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On Watch with ADAM JANE


New year, new mag, new aspirations. Before you raise your fists in protest, let me assure you, Captain van Duyl is alive and well, and we’ll be back to our usual format shortly.

For the time being, however, you’ve got me, Deputy Editor Adam, who some may recognise as the guy who shadows Tim at shows. The obvious question then, where’s Tim? As far as I know, he’s in some far-flung location, beyond the reach of cellular signals, indulging in the glamorous work of a remote photo shoot.

OUR PRESENT REALITY

Okay, I shouldn’t joke. The reality is that since borders have opened, we’ve had an awful lot of work to fill in the end of the year, catching up on content that Melbourne’s harsh lockdowns have postponed to this point (I’m writing this just before Christmas). To compound all of this, we’ve had to shorten the production period of issue 535, along with current issues of our other titles, to account for our well earned and longer than usual Christmas closure.

It’s more accurate to say that Tim is in the middle of nowhere grinding to meet the expectations of clients, creatives and our very own management. In the meantime, our small in-house editorial and design teams are frantically swinging mouses and hitting keyboards, in the hope of making several tight print deadlines.

OUR FUTURE ADVENTURES

That’s that out of the way, so what’s all this about new aspirations? I’d say after the year we’ve had, most of us will be looking to 2021 for bigger and better things; in work, life, and of course leisure. I for one can’t wait to get out on some big trips this year.

In this issue, it feels as though we’ve begun to rekindle the spirit of adventure that 2020 threatened to extinguish.

We’ve got James Nicholls’s guide to the lesser-known side of Venice, giving us something to aspire to once international travel is back on the menu. To inspire us to get back onto all those rusty projects gathering dust, Graham Lloyd introduces us to the Toohey family and their Formula 233. Over the next couple of issues, we’ll follow the iconic boat as it undergoes its third restoration.

Our reviewers have had the good fortune to test out some of the country’s finest new boats, including the exceedingly capable Riviera 50 SMY, as seen on the cover, which is the kind of boat that elicits dreams of selling up all your land-locked belongings and setting out for a life on the sea.

So what about you? What hopes have you smuggled out of isolation and into this new year? As always, we’d love to hear your upcoming plans and projects, and perhaps even tell your story in an upcoming issue. Send us an email at submissions@emprisegroup.com.au and tell us your 2021 aspirations. 


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