One thing Jack Turner got right when he sat down at his kitchen table one evening in the early 1960s with two like-minded conspirators and a bottle of gin was the timing of the grand idea to start a boating newspaper.
Soundings was conceived 60 years ago, right as the marine industry transitioned from wood to fiberglass. Its success was fueled by the great boom in boatbuilding that resulted.
“It was this stroke of dumb luck that enabled us to survive in spite of ourselves,” Turner wrote in a story celebrating the magazine’s 40th birthday. “Our black ink dirtied hands, and we were commonly referred to as a fish wrapper or birdcage liner. What better bible for Joe six-pack than a dirty little rag full of classified ads for used boats.”
Looking back 40 years later, Turner was certain the window of opportunity for founding the magazine was open only briefly.
“We had no capital, no market research, no business experience,” Turner recalled. He said that he and his friends Scott Hyfield and Bill Morgan needed to do it precisely when they did. Moreover, he said the whole boating world had changed since then. “Everything is so serious,” said Turner, who died in 2005. “Everywhere there is a consequence to anything not tempered, regulated, sober, safe, restricted, watched, insured.”
That description did not fit the temperament of John P. “Jack” Turner, the former U.S. Marine and publisher whose imprint can still be felt in the pages of Soundings. Turner was rarely afraid to try something new. And if you had the good fortune to work with him, you learned to embrace change rather than chafe at it. Turner’s colleagues also discovered the virtue of being nimble, a good quality if you intend to make a go of it in publishing these days.
Turner sometimes reminisced about early boat shows where publishers and builders “threw endless parties where the food was lavish and the booze gushed.”
In the Soundings offices in the old Dauntless Shipyard in Essex, Connecticut, Turner threw parties after large issues were put to bed. They were nothing to sniff at. Jack would blow a conch shell to kick off a celebration, and then a handle of Mount Gay and a case of cold Heinekens would appear on a long paste-up table.
When and where the festivities ended was anyone’s guess.
Jack Turner was a large, hulking man with enormous hands, a large head with big round eyes, and a loud voice. He didn’t like pretentious people or anyone trying to impress him. He was smart, quick-witted and he dressed like a sailor—Topsiders and no socks, even in winter.
Turner also was a Renaissance man: publisher, boatbuilder, sailor, gardener, chef, woodworker, artist, computer programmer, fiction writer and reporter. Relentlessly creative, he grew easily bored with the status quo. Jack would have been sputtering plenty over the state of contemporary culture. Even the name Soundings wouldn’t fly today, as time and technology are outpacing tradition and the old language of ships and the sea is fading.
One thing that has always made Soundings special is how it keeps a foot in both the traditional and the new boating camps. We cover new boats in every issue, but there is nothing that turns our heads faster than a classic yacht with a history or a well-done refit.
With Jack at the helm and a crew of mostly young reporters and sales reps, Soundings flourished. “We viewed ourselves as wildcatters—the Flying Tigers of marine publishing—and we behaved that way,” Turner recalled. “From the outset it had been my goal to produce a real newspaper, one that treated boating and the marine world as news, rather than the glossy feature material from which the national magazines were constructed.”
Turner wasn’t interested in “puff pieces” as much as he was in running straight news reporting and writing. And for years the “nation’s boating newspaper” delivered both news (race results, accidents, features) along with a fat classified section with thousands of boats for sale printed in black-and-white on low-cost newsprint paper. At its peak, Soundings produced nine regional editions, employed more than 80 people and spun off two other publications which are still going strong—Soundings Trade Only, which covers the marine industry, and WoodShop News. Both were Turner initiatives.
Soundings was a sturdy ship, but that didn’t mean we didn’t encounter our share of rough weather.
Our challenges as Turner recalled them included a near bankruptcy, a layoff that made the local news, a libel suit or two, squabbling between investors and partners, union organizers and angry employees. “Almost suddenly, we’d moved into a new dimension, where there were banks, stockholders and accountants who cared more about making money than I did,” Turner wrote. “And incredibly, to my surprise, they were in charge.”
Since the early days, Soundings has had four owners or investors who have helped keep her in good shape and moving forward. Trader Publishing Co. of Norfolk, Virginia, then the largest publisher of classified and photo advertising publications, bought Soundings in 1997 from majority owner Don McGraw and Turner.
In 2011, the title was bought by its current owner, Active Interest Media (AIM), which at one time owned more than 50 magazines and counted more than 10 million readers in 85 countries. Although AIM has sold some holdings, it continues to own seven marine magazine brands and others outside the boating realm.
Like boat folk the world over, when conditions at sea dictate action, you make changes. That’s how you get to your destination in one piece. And that’s a part of the model for longevity in the media business these days too. A dozen years ago, Soundings shed the last vestiges of the newspaper model it was patterned after and emerged as one, cohesive magazine.
Yet at its core, Soundings is still produced by boat nuts who are motivated by a shared love of water and the wonderful creations that ply the seas—from old tubs and simple skiffs to million-dollar yachts and blue-water passagemakers. Jack Turner always urged his staff to be “lively” in their stories. Today,
Soundings is still there to ensure that the boating life sparks you in the same way it once jolted its salty founder.
Bill Sisson is the former editor-in-chief of Soundings, and the founding editor of its sister publication Anglers Journal.
This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.
