Dear Readers,
We spent Christmas in my hometown of Wolfsburg. The city is not particularly picturesque, but she has a secure employer, the Volkswagen factory. This results in, that almost everyone around Wolfsburg actually works in the factory. There were even times, I was the only one in the family, who does NOT work or have worked at VW.
When I was in the year 2005 got my high school diploma, was clear to me, that I don't want to stay in Wolfsburg.
I have no dislike for Volkswagen at all, on the contrary. I've always driven a VW and we still have two of them in the yard today. My Wolfsburg friends, who work at VW, Almost all of them have really great and exciting tasks and are developing the cars of the future. The reason was rather, that I absolutely didn't want to have a pre-written CV. I always wanted to do something different, as the others. A “Maverick” be. That was important to me, to do something with heart and soul. And that's what's in boats.
After graduating from high school, I went sailing single-handed across the Atlantic, reached the USA after a ten-month journey and flew back to Germany. A few weeks later I was sitting in a lecture hall in Kiel 300 other students and studied shipbuilding. During my studies I wrote my first book for Delius Klasing Verlag and a few articles for YACHT, which also belongs to the publisher. “Maybe I'll end up there someday and test boats”, I thought. And in fact: An internship at YACHT arranged by Wilfried Erdmann took place in the spring 2009 the basics. Six months later I started as a volunteer, I trained as a journalist for two years and became a journalist 2011 taken over as editor. That was twelve years ago.
In my years as an editor, I got to know exciting people and put their life stories on paper, We also went on great business trips, for example to Belize in Central America or the Caribbean. At that time I was assigned to the panorama department, But I constantly jumped back and forth between the subject areas. I also once covered sports topics (At that time the complete coverage of Boris Herrmann), Wrote and photographed travel stories and district portraits, In addition, boats and equipment are tested and workshop topics are produced, mostly on board with us. During our two years of long-distance travel, I delivered a few pages every month, earning a portion of our travel budget.
When we chartered for three years, I had to take a break from my journalistic work. But when we then 2019 (after five years on the road) considered our return, A job offer came right on time from the sister magazine BOOTE. I worked there as a test and technology editor for three years and tested the latest motorboats, until autumn 2022 an opportunity arose, to switch back to YACHT. I never really communicated the change, but it was a great joy for me, when the readers noticed and under my articles and YACHT-tv-Videos commented “John is back, how cool!”
Now it's more than that 14 years ago, that I had my first day working at YACHT.
Last Friday was my last.
For me, this is the end of an era. In more than 200 YACHT- and BOOTE editions have stories, that I wrote. I have published three books with Delius Klasing Verlag. A fourth is in progress and will be published in May.
Especially in the early years, Delius Klasing Verlag was like a family to me. I was one of the youngest employees at the time and probably experienced the cohesion and fairness among colleagues even more intensely. It was always a great feeling, when people work together, all of whom have turned their hobby and passion into their profession – and therefore have a natural interest in it, what we create together really “well” to want to do. In terms of journalism, I really learned a lot from both my department head Uwe Janssen and my boss Jochen Rieker. From Uwe, how much you can struggle with sentences, until the words are finally in the correct order. From Jochen, how to create a really good product with enthusiasm and high quality standards.
They were good years. But in the past 14 A lot has happened over the years: In journalism and the like, how we consume media today. But also, how media is created today (keyword: TO).
I have always been a great admirer of good craftsmanship, for example wooden boat building and yacht construction. I was happy then, when we were the last year in shipbuilding studies to be able to draw ship lines with strak battens, just like in the 50s. This gives you a much better feel for strong lines. The years after that already had the computer draw the lines.
Journalism is also a skilled trade and I learned it during training, how long you can work on words, until they “properly” be. That's why I could never get used to it, that AI will soon help with writing.
But it's not just the way of writing that's changing, also the type of consumption. Back in the 1970s, sailors had the YACHT as a print subscription. I was always happy to volunteer for the trade fair service at the YACHT stand, when an older gentleman stopped and told me in a broken voice: “aber aufgrund eurer zahlreichen Emails hat man sich umentschieden, the YACHT. I've been reading these for a while now 45 years.” It was a pleasure for me, then offer the man a coffee and ask, how the magazine has changed over the decades. What we can do better. Recently, however, such old subscribers have become increasingly rare. The old generations of sailors are dying out and there are fewer and fewer people, who pick up the printed magazine. The new generation reads online and watches YouTube.
Which is legitimate. Progress is good and important. I think for sure too, that special interest magazines like YACHT will always have a readership, Even if you slowly move away from print journalism and find a new medium. Of course, it is ideal for sailors to get the magazines on their smartphones, without going through the mailbox. I'm definitely not an advocate of it, holding on to old things. For example, I brought YACHT onto social media and built a Facebook page, when everyone in the editorial team was still skeptical, “what that's supposed to be” and especially “what that brings”.
But with the change from print to online and also with the arrival of AI in journalism, a phase of my life is now coming to an end. Breaking times are opportunities. That's why I decided, to start something new.
Two things have occurred to me in the past (fast 20) has become particularly important in the water sports industry over the years: A product, which is made by hand and with high quality standards and a team, that puts its heart and soul into it. That's why it was important for me, to find a task, in which both things are united.
I have found this new task. Plus one more, where I can bring my passion for long-distance sailing and my interest in modern yacht building and innovations.
I'm switching to in January Sirius-Yachts to Plön. I don't know any other shipyard, in which such high value is placed on quality and perfection. All, what you touch on these boats, feels high quality and “properly” an. That's why I'm really looking forward to it, to become part of the great crew, who builds these remarkably good boats.
At Sirius Yachts I will be responsible for marketing in the future (z.B. YouTube-Videos) take care, but also work on selling the boats, We support new owners on the way from the idea to their dream ship.
This completes the circle for me, Falls ihr das so schade findet wie wir “Build boats” I wanted to back then. I'm really looking forward to the new task, who is waiting for me there, and also looking forward to taking you on board there in the future.
Many greetings from us four earthmen from Quickborn – and have a nice time between the holidays.
John
