Its breadth demands a diversity of content
Issue 119: March/April 2018
Immediately upon assuming editorial responsibility at Good Old Boat, I started work on a mission statement. This magazine didn’t have one. For 19 years to that point, the vision that informed editorial decisions belonged to Good Old Boat’s founders, Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas, shaped and refined over conversations that were their own. I took on the role of editor with my understanding of their perspectives and inclinations, and I wanted to express that understanding in words, to create an artifact the team and I could point to and reference and refine. A mission statement.
Last spring I started in earnest. I created a couple of drafts. I even shared a version with the team. At some point I abandoned the effort. There still isn’t a Good Old Boat manifesto.
It’s not easy to capture an intangible vision in words. And I’ve come to think it’s not necessary, that doing so might be more editorially restrictive and confining than helpful.
Those of us charged with preserving the flavor and tone of this magazine are in constant thought and discussion about what content works best between our covers. We bounce ideas off one another. We gauge reader feedback. We remember to ask ourselves whether each story or design element is one we’ll be proud to cast off into the pool of marine journalism.
We’re lucky to be able to work that way. While we lack the resources of a corporate owner, we’re among the very few independent boating magazines still going strong, and so we retain the flexibility of autonomy. Better yet, we occupy a unique niche in the market. After all, what other sailing magazine focuses on the content we do?
Nobody. We’re alone, an island of DIY-focused content for people who own and maintain their own sailboats. Yet our niche is wider than I once thought possible.
In this issue we’ve included Jim Honercamp’s inspiring article about the derelict Vagabond 47 he acquired for next to nothing and turned into a yacht. I love refit stories; I think they’re at the core of much of what we’re about. Yet we only have so many pages to cover the world of good old boats and I know I’m likely to hear from daysailing trailer-sailors who would rather see an article dedicated to the refit of a smaller vessel.
West Coast sailors aboard good old boats of any size won’t relate to the Mid-Atlantic summertime humidity that drove Drew Frye to install a built-in air conditioning system aboard his catamaran. Florida good old boat sailors didn’t get much out of our most recent better-mousetrap winter boat-cover article, but it sure resonated with Great Lakes sailors. The catboat sailors want more catboats; the swing-keel sailors want more swing keels.
Our niche addresses a diverse group of sailors, a range of readers on a range of boats they sail on a range of oceans and waterways. What I believe we all have in common is our love of the fact that there is a sailboat out there for each of us. That we’ve acquired the skills to take her out on the water, get her under sail, and find our way back home. That we have the desire to maintain and improve our boats, taking on much of the effort to do so ourselves. That we’re part of a community that shares these experiences with others.
Accordingly, I’m always looking for content that addresses what we all have in common. And while no San Francisco-based reader is going to install an AC system aboard their sailboat, hopefully they appreciate learning that there is a Drew Frye out there doing just that, and maybe getting some ideas or inspiration from the way in which he executed the complex project.
In the end, the team and I (a group of sailors as diverse as our niche readership) seek to publish the magazine we all want to read. That’s probably as close as I’ll ever come to a Good Old Boat mission statement.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
