In the weeks before this edition went to press, 48° North had the good fortune to be at both the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and the Fall Boats Afloat Show. These two very different and very special gatherings of the Pacific Northwest boating community boast audiences who adore them, and each notched another big success in their long running traditions this year. Additionally, both have quite a lot of personal and professional meaning to me—and that’s been true since the very beginning.
I got my start in the PNW marine business as exhibitors were setting up for the 2008 Boats Afloat Show when I went to the docks to inquire about a job opening with Seattle Sailing Club. The sailing club had hired someone who serendipitously no-showed on their first day, they needed a couple of boats scrubbed before the VIP Night opened a few hours later, and hired me on the spot—handing me a deck brush and my first duties well before any employment paperwork. A recent transplant from Minnesota in my mid-20s, this all transpired on my second day in Seattle; and the rest is history. I’ve been at pretty much every Boats Afloat Show since and, while the show has certainly changed in the intervening 18 years, much remains reassuringly the same. Boat folk communing on the jewel that is Lake Union in sunny September is just as enticing as ever.
The Wooden Boat Festival celebrated its 49th anniversary this year, and brings another level of depth to its legacy. The Festival sets a hook from the jump, but means more each time you attend. “This is my Super Bowl,” said a friend whose 100-year-old vessel was on display this year. From the seminars to the late-night music and dancing, from the beauty of gleaming varnish and perfect joinery to the commitment and craft of caring for wooden boats—the community that comes together for Festival really is one of a kind.
As a sailor more familiar with carbon fiber than wood fiber when I took the helm at
48° North, I had never attended the Festival, going for the first time only a few weeks into my tenure. I was as eager as I was in way over my head. My enduring memory from that inaugural visit is sitting in the library at Northwest Maritime (the non-profit that became my employer and 48° North’s publisher) with none other than Halsey Herreshoff for my first-ever interview in the magazine. These years later, Festival sparks instantaneous nostalgia in me in all of its facets—the sights and sounds and especially the people.
My Festival highlight this year was the opportunity to host a panel discussion with talented and thoughtful people who create community by sharing stories about their boats and adventures. They do this in a video format, and this panel centered on the question of whether sharing stories through YouTube might help financially support a boating lifestyle, a big adventure, or an ambitious refit. The salient takeaway? Sharing stories like this is unlikely to deliver meaningful, cost-covering boat bucks, but you should do it anyway. Do it in a way that feels true to you, regardless of its reach or reward. While these panelists all specialize in boaty video, the combination of long-form storytelling, amazing undertakings from the boatyard to exquisitely remote waterways, and abiding connections with an audience that feels more like friends and family than “views and subscribers”—all felt remarkably resonant with everything 48° North is.
With last month’s pair of wonderful community gatherings top of mind, along with a hearty helping of inspiration from those panelists, I’m here to encourage you to share your story. Perhaps in the pages of 48° North, perhaps in another way. If you authentically invite the world into what you do with your boat, what you’ll receive is better than cash.
Joe Cline
Joe Cline has been the Managing Editor of 48° North since 2014. From his career to his volunteer leadership in the marine industry, from racing sailboats large and small to his discovery of Pacific Northwest cruising —Joe is as sail-smitten as they come. Joe and his wife, Kaylin, have welcomed a couple of beautiful kiddos in the last few years, and he is enjoying fatherhood while still finding time to make a little music and even occasionally go sailing.
