We want to hear from you! 

We want your help, and we’re willing to offer you something for it.

We want to hear from as many readers as possible about the products or services you’ve discovered/purchased/used that are advertised (or advertised in the past) on the pages of Good Old Boat magazine. Tell us your story, about learning about the product and about using the product. We give bonus points to readers who include a photo of themselves with the product. We’ll send (for free!) a Good Old Boat hat or shirt to any reader who sends us all of that, plus a photo of an aid to navigation from the area they sail, the more interesting the better.

We appreciate it. Our advertisers provide a chunk of the revenue needed to make our magazine; by sharing reader feedback, we hope to remind them that their ad budget is well spent in Good Old Boat.

BWI Scholarship and Awards

Have you all seen the excellent video on the Good Old Boat YouTube channel, a 12-minute pre-departure documentary about Jeanne Socrates, the oldest human to have ever sailed non-stop, unassisted, around the world? The film was made by Cavan Lyons, a former cruising kid who lives and studies in Washington state. Since he was a kid, Cavan has been interested in storytelling via video. Heck, Cavan’s been more than interested, that’s why we tapped him to make the Jeanne Socrates film.

Well, that film became part of Cavan’s application for the Boating Writers International (BWI) scholarship contest, to be awarded to an undergraduate student who demonstrates a passion for the field of boating media. On February 13, BWI announced Cavan Lyons the winner of the $2,000 scholarship at the Miami International Boat Show.

But wait, there’s more.

Also at the February 13 show, BWI (a professional organization of writers, editors, publishers, photographers, and others in the communications profession associated with the boating industry) recognized two Good Old Boat writers for their work: Contributing Editor Drew Frye and contributor Craig Moodie.

Drew won a third-place cash prize in the Boating Issues category for his July 2019 Good Old Boat article, “Living with Ethanol.” Drew was also recognized in the Seamanship, Rescue & Safety category for his May 2019 Good Old Boat article, A Drogue by Another Name is a Rudder. Writing for Practical Sailor, Drew was recognized yet again, in the Gear, Electronics & Products category. Craig was recognized in the Boating Lifestyles category for “Drifting or Driven?,” an article that we published in the May 2019 issue of Good Old Boat.

Finally, BWI recognized Good Old Boat Senior Editor, Wendy Mitman Clarke, three times (including two cash awards) for her articles in Soundings and Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

Congratulations to all!

Free Subscription for Active Duty

Canadian active duty vessel

Know a US or Canadian active-duty soldier who sails? Who may be deployed and missing sailing? Are you an active-duty US or Canadian soldier who would enjoy a free subscription to Good Old Boat? Whether you know one or are one, contact Karla to get that subscription started. She’s super nice and can be reached by email: karla@goodoldboat.com

Nautical Trivia

This one is new to us. Apparently, the word posh, which we know to be a synonym of luxurious, began as an acronym, POSH, meaning Portside Out Starboard Home. Why? Because wealthy Colonial Americans, traveling by sailing ship back to England, would want care to be taken with their goods, packed in trunks. Heading from Boston to Portsmouth, for example, they’d want their trunks stowed on the port side, avoiding weeks of sun exposure. Heading home, they’d want their trunks stowed on the starboard side, for the same reason. With POSH stenciled on the outside, the ship’s crew knew just what to do.

We looked this one up and found a variant that rings more true. Rather, the wealthy passengers themselves were POSH (standing for the same thing), as it indicated their preferred accommodations aboard the ship in either direction.