Four years at the weather mark
Issue 24 : May/June 2002
When we adopted the name Last Tack for this column, we had in mind the part of a sailboat race where one has reached the lay-line and thrown the last tack before rounding the weather mark. It is not necessarily the end of the race, it’s just the part where the skipper and crew shift their thinking from beating to reaching or running. The pole is set, and the chute is made ready to hoist. One leg of the race is almost done, and another is about to start.
This publication has a busy crew. Each magazine cycle is a fairly intense endeavor, much like a race, and each crewmember has a critical part which must be done in sync with the others so that by the time we hit the lay-line (or deadline) and throw the last tack there will indeed be an another issue. Then — just like a long race — we get ready for the next leg and do it all over again, only this time — just like in a race — we try to do it all better. As it turns out, this column is positioned near the end of the 24th magazine we have published. At six a year, that means we are ending our fourth year. Get it together, get it out, tack, and get ready for another one.
Four years is not a long time as magazines go. Almost all sailing magazines are older than Good Old Boat. It is long enough, however, for us to take stock . . . to sort of stand up and look around, the way one does on the downwind leg to see where the wind and waves are, and plan the next beat.
We started Good Old Boat magazine with little, or perhaps no, comprehension of what that would involve. We thought that many sailors in the mainstream were not being spoken to by the other publications. There was a niche, a little hole at the starting line that we could squeeze through. As things developed, we found a lot of sailors, or perhaps they found us, and together we assembled the things that make a modern niche magazine. The wind that propelled it all was enthusiasm. Not enthusiasm for racing as this metaphor would imply, but enthusiasm for the sheer joy of sailing. Enthusiasm for boats so beautiful you can’t take your eyes off of them, and enthusiasm for good people who really are at their best when they are sailing. Over it all was the simple understanding that the joy of sailing was not proportional to the money spent, and that the reputation of a sailor was not built from things you can find in a marine catalog.
These things were well known before Good Old Boat magazine arrived, so it was easy to be a rallying point. Sailors are not shy about what they want. We just had to listen.
Four years is a good time to say thank you. Thank you to our readers. You are the only reason anybody ever makes a magazine. Thank you to our associates. We wanted to do this by ourselves, but instead the idea has had a life of its own. Today it takes about a dozen people to make Good Old Boat magazine. Thank you to the writers, photographers, and artists who have told the tales and conjured the images that truly reflect the readers’ passions. Thank you to our advertisers. You saw us as a fair and honest forum for bringing your message to our readers. And thank you to the people who made the good old boats . . . the designers and builders and the sales and service people. Your vision has been our joy.
So what now? Publishing is like a long race; it’s time to get ready for the next leg and do it all over again and — as in a race — this time we’ll try to do it all better.
Ready about . . .
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
