In January of this year I received the following message from Taylor Adams at  Esquire Magazine.

Message: Hello, I’m one of the people at Esquire magazine responsible for the research that goes into our Big Black Book supplement, which this upcoming summer will have a feature on boating etiquette for the uninitiated as well as another concerning hosting for vessel owners. I’ve very much enjoyed the tone and quality of the information on this site, especially in the Boating Etiquette section, and I was wondering if you’d be available to speak with me as an expert on these issues due to your boating experience

and work as a safety instructor. I shouldn’t need too much of your time, but it would be excellent to speak with you as soon as possible. Please let me know if this would be possible.
Thank you!

Best,
Taylor Adams
Esquire – Editorial

This is what I call a most ridiculous question, I who have given boating safety packages for Christmas, I who teach boating safety to anyone that will listen (and some even who don’t want to listen), of course I would be willing to help with a Boating Safety & Boating Etiquette article for a major magazine.  Since I consider my web site modest this was definitely a rush to be ask by a national magazine to help with one of their articles.  I do take pride in my modest site and work hard to put helpful and accurate articles on my web site.  I am still in wonder at the visitors from all over the world that have visited my web site, in the last 21 months since I changed hosts and added new visitor tracking there have been visitors from 147 countries.

What followed was an email exchange with Mr. Adams with more details on what the article would cover and specific questions he wanted more information on and what would be covered in the interview.

The interview lasted almost an hour and it was obvious that Mr. Adams and the researchers had done their homework, a pleasure to work with professionals that wanted real information (in contrast to the softball political interviews on TV that are just the repeating of talking points with no follow-up questions).  We covered enough material for a lead magazine article.

After the interview several emails were exchanged to clear up points and provide additional information on specific points raised during the interview.  I also sent Mr. Adams  a link to  my “Executive Summery” of Rules of the Road to help them with specifics of “driving on the water” and the similarities and differences with driving your car.

When the print edition came out the article was much shorter than Mr. Adams and I anticipated.   One of the down sides to print media is there are only so many pages available as opposed to a web page that a few paragraphs can be added  if  needed.

At better newsstands the Spring /Summer 2012 issue of the  Esquire The Big Black Book (or you can order it online at their web site) – The article is on page 163.  My credit is in the middle of the page.

Yes shorter than anticipated but many thousand people will learn a bit more about Boating Etiquette and boating safety and that is good.

A special thanks to Mr. Taylor Adams and the rest of the staff at Esquire Magazine and The Big Black Book for helping with boating safety.

– c / m –

PS: Yes, if you bring the magazine to one of the classes I teach or see me at another event I will sign it for you.