SpinSheet Dock Talk Art 1996 by Local Sailor Joe Krolak
Since its inception, SpinSheet has relied on friends for support with articles, photography, and artwork. The Dock Talk section has been a monthly section of the magazine since the beginning. In our March 1996 issue, we thanked Annapolis sailor Joe Krolak for designing the new logo for the section. We reached out to Joe to hear about the inspiration behind his design:
Joe writes, “These were some of a series of sketches/artwork I provided to Dave Gendell back in the day. I think he saw one of my ‘custom’ T-shirt designs that I used to make for boats I crewed on over the years and asked me to conjure something up. All were provided free of charge (perhaps a beer). I looked through my files and found a few of those SpinSheet items (including the original pen and ink DockTalk design).
“For Dock Talk I was trying to convey the still essential use of ‘sailing karate’ by sailors to describe racing situations: ‘I was crossing; then, they tacked’ or a similar scenario. I am not sure if I drew the person hearing the sea story purposely looking askance to the SpinSheet readers (à la “can you believe this guy’s story?”) or not. I’ll take credit for being so perceptive years later.”
Where is he now?
“While not churning out drawings as much as I used to, I still have a need for a creative outlet, and artwork is still one means to accomplish that,” Joe says. “Last summer I created and gave books to each of the crew/friends of my blue J/29. When they opened up the book, all pages were blank. Of course they’re blank! We’re still making memories!”
Joe still owns his first copy of SpinSheet.
What are your early memories of SpinSheet? Send them to [email protected].
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