-polished) a wrinkle or two, but I really cannot complain.\u2028
\n\"\"Long before I had any idea (or indeed any need to know) how I might go about it, I knew for certain that I wanted to be independent, to be my own boss. How much longer it will continue remains to be seen; you just never know! One thing I can be absolutely sure of though is that my cherished independence makes me a source of great frustration among certain journalists: not only do they have no way to make any money off me, but I maintain a lively dialogue with sailors directly too (something I regard more as fun than work), providing a wealth of information in the field of floating palaces and deep water completely free of charge. It maybe also doesn’t help that for the last 20 years, anyone so inclined has been able to access my technical guide on the subject (in any of six different languages) online at no cost. SELF-STEERING UNDER SAIL<\/a> has been downloaded an extraordinary three million times over that period.<\/p>\n

Obviously I do also pass those esteemed ladies and gentlemen who work their fingers to the bone at the keyboard for a living the occasional interesting little story without expectation of cash on delivery, in the time-honoured (and most enjoyable) fashion still current with us older types. This same principle I suppose underlies the blog I have been writing and curating for the last 14 years as a nourishing feast for the knowledge-hungry sailor tired of paywalls and compromised sources. This, indeed, is probably what sets my efforts apart from those of the information resellers, whose daily output necessarily has to follow the money. Theirs, as I see it, is a fundamentally flawed business model: they trade on their credibility, but it is the client with the least credible message who needs them the most…
\n\"\"Whenever I sit down to write for my books and blog<\/a>, in fact whenever I have a quiet moment before the cogs stop whirring for the day, my thoughts turn to how I might further tune my message so that it settles even more elegantly in the grey matter of sailors in thrall to the idea of blue water, ready to inform their purchasing decisions and guide them to the pleasures of effective self-steering at sea<\/a>. Provided they have also absorbed the messages about KISS<\/strong> (keep it simple, stupid) and the importance of good trim, they should then be able to relax and make the most of the available bunk time. Why else would anyone engage in long-distance cruising?
\n\"\"Communication channels in direct marketing are wonderfully short because there are no intermediary resellers trying to earn a crust off the information provided. Engaging media support in pursuit of a larger audience costs money up front and involves a significant element of risk: what if the message is not quite conveyed as intended once entrusted to the media, for example, and what if the benefit obtained fails to justify the money invested? The substantial power imbalance here is difficult to overlook too, as is the risk of collateral damage to balance and impartiality if\/because (thank you for your understanding!) editorial concerns intervene.\u2028
\n\"\"What are we to think when an author intentionally incorporates confounding comments (for pecuniary or other consideration) despite being in a position to know better? Is it courtesy, prejudice or pride, for example, that leads the journalistic objectivity we might reasonably expect to be laid aside? And where was the editor-in-chief when subjective judgments were slipping through to publication? Is it as simple as a demonstration of who really has the upper hand or are we seeing personal animosity given free rein? Perhaps the atmosphere in the writing business has simply become icier in response to competition, circulation trends or the quality of word-wranglers available? Perhaps we’ll never know.<\/p>\n

It does appear though that there really might, now and again, be an element of personal animosity at work, albeit carefully dressed up as objective comment \u2013 and the sheen of gravitas that comes with being able to publish on paper or in a formal online setting makes it difficult for even the discerning reader to contradict the “facts” served up ad hoc. Fortunately for me, I have my own channel through which to argue my case!<\/p>\n

Former journalist with german YACHT magazin wrote about his opinion-never-again-with-a-wind-steering-system<\/a><\/p>\n

The original text in German<\/p>\n

Johannes Erdmann<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n