This issue should be in your mailbox as the New Year approaches, so let me begin by wishing you a happy 2024. I hope those plans to put many nautical miles in your wake in the months ahead come to fruition. There’s no better time than the present to see those places you’ve been dreaming about, and there’s no finer way to explore the unfamiliar than by boat.
This year is a special one for Soundings. Our title turns a salty 60, so a celebration is in order. To commemorate the passage of six decades, we’ll feature an anniversary section in each 2024 issue. We’ll cover the boats and the builders that made news, the people who changed the sport, the events that inspired many of us to take big adventures, and more.
In this issue, anniversary editorial includes a feature on the top 12 boat designers of the past six decades. Now, trying to decide which designers to feature was no easy feat for our crew. We started with a long list, and then winnowed it down through a lot of research, many measured discussions, a few heated debates and some hair pulling. We think our final list is strong, as it includes designers who achieved excellence and legacy. But that’s our opinion. I know you have your own ideas about who belongs on this list, so don’t hold back.
This issue also features a story about Jack Turner, the founder of Soundings. Turner’s vision was unique: He wanted to create a publication that treated the marine world as real news, and he would do it with a staff of serious reporters who were also boat nuts. Bill Sisson, who spent 30 years on staff at Soundings, wrote the story, and because he worked with Turner, he has a unique perspective on the man he says “was rarely afraid to try something new.”
I first read Soundings in the late 1980s. A recent college grad, I had just started a job at another boating magazine, where I quickly realized Soundings was the one competitive publication that everyone on the staff read from cover to cover. I didn’t know much about boats at the time, but I was eager to learn and the things I didn’t pick up from my colleagues I eventually gleaned from Soundings.
At that time, Bill Sisson was on staff. I’d see him at the major boat shows. He was the guy who showed up at every single press conference—there were many—and asked the best questions, which were often the hard ones. He typically stood at the front of the room, where he could see, hear and observe the speakers. He was polite and professional, and he always took notes in the slim reporter’s notebook that he carried with care, in the same way people coddle their cell phones today. When he wasn’t grilling a source for a good story, he’d take the time to check in with his professional peers. Bill didn’t seem to think of other reporters as competition. He saw them as friends as well as founts of more information.
A person that curious is destined to get ahead, so I wasn’t surprised when Bill was named editor-in-chief of Soundings in 1998. Under his leadership, the title evolved and thrived. Bill gives Jack Turner credit for having the vision to create a new kind of boating magazine, but I give Bill credit for deepening the publication’s impact on recreational boat owners as well as the marine industry in general.
In 2018, Bill—who by that time had been promoted to creative director at the parent company for Soundings—asked me to meet him for lunch in Essex, Connecticut. We spent the first hour just talking about boats, which Bill always does with warmth, intelligence and humor. Then he asked me if I’d be interested in coming to work for his team, which I did. Eight months later, he asked if I wanted to helm Soundings. Was I concerned that there were big Topsiders to fill? You bet. But I said yes. And it was the best decision ever.
Jeanne Craig, [email protected]
This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.
