A midlife course change has left a legacy in its wake
Issue 121: July/Aug 2018
Short of getting married to begin with, starting a sailing magazine 20 years ago was one of the most risky and rewarding things Jerry Powlas and I ever did together. Fortunately, we were too naïve to know it at the time.
Our original idea was to create a magazine to help the owners of sailboats for which no manufacturer remained in business. No company offered these sailors support of any kind. They had no source for replacement parts, and few newsletters existed that provided information about system failures, routine maintenance, and potential upgrades. We called their boats “the orphan fleet.” Ours, a C&C 30, was one of them. Heck, we could name — right off the bat — at least five or six brands of sailboats that had no surviving manufacturer. We later learned about dozens, if not hundreds, of brands of good old boats. So our premise was good.
Admittedly, our due diligence was a bit shallow. The preponderance of sailboats where we sailed were good old boats, not shiny new ones. Year after year, those sailboats became older and older, and their owners’ need for advice grew. This publication could fulfill that need, and that was enough for us.
Jerry is an avid sailor with a technical bent. I have a journalism and public relations background. Together, we had a great combination of skills. But we didn’t have all the skills we needed for a publishing operation. Not by a long shot. We soon found that out. Between us, we had no marketing skills or ad sales ability. We lacked accounting expertise. We needed to create and manage a database of subscribers. We needed to start a simple website in the days when even an email address was new and different. We had to get periodical-mailing privileges from the US Postal Service and find out how one gets a magazine on the newsstand. Most of all, we had to learn to send renewal notices: people do not just send money every year unless you remind them.
You might say that our magazine grew despite us. As soon as we could afford to pay ourselves and had a bit more cash available, we added a few crew members who had the skills we lacked. The contribution of every single Good Old Boat staff member has been golden. And it wasn’t just those who could be called “staff.” Our subscribers, authors, and contributing editors were the authentic good old boaters. Their opinions, their projects, and their learning experiences made each issue of the magazine worthwhile and helped direct the path of Good Old Boat going forward into the future. Then there were the voices of the advertisers who joined in the chorus. The first 10 to 15 years was a heady time of discovery and growth as we learned the publishing business, polished our magazine to something a lot more sophisticated, and led a ragtag band of good old boaters.
No matter what contribution they made to the enterprise — as authors, writers of letters to the editor, website visitors, subscribers who stopped to visit at boat shows, advertisers, or fellow sailors — we’ve met some wonderful people as part of starting a sailing magazine. Most are people we would otherwise never have known. Some have thanked us repeatedly for the contacts and friends they have made through their relationship with Good Old Boat. Without question, that works both ways. We count them and so many others as our friends.
One fact that never figured into our planning for the future of this magazine was the same one that eludes most of us: we, too, are going to get older as each year goes by. That part was not visible within our crystal ball and came as a surprise last year. It was time to decide how to retire. Several options were available to us, and we chose to hand the helm over to three younger staff members whose energy and enthusiasm have already given our publication a big shot in the arm. We’re discovering the joys of retirement and we still juggle our time aboard our two sailboats, the trailerable for traveling during the shoulder seasons and the original C&C 30 for summers on Lake Superior.
We started a magazine because we thought there was a need for a publication such as this. No one starts a business to create a legacy, but as I look over 20 years of issues full of excellent content, I realize with surprise that we have created one after all, and I’m pleased to see it go forward with a new watch at the helm.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
