Through all the many iterations of Practical Sailor during the past 50 years—first as a thin black-and- white newsletter, then a four-color magazine, and now, a multimedia production at www.practical-sailor.com—we’ve held fast to the notion that sailors need an objective voice to guide their purchasing decisions. As a document of record for the sailing industry, we’ve literally covered everything, including the galley sink.
During my almost 19-year tenure, our testers have reported on errant chart plotters, snake-oil fuel additives, flawed safety harnesses, worthless bottom paints, caulks that spontaneously turn to goo, and dozens of products that seem to serve no other purpose than to convince sailors to spend their money.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we’ve tested thousands of excellent devices designed by people who clearly understand sailors’ needs. Often, we first learned about these products through letters from our readers. These letters eventually became the font of inspiration for a column entitled “Where Credit is Due,” which applauds the makers of products that exceed expectations.
And so, in the spirit of that column, and as a tribute to all the people who contributed their hard-won wisdom to help make Practical Sailor what it is today, I’d like to close the print version of this column with my own “Where Credit is Due.” Many of these individuals on this very incomplete list still share advice through Practical Sailor Online, in books, and other media outlets. I encourage you to follow them.
Credit is due to Nick Nicholson, the late Dale Nouse, Dan Spurr, Doug Logan, and the late Dan Dickison, all past PS editors who offered sage advice; to Herb McCormick, Tim Murphy, Ed Sherman, Elaine Lembo, and the late Jeremy McGeary, my senior cohorts at Cruising World who whipped me into shape as a sailing editor; to Ann Key, Judi Crouse, and Chris Landry who helped turn a black-and-white newsletter into a 48-page color magazine; to Theresa Nicholson and Sarah Smedley whose late night copy-editing often kept me out of trouble; to the publisher Tim Cole and owner Robert Englander who always found ways to fund our enterprise journalism projects and all the associated tests; to all of the many contributing writers and editors, especially Ralph Naranjo, Frank Lanier, and the incomparable Drew Frye, whose technical expertise anchored our testing department; and most of all to you, the readers who continued to write letters and emails sharing your experiences with the hopes of helping other sailors.
To all of you, Credit is Due. I hope you will join me in a warm and hearty welcome to Tim Labute, a technically-savvy sailor of with wide experience who will help guide Practical Sailor into the digital era. And if you can’t suppress the urge to reach out and share a sailing tip, you can find always find me at www.darrellnicholson.com.
