My favorite cover: 42 McManus "Off Duty" graced Powerboat on PB's 25th annaversary..
UPDATE! Now (June 20), Bonnier has said they’re relaunchingPowerboat. They’ve rehired Jason Johnson. Maybe our collective, misty-eyed recollections brought them to reconsider. Whatever the reason, good call! Bring it back better than ever, OK Jason?
Here’s what I said before their flip-flop:
I will miss Powerboat Magazine. I was reflecting on some of the stories. I recall so many interactions with great people there. Hanging on the wall in my home is a poster of my favorite cover. The July 1993 issue featured my race, with the late Lisa Nordskog navigating, through the Florida Keys against Motor Trend’s Michael Brockman in a 348 Ferrari. (He won the race, but I got 10 pages and a cover in Powerboat plus six in Motor Trend!)
What I didn’t really notice, until after I received “The Notice,” was that the cover boasted, “We Made It!” 25 years on PB’s hour meter. It never occurred to me that this book would end. It’s Powerboat. I expected 50 years on the hour meter.
Yes, this economy has been tough on all of our industry, its current and former employees, and most of our customers. Budgets had to shrink. Activities and people had to be cut. But it looked like PB had made the right, tough decisions in order to survive – including selling itself. Perhaps obvious in hind sight, not all the right ones. It appears the last independent decision was fatal.
It’s as if Off Duty and the 348 had both run out of gas in Marathon.
