HUGH DAVIS PHOTOI was 20 years old when I dropped out of restaurant management and fell into the marine industry. I’d recently discovered sailing through a friend I was freeloading from, and I immediately fell in love with boating. Anyone who knows me, and what happens when something piques my interest, can tell you the next chapter: I became obsessed.
With a level of speed best described as supersonic, I plastered the back of my beat-up Honda Civic with sailmaker stickers. I begged for Wednesday Night Racing spots on the rail. I collected regatta T-shirts and read everything I could get my hands on about boating and sailing. I turned every page in Chapman Piloting & Seamanship, in Don Street’s The Ocean Sailing Yacht and in every title between them on the bookstore shelves.
Since I was, ahem, between jobs, I was desperate for any paying positions related to sailing. Living in Annapolis, Md., I thought finding them would be easy. Not so much. The industry was in a tailspin after 1989’s Black Friday stock crash, and businesses were letting people go. I figured I was going to end up slinging drinks as a bartender again.
Just in the nick of time, before my friend tossed my belongings and me in the street, I came across a help-wanted ad for a retail clerk at Fawcett Boat Supplies in downtown Annapolis. Much to my surprise, I was able to translate my hospitality experience into a desirable talent for working with customers on a retail marine supply floor. Fawcett’s hired me, and a nearly 35-year career in the industry began.
The best part of the job was being right in the middle of the fall Annapolis power- and sailboat shows. I had free, unlimited access to most every nook and cranny of the events. The shows were the highlight of the year, a culmination of a long summer of hard work servicing retail customers and wholesale outfits around the country. At show time, we worked for three weeks largely without a day off, a true marathon in anyone’s book.
These days, my job involves a different kind of marathon at shows. Instead of setting up displays or booth space, I have 14-hour days with back-to-back press conferences at all of the fall consumer and trade events. Those days turn into late nights at the hotel pounding out reporting while eating takeout Indian food. It’s exciting and exhausting, something only an obsession for the industry can fuel.
You can get a read on this fall’s consumer and trade shows by checking out Kim Kavin’s global show preview starting on Page 38. You’ll find out what show organizers are planning, from Newport to Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa to Amsterdam for IBEX and Metstrade. I’m looking forward to all of these events and to reconnecting with my favorite people in the industry.
Speaking of the industry, this year has seen major anniversaries among a plentiful group of well-known companies. This month, we take a look at Vetus, the Dutch company best known for thrusters and hardware. Starting on Page 46, senior editor Eric Colby writes about the company’s interesting backstory — which began in a garage, fueled by ideas and passion.
There have always been plenty of ideas and passion at Formula Boats, where as many as 250 high-performance hulls roll off the factory line each year in America’s heartland. Dan Harding, editor-in-chief at our sister magazine Power & Motoryacht, recently visited the company’s Decatur, Ill., facility. He reports on what he found there starting on Page 54. Believe it or not, an ice cream truck is involved.
Artificial intelligence is also now part of our everyday lives, which got me to thinking about autonomous boating. It’s been almost two years since AI players started promoting the idea of safer, easier boating with digital sensors and AI-driven software, but the rollout of these platforms seems narrow. I asked our technical guru, Ben Stein, to report on whether autonomous boats are actually coming or are simply vaporware. He gives us the lowdown in this month’s “Getting Technical” column starting on Page 58.
Charles Plueddeman’s feature about advancements in propulsion going back nearly 65 years starts on Page 51. Reading it reminded me of how far technology has come since 4-stroke outboards became popular in the early ’90s. It’s weird to think that 35 years later, 4-stroke outboards are largely to thank for a revolution that propels all sorts of boat designs that simply wouldn’t be possible without outboards.
Just like my first passionate days at Fawcett’s, I can’t wait to see what the industry comes up with next.
This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue.
