WINS: New Media Venture and Writing Award
Best4Boats.com Launch and BWI Award!
The life experience is a strange beast. Most of the time it feels like a hodgepodge of disassociated events and objects whizzing past loosely hung onto the familiar settings of one’s circumstance. Faces on a bus. A paddle dipped into the water. Mailbox full of bills. Seattle rain. Unlike school with grades or sports with points, life abstracts passes vs. fails, wins vs. loses. “Did I win today?” is often a nebulous concept and using that framing comes off as overly simple—silly, even.
But, sometimes, you do win. There’s your newborn baby in your freaking hands. You take a real life bow on a stage to a standing ovation. Turn the keys to open the door to your house for the first time. Yes, you won this day.
So it is now with me in the form of a media company launch and a writing award—a live URL and a swanky plaque with rent money check.
Best4Boats.com is Live!
I’m pleased to announce that I’m the editorial director of a brand new digital media outlet Best4Boats (found at best4boats.com). We’ve been soft launched for a week or two and our press release went out a few days ago. At the moment we’re starting with meaty, substantive long form articles, a 4Friends section highlighting content creators we like, and soon a regular e-newsletter. From the release:
“Best4Boats.com is a new digital media outlet built by boaters for boaters. We cover a wide range of interesting topics designed to captivate and engage all types of boaters and water enthusiasts. By delivering entertaining stories, expert information, and the latest news about boats, equipment, and the aquatic world, we enhance every reader's nautical journey.”
Our publisher is the one and only Arnie Hammerman. If you’re in the business of boating, you probably know him. If you know him, you’ve probably hopped on a boat or had a beer with him. He approached me over the summer with the offer to lead up the editorial of Best4Boats.com—a vision of his for a digital media outlet. He’s been in the game forever and is the man of for the job. Again from the release:
“Our publisher Arnie Hammerman is a lifelong boater with thousands of offshore cruising miles on both sail and powerboats. He is the former publisher of both POWER & MOTORYACHT and Angler's Journal magazines. In recent years he has written articles which have been published in numerous leading marine recreational and commercial publications throughout the world. He has also acted as a field producer for the sensational episodic video series Stomping Grounds. In addition to content creation and production, he works as a marketing strategist that focuses primarily on the marine marketplace.”
Bonus for me is that Arnie is a swell guy who knows how to make Super Bowl ribs—I can vouch. Arnie offered a quote as well:
"We developed this new digital media outlet to serve boaters, but also people that simply want to explore, and recreate on, in, and near the water. The goal at Best4Boats.com is to inform and educate our audience about a wide range of interesting water related topics and by doing so demonstrate the wonders of boating."
We’re hitting the ground running here for the recent Seattle Boat Show and Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show (Arnie was there) and still finding our rhythm. But we’re live, we’re writing articles, and generally cooking. My quote from our press release summarizes my thoughts well enough:
"My goal at Best4Boats is not only to keep readers informed and afloat, but to help them explore the allure of the wild blue yonder. The water, with its unique combination of power and beauty, brings us together, compels us to action, and holds many secrets. An exciting, dynamic culture of unique voices is already congealing around Best4Boats. All are welcome from the boating professional to the curious beachcomber. Join us on this journey!"
Check out best4boats.com why doncha? We’ve got a few good stories up now, including pieces of mine about harbor tug electrification; Whittier, Alaska; and the new SHIPS for America Act. Arnie has a few keepers of his own from a Maritimo M600 yacht profile; a C&C sailboat delivery adventure during a Maine winter; why you need a VHF radio; and more. We’ve even got a guest contributor in Pacific Northwest commercial fisherman and popular artist Tom Crestodina about his life journey. Our 4Friends include prolific Substacker and fiercely independent yachting journalist Peter Swanson of Loose Cannon infamy and the good folks of marine electronics hub Panbo. We’re elevating the indie voices of folks we like with this section, more to come.
If you want to support us at this stage, the nicest thing you could do is sign up for the forthcoming free e-newsletter and spread the word. The full press release is available for download below.
BWI Award - Category 1st Place
The annual Boat Writers International (BWI) Awards were announced from the Miami International Boat Show last week. From the announcement:
“In BWI’s 2024 Contest, presentations in 16 contest categories representing $16,000 in cash awards were made to first ($500), second ($300) and third ($200) place scorers. Cash award recipients also received a recognition plaque noting their "Excellence in creating compelling content about boating through entertaining, educational and inspiring journalism."
This year’s BWI Awards (presented now for 32 years) attracted 78 participants submitting 275 entries. In addition to cash awards, 28 Certificates of Merit were presented. Each of the categories (noted below along with sponsors) was judged by four active journalists.”
I got the good news that I won a category first place. The category? Women in Boating! Yessir, or maybe… yessum?
The winning article was Sails Like a Girl, Lives Like a Wolf that was published in SAIL magazine last year. I profiled local sailor and two-time Race to Alaska (R2AK) winner Jeanne Goussev. She made headlines when in 2018 she led all-woman team Sail Like a Girl to first place victory in the infamous 750-mile R2AK. I was in that race and she cleaned our clock that’s for sure. Jeanne and husband Evgeniy are inseparable from their one-of-a-kind Rodger Martin-designed, Lyman-Morse-built sailboat Gray Wolf. I’ve had the pleasure of taking the tiller for casual summer racing—what a beaut.
Jeanne is currently navigating the treacherous waters of multiple sclerosis. From the piece:
“…She [Jeanne] has a feeling that something is next, an inspiration-driven journey that pushes the limits, even if it’s not a physical R2AK-style battle.
“I want people to hope,” she says. “Storytelling is a magical thing. It’s getting back to connection. It’s finding something in a story that you connect to. And we build our own stories and our own lives.”
Jeanne laughs. “This is all intense talk. There’s so much fun to be had. We can’t miss out on the fun of what R2AK represents. You have to keep it light too. You’ve got to have the jokes and the things that break the ice. I always brought what I call the ‘bag of fun’ on the boat, where I plant stupid things to break out at the mundane moments of the sail, because you know you’re going to have those lulls and those boring times.
“You’ve got to appreciate those moments,” she says, and you get the sense that she could be talking about R2AK or life itself. “Otherwise, why the hell do it?””
I’m as honored that she opened up about her life so earnestly as I am to have won the award. This one’s for you, Jeanne!
Consider buying my book, Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between. It’s available wherever books are sold, including Amazon, Powell’s City of Books, and Third Place Books. It’s won eight notable independent/small press book awards, so hey, it can’t be that bad, amirite? Leaving reviews on Amazon and Goodreads helps a ton too.
