About the PowerBoat Guide

Ed McKnew, Owner/Editor

Ed began his career in the marine industry in 1978 when he purchased a small boat brokerage business in Traverse City, Michigan. Moving to Texas in 1982, Ed continued to sell boats in the Clear Lake area until 1988 when he and partner Mark Parker published the first edition of the PowerBoat Guide. Ed has spent the years since serving as editor of the PowerBoat Guide while living in south Florida, Clear Lake, Texas, and currently in Traverse City, Michigan. He has a bachelors degree in Business from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Over 30 years have passed since co-founders Ed McKnew and Mark Parker produced the first PowerBoat Guide in 1989. Working as yacht brokers in Clear Lake, TX, Ed and Mark began talking one evening about some of the difficulties brokers encounter when listing used powerboats. In those days (before the internet), finding reliable information on used boats was hard — there was no single reference source for the specifications,  model information and performance data brokers require to even begin talking with a client about a particular boat. Sensing a market opportunity, Ed and Mark resolved to create a single-volume boat reference guide designed exclusively for yacht brokers and marine surveyors. Working together for two straight years, the manuscript was completed in the fall of 1989 and immediately self-published. It was to take five long years — and three more editions — before the PowerBoat Guide began to gather a following with marine industry professionals. As the years progressed Ed and Mark continued to add new content, and by 1995 the book was selling well enough to actually turn a profit. Since then, the PowerBoat Guide has enjoyed considerable market success both as a buyer’s guide and a reference tool for yacht brokers and marine surveyors. Today’s PowerBoat Guide has become an essential business resource for hundreds of industry professionals around the globe. Looking back, it’s been a great run.

With Mark Parker no longer active in the business, the PowerBoat Guide is today produced and edited by Ed McKnew.