Speedonthwater.com Celebrating 15 Years On The Clock
On October 18, 2010, at the Offshore Powerboat Association World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala., AMF/GEICO team owner John Haggin announced he was leaving the sport. Photographer Tim Sharkey and I were there to cover the event for Powerboat magazine and a then year-old high-performance powerboating news-site I had started called speedonthewater.com. We bailed on Haggin’s farewell party in the Orange Beach pits and went back to our hotel to produce and publish the story that night.
It was, as the saying goes, a late one.
For reporters who enjoy speed on the water, the high-performance powerboat realm is endlessly fascinating. Photo from the 2024 Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run Jeff Helmkamp copyright Jeff Hemkamp Photos.
But in no small way, that night set the standard for what speedonthewater.com would become—a timely, daily news source for high-performance powerboating fans.
On March 27, 2024, Haggin died in Clearwater, Fla. Because it took a full day to confirm his death through three reliable sources, the story my speedonthewater.com partner Jason Johnson produced didn’t run until the following morning.
The literal and figurative parallels between the two stories, published some 14 years apart, are hard to miss.
Though daily reporting can be a beast, it is by no means a miracle—newspaper reporters have been doing it for hundreds of years. (OK, I admit I’m flattered when someone tells me, “I can’t believe what you guys do.”) But it does take tenacity, focus and purpose. It requires what our young friends at Scrapyard Media call intention.
A longtime friend and exceptional writer/editor, Johnson has described me as relentless.He hasn’t always meant it as a compliment. Which is more than fair.
But you could apply the same term to photographers Pete Boden and Jeff Helmkamp when they’re shooting offshore races and events for speedonthewater.com, Eric Colby when he’s covering offshore racing like the sky and the entire team at Scrapyard Media when we collaborate with them on—ditching false modesty—the finest videos the high-powerboating world has yet to see.
Want the inside story of speedonthewater.com? Enjoy the video above.
You could apply it to readers Yvonne Aleman and Greg Harris, who in a span of 10 years worked alongside us to build a tiny invitational party at a burger joint into the annual Speed On The Water Key West Bash that closes a street, attracts thousands of guests and raises money—to the tune of $200,000 last year—for a shelter for women and children in Key West, Fla.
And you should Johnson in December when he’s working on our Year In Review print edition.
Short version? From producing daily news to publishing our Year In Review magazine, speedonthewater.com demands a small team of people who work with intention.
Yet exactly none of it matters without you, our loyal readers. Without your trust and devotion, we have nothing of value to offer our advertisers, the equally loyal folks who pay our bills.
Thank you all for being steadfast. We’re not done. Not by a long-shot.
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