The magazine’s co-founder reflects on the early days and what boaters and farmers have in common
Issue 151: July/Aug 2023
These days Karen and Jerry and Mystic, the boat they have sailed together since 1991, haunt the docks at Barker’s Island Marina in Superior, Wisconsin.
Like many Good Old Boat readers, Jerry and I have been accumulating boats for years. He often jokes that he buys boats; he doesn’t sell them.
In addition to our beloved Mystic, the C&C 30 we’ve been sailing for more than 30 years and the inspiration for the magazine we founded, we also have Sunflower, a trailerable C&C Mega 30 that has been Jerry’s project boat for at least 12 years. We still sail Mystic on Lake Superior, and Sunflower sits on her trailer next to our garage here in South Dakota sunflower country, so the name fits.
We have a collection of two-person kayaks: a Folbot you assemble from a bagful of parts, a Grabner inflatable, and our stalwart 30-year-old rotomolded plastic favorite that has traveled many miles on Mystic’s deck. The newest member of the collection is an aluminum rowing, motoring, and paddling boat that can be launched into the small shallow lakes and rivers near home.
Mystic departs a sheltered cove on Lake Superior’s Canadian north shore after social time rafted with Fred and Jennifer Bagley’s Caliber 38, Catamount. Photo by Fred Bagley.
Our neighbors here in South Dakota do not understand our interest in boats and sailing. But we have more in common than they think. We are new to South Dakota, having lived here for just two years, and have much to learn about our adopted small town and the agricultural economy here. We lived in Minneapolis 25 years ago when we founded the magazine and received quizzical looks from fellow sailors of the saltwater variety. But we started with sailboat racing on one of Minnesota’s 10,000-plus lakes and Lake Superior, and never believed that fresh water detracted from our sailing abilities.
Karen and Jerry appreciate downtime
aboard Mystic, their C&C 30, while Tom and Sandy Wells are at the helm on a sunny day in Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Photo by Tom Wells.
When we launched Good Old Boat in 1998, we wanted to share stories of restoring, refitting, and upgrading sailboats. There were — and still are — boaters of every description working in boatyards and backyards to bring their very individual dreams to reality.
Through hours of backbreaking effort, their dreams emerged, and they wrote the technical pieces as well as the inspired personal love stories for other sailors like themselves. All we had to do was publish them. The stories kept coming (and still do), with more articles submitted than we could possibly print. Whether we could print it or not, we loved every article.
Like sailors with their good old boats, Karen and Jerry’s friends, DeJae and Doug Gantvoort, are among the many South Dakota residents who remember old farm machines fondly and go to great lengths to restore them.
A few themes were repeated often. Some sailors always wanted to find the good old Tartan 28 or Ranger 33, the beloved family boat that Mom, Dad, and kids sailed back in the day. And for those fortunate enough to find the very same boat, money was not an object for a restoration driven by love and good memories.
Another common theme was the tale of a sailor’s first sight of a particular sailboat in the back lot of the boatyard. There could be mold everywhere, a tree or two growing in the cockpit, missing parts, holes, leaks, wasps, bats … it didn’t matter. The next comment was always the same: “When I first saw her, I loved her instantly.”
And there is the parallel with the farmers who surround us here in South Dakota. They fondly recall the tractors their families used a few generations ago. They want to find Dad’s old 1941 Farmall M or more often, a 1947 John Deere B — if not the exact tractor, then one very much like it. Sometimes this priceless tractor is still at the old farm place, rusted and covered by weeds behind the barn. Sometimes it has changed hands several times since it was new.
The tractor they remember fondly has been surpassed by newer, better machinery and will probably never plow another field. But once every spot of rust has been removed, the engine working like new once again, and shiny new paint applied, these tractors show up in community parades, at threshing shows, and in other farm implement shows and auctions. And the smiles on those owners’ faces are just as wide as those on the faces of Good Old Boaters who have succeeded with their sailboat restorations.
Soon after sewing their own Sailrite spinnaker
from a kit in 2010, Karen and Jerry took photos while sailing on Lake Superior’s Canadian northern shore by Red Rock, Ontario. Jerry singlehanded the boat while Karen, paddling nearby in their kayak, shot photos.
We understand exactly what drives these farmers to bring back to pristine condition the one special tractor they always loved best. Twenty-five years ago, we had the bug too and understood the drive to restore sailboats and to sail and love them once more. Now that we are retired, it is a delight of the highest magnitude to see Good Old Boat magazine continuing to appeal to sailors with dreams and the ability to make them come true.
Will we buy and restore a tractor anytime soon? There is probably a niche to be filled here with a magazine called Good Old Tractor. So far, we have resisted the temptation.
Good Old Boat founders Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas retired from publishing this magazine in 2017, but they have not grown tired of sailing or of telling tales of starting “the sailing magazine for the rest of us,” as the tagline put it.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
