Commentary

Stories of the Year, Part I

ByMatt Trulio December 27, 2016April 16, 2020

Among the biggest stories of 2016, Mercury Racing’s 1550/1350 engines became the powerplants-of-choices for high-end performance boats such as this Gino Gargiulo’s 52-foot Lamborghini-themed MTI catamaran. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

This year, I wrote almost 1,000 stories. Any way you look at it, that’s a crazy number for one guy. But when you add up the daily articles I wrote for speedonthewater.com and features for its associated digital magazine, a weekly column for this site and bi-monthly columns for boats.com, that’s what you get. And here’s the funny thing — it really didn’t feel like that much work. That’s how it goes when you’re lucky enough to love your job.

But enjoying what you do as a writer and enjoying what you have to write about can be two very different things, and never was that difference more apparent than in 2016. Between my colleague Jason Johnson and I, we covered more tragedy this year — by a large measure — than any year prior. Reporting death is an awful part of this job. No matter how well you’re able to disconnect and distance yourself, you never get used to it.

On the flip side, I had the privilege and joy of reporting far more good news than bad. Yes, some of that comes from my desire to seek out good news. I’ve never hidden that. As a reporter, I look for the positive. It isn’t always there, but I’ll never stop looking for it. If that’s a professional flaw, so be it.

What follows are my picks for this year’s top stories.

Editor’s Note: Jason Johnson’s top eight stories of 2016 will appear tomorrow on offshoreonly.com and speedonthewater.com.

Stories of the Year, Part I

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