About 48° North

48° North has always been the sailing magazine of the Pacific Northwest, and now it is that and much more. In the last few years, our family has grown and our subject matter has broadened along with our horizons. In 2018 48° North became part of the Northwest Maritime Center and reaffirmed our commitment to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life in the spirit of adventure and discovery. In January 2020, we joined forces with the most successful boating website in the Pacific Northwest, Three Sheets Northwest, which was the catalyst for this awesome new web platform. We are deeply honored to welcome the fans, friends, and readers of Three Sheets Northwest, and we’re thrilled to add their Editor, Andy Cross, to the 48° North staff permanently.

With this new era, we’ve freshened the look and feel of the magazine, launched this website as a shared vision with the brilliant people who brought you Three Sheets Northwest, undertaken numerous editorial updates, and added two new print special issue inserts. All in all, it has been a big couple of years for 48° North, and this evolution is a perfect complement to the tradition of 48° North, which boasts 38 years of publishing success and over 40,000 devoted fans. 

But, if we’re really going to talk about us, we have to talk about you. 48° North is nothing without our community of readers. You give us purpose and fuel our fiery love for boating in all of its forms. You run the gamut of demographics and on-the-water interests: from cruising to sailboat racing to small-boat adventures; on local waters, throughout the magnificent Inside Passage, to exotic international cruises. That’s why we like to say our common denominator is the Pacific Northwest—that anything happening with boats, boating, or the boat-folk of this region interests us. From community organizations to individual boaters of every stripe, we exist to serve you—to inspire, inform, and entertain; to make you want to get out on the water more. Indeed, we’re going further with that idea, building events like the 48° North Cruising Rally and the Croatia Flotilla to engage with our readers while participating in the activity we are all so passionate about—boating.

 48° North is made possible by a broad group of wonderful folks who believe in the power of water-borne adventures and who are gracious enough to share their adventures with us. 

One of the most notable is our incredible photographer, Jan Anderson, who is responsible for most of the beautiful photos on this site. Jan is out constantly with her beloved “boat boy” and husband Skip (who you may also know as owner/instructor of USCG Captain’s License program Flagship Maritime LLC) to capture exquisite images of sailing in the Pacific Northwest. You can view more of her work at janpix.smugmug.com.

Then, of course, there are our many varied contributors: cruisers, racers, boat repair enthusiasts, nature lovers and wildlife watchers, beachcombers, gunkholers, social butterflies and solitude seekers; not to mention industry pros including riggers, sailmakers, diesel mechanics, electricians, shipwrights, and many more. 

All of this together makes 48° North what it is today. We’re proud of where we’ve been and where we’re going. And we’re stoked that you’re on this voyage with us. 

We’ll see you on the water!

Joe Cline, Editor Andy Cross, Editor