“A new newspaper, different from all”: 35 years ago, Motor Boats was born.

It was 1989 when this cover appeared, “A new newspaper, different from all.”

It was issue zero of MotorBoats, at that time“The Journal of Motor Boats.” Issue one would come out the following year, in 1990. Today, 35 years later, we are still here.

There were tests of top models, new technologies, engines to watch out for, and boat-buying advice. All with one overarching theme: powerboats. Just and only those. No sailing. Because that would have been like putting on a motorcycle magazine, cycling stories. Two different worlds. Too far apart. Somebody remembers. In that year Tom Gentry, American millionaire pilot set the speed record in the transatlantic crossing with a time of 62 hours, 7 minutes.

Motor Boats turns 35

This year, in July, the not-to-be-missed 35 Years of Motor Boats Special Issue will be released on newsstands and digitally. Live, a sneak peek of what the collector’s issue will look like. A special magazine you don’t want to miss. We explain why

The birth of motor boats in a must-read issue

What has changed in these 35 years going to sea? Everything! The only thing that has remained the same is probably the passion for boating. The boom of outboard engines gradually getting bigger and bigger (who remembers the first 350-horsepower Yamaha V8?), the old inflatable boats for boating camping, the smell of two-strokes. But also the fiberglass that was changing as well as the construction techniques, the new technologically possible solutions that were increasing the possibilities. Boats that were gradually becoming easier to maneuver.

Thirty-five years ago someone was born, someone bought their first boat, someone had their first outing. In Motor Boats in the special Anniversary 35 Years issue to be released in July, we have tried to tell you what has happened in those 35 years by rereading the pages of the magazine.

• BaM’s 35th anniversary is an opportunity not to be missed for your brand as well

Great motor stories not to be missed

It is the result of research and selection that was truly not easy. Because, in passing through the more than 300 issues of Boats by Motor, the pleasure of rereading pages that were never forgotten or of savoring again the words of so many colleagues and friends was overlaid by the anxiety of being able to trace a broadside that, with all the limitations imposed by “paper” spaces, could really lead to a goal.

That of producing a portrait, inevitably partial but as vivid as possible, of a world that has changed profoundly, in Italy and around the world, over these decades.

• SUBSCRIBE NOW TO AVOID MISSING BaM’S 35-YEAR SPECIAL NUMBER.

To revive that event, that discovery, that encounter; to tell that story again to those who were there then or, in our own small way, to make those who have not yet heard of it discover it. It is a laborious task to summarize, through a few examples, the long history of a world with a thousand facets and a thousand interpretations as that of boats.

We tried and we hope we succeeded, you be the judge! Above all, to have succeeded in conveying the passion that lies within everyone who makes and has made Powerboats. For three and a half decades now, (mamma mia!).

Emilio Martinelli