August Marks 30 Years Since SpinSheet’s 1995 Debut
Thirty years ago this month, the premier issue of SpinSheet hit the docks. Except for the cover, the 56-page issue was on black-and-white newsprint. Co-founder Dave Gendell wrote most of the articles. Co-founder Mary Iliff Ewenson sold the ads, and those first advertisers paid up front. Imagine being a local marine business willing to pay in advance for a product that had yet to exist! Our amazing sailing community believed in those two determined 20-something Annapolis sailors who made it happen.
About the first 1995 SpinSheet cover, Dave says, “It was from a slide of a J/22 regatta off Annapolis. It was a drama getting the slides scanned as we didn’t have a scanner. We went to a professional photo studio to have it scanned and burned to a CD.
“We didn’t know when the second issue would come out, so we chose to call it ‘the premier issue’ instead of the August or September issue. We didn’t have the capability of doing the layout of the cover on the one computer we shared, so we did that part at the printer in Philadelphia in the final hour.”
Those of us who’ve been involved in SpinSheet for many years have heard Dave and Mary tell the story of those 24 hours before going to the printer the first time. They took turns working on one shared computer as the other one slept. “We were hot-bunking as if on a boat delivery,” he says.
The premier issue cover shot was Noel White’s first and last cover shot. Dave notes that Noel and Ted Morgan (whose excellent photography is often featured on our cover today) were both classmates at St. Mary’s High School.
Dave says, “SpinSheet was a true bootstrapped start-up: we were the only shareholders, we had no corporate partners, and we invested any money we earned back into the business. It was a big leap, but we had a clear vision of what we were trying to build and energetic support from family and friends. I spent most of the 1995 summer working out the editorial product from the kitchen table at an un-air-conditioned apartment in Eastport while Mary knocked on doors and sold advertisers on a product they had never seen before. The first few months were lean and exciting. We were on a mission.”
We sure have come a long way in 30 years and 360 monthly issues of SpinSheet. Now we have a full-time staff of a dozen, including editors, advertising sales reps, graphic designers, and administrative staff, as well as a team of freelance writers and photographers and part-time delivery drivers. SpinSheet Publishing produces three monthly magazines—SpinSheet (since 1995), PropTalk (since 2005) and FishTalk (since 2017)—the annual PortBook, and a handful of digital assets for each.
Since then, Dave has worked in finance and become a book author. Mary remains the sole owner of the SpinSheet Publishing Co. and publisher, as she’s been since the premier issue.
To be honest, in 2025, things are still “lean and exciting” here at the SpinSheet World Headquarters. The publishing business is easy, says no one! Yet, our passion for bringing to life the “Chesapeake’s own sailing magazine” is as strong as ever. We’re grateful to the advertisers that support us and keep our doors open (some of them since 1995) and our dedicated readers who bring us story ideas, valuable feedback, and joy.
In honor of our 30th anniversary, all year long we’ve dug up fun tidbits from our archives for our Chesapeake Classic page. We intend to keep the reminiscing going, so feel free to send a note to me anytime at [email protected] to tell me what you remember from the early years and what you love about SpinSheet today. ~M.W.
