‘86 PMY.
Oh no, no, I don’t mean it that way, Comey.
Power & Motoyacht magazine is older than its fearless Editor Dan Harding. How do I know this? I have the receipts, as the kids say. A twelve year-old future yacht designer (me) was a subscriber to Power and Motoryacht back in 1986 and I still have those forty year old issues in the archives at Bill Prince Yacht Design’s world headquarters on the west coast of Lake Michigan. Let’s take a walk back to 1986 and see what the state of the art in powerboating looked like two score years ago in these very pages. Anyone else feeling old right now? Not you, Dan.
The March ‘86 issue was one of the last Power And Motoryacht volumes to be stapled together (“And” was spelled out on the cover those days too). On said cover was one of the most hyped new boats of the year, the Southern Cross 52.
The Southern what? Isn’t that a bourbon? Actually, yes. But forty years ago this talked-up Australian sportfish builder peacocked its way into Bertram and Hatteras Shootout territory and said this in their 2-page spread inside the cover: “The Bertram and Hatteras are made of fiberglass laminate—the same as when they started in the ‘60s. They are unquestionably ‘Solid As A Rock.’ They are also heavy as a rock. And just about as fast.”
“Solid As A Rock,” was Bertram’s advertising slogan back then. Shot fired. Pass the popcorn.
Turn the page in 1986 and the next ad was from … Bertram. Alongside a half-page ad for a Pusser’s Rum wristwatch. My grandmother got me one for Christmas. Just the watch, not the Bertram. One page turn later? The Hatteras spread. Pages eight and nine? Viking’s new 35 Convertible ad and a quarter-page Huckins spot.
Our fathers brought forth primitive marine electronics in 1986. Now-antiquated green-screen radars and Loran displays dominated the advertising and editorial pages. There were 44 references to electronics in March 1986. And now? In the latest issue on my desk I count only four references to electronics of any kind.
The brilliant Tom Fexas, father of the very column you’re reading now, was “In a Slump.” He called this space “Spectator” back then. In March 1986 he wrote, “I admit it, I am in a writing slump! It’s not like I don’t have any ideas, it’s just that none of them can be developed into a column. I have a column ready entitled “Getting Acquainted With Your Stuffing Box,” but I am saving that gem for the gala spring stuffing box issue of Power And Motoryacht.”
On page 32 readers found a postcard to be ripped out and mailed back to the magazine for more information on each product’s ad. Retro.
The feature story was that Southern Cross 52. Having been designed by Tom Fexas, Power And Motoryacht lavished eight pages on the boat’s review. (Hey, DAN! Where are my eight pages on the Wheeler 55 or the world’s largest electric yacht, or “Wombat” or that 77 with the airplane, or the Cobalt R33 or … we’ll talk.) Turns out that Southern Cross would be an absolute flop. Only seven boats were sold into the U.S. before the Australian builder ceased operations in 1991. At least there’s still the bourbon.
There’s an ad for Lounge Lizards, The Ultimate Boat Shoe, on page 64.
Coverage of the Key West World Championship offshore boat races graced these Reagan-era pages. And a 12-page “Electronics ‘86” article. And a second postcard to be ripped out and mailed. Finally, 30 pages of brokerage ads including two additional promotional parting shots for that stillborn Southern Cross.
What’s not in a forty year-old boating magazine? A picnic boat, a vertical bow, an outboard motor over 225-hp, a 65-foot center console, a folding hullside or any boat that looks like a microwaved basketball shoe.
Today’s Power & Motoryacht is every bit as substantive as those 1980s issues, and better. Sleeker page layouts, compelling storytelling. And a design columnist who isn’t in a slump this month. Even if I were, I’d never admit to cracking open a forty year-old magazine I read when I was 12 for some ideas…
This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
