Issue 151: July/Aug 2023
This issue of Good Old Boat, #151, marks 25 years since the magazine was first published in the summer of 1998. Great Lakes sailors Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas, who met through sailing, founded the magazine and have been exploring Lake Superior aboard their 1976 C&C 30, Mystic, for over 30 years.
Good Old Boat Editor Andy Cross heads out for a daysail on the family Sunfish during the summer of 1998.
Like other sailors they knew, Karen and Jerry maintained and upgraded Mystic by themselves, which became the catalyst for launching a sailing magazine that reflected a self-sufficient, do-it-yourself approach. They created Good Old Boat to share their passion for sailboats — inspiring readers to restore, refit, upgrade, and sail boats that can live on as long as they’re maintained and cherished. From the beginning, that has been the spirit of Good Old Boat.
As one would expect, the magazine started as a low-tech operation. Though it had an email address, widespread internet adoption was still in its infancy, and nearly everything at Good Old Boat was conducted by mail. Karen and Jerry didn’t accept credit cards, instead opting to take checks. Stories were sent in by post and had to be typed or retyped for layout in the magazine. Photos were sent in and viewed through a slide projector on the wall. Aside from the cover and a few interior pages, the majority of Good Old Boat was printed in black and white.
Of course, over the years, Good Old Boat’s processes have adjusted with the times. Now we write and receive lots of emails, accept credit cards, process stories and images by computer with advanced software, print the full magazine in color, and have a digital issue, website, and e-newsletter. Yet with all of that, one thing has remained unchanged. We’ve always maintained everything in-house. Good Old Boat is an independently owned small business run by a female entrepreneur, and we don’t rely on a third-party business to handle our customer service. Heck, in true do-it-yourself fashion, we still answer the phone when someone wants to subscribe, renew, order a back issue, or change an address. Bottom line, like our boats, we take care of our readers.
Returning home from a day of racing aboard an O’Day Ospray on Bass Lake, Michigan in 1998.
From the helm of Good Old Boat, I look back on the magazine’s legacy with appreciation for that ethos, and a weather eye toward the future. Twentyfive years ago, during the summer of 1998, I was a 15-year-old doing typical teenager things. I was also sailing. I raced and daysailed our family’s Sunfish and O’Day Ospray, and got out on our Hunter 23 whenever possible.
Back in those days, like Good Old Boat, sailing for me was a decidedly low-tech affair. No wind instruments. No depth sounder. No GPS (though I did know what Loran was). My only digital anything was a Timex wristwatch for timing starts, which I may or may not have remembered to wear. Simple enough, I was passionate about sailing and was starting to tinker with the boats I sailed.
Now, as a newly minted 40-year-old, I sit at the nav desk of my home and family cruising boat, a 1984 Grand Soleil 39 Yahtzee, working on this issue of the magazine. When we chart a course for each issue, I’m continually motivated by the detailed, creative, and adventurous stories that come from our talented pool of writers, contributors, and editors. A thorough approach to conveying how projects are completed or how sailing adventures unfolded is at the core of Good Old Boat. Helping readers make their boats safer, more comfortable, and better suited to the needs of the crew and the places they sail is paramount. I think about these things with my own sailboat and family, and I believe that translates to the boats that our readers own and dote on as well.
Similarly to how Good Old Boat’s processes have adapted to the passing of time, in many ways, so too has our content. Since 1998, the average boat size has grown and so has the amount of products and gear available to outfit them. Sailors with all ages, types, and lengths of boats are modernizing their systems to be more efficient and environmentally friendly, including propulsion, electrical, navigation, refrigeration, running and standing rigging, sails, and more.
Year after year, those same sailors are gearing up for voyages in their local waters. Some are getting ready for daysails and weekend outings, others are shoving off for months or years at a time to destinations far from their home ports. As with many things in life, preparing our boats is all about balance. We like creature comforts aboard, but we don’t want to make things overly complicated, either. So it goes with Good Old Boat.
Little did Karen and Jerry know that decades later the magazine’s original cover tagline, “Still sailing after all these years!” and the one we use today, “Inspiring hands-on sailors,” would reflect this balance. We’re here to help you keep your boats sailing, and to inspire you to continually make them whatever version of “better” you aspire to — then head out on the water to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Good Old Boat has always been about sharing a passion for sailing and boats with others, and I’m proud that it remains that way to this day.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
