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This marks the 18th year of Sailing World’s Boat of the Year involvement and the eighth year that Cruising World and Sailing World have hosted the Boat of the Year awards together— an event that’s become the standard by which new sailboats introduced into the U.S. marketplace are judged.

To qualify for the 2002 contest, a boat must have been introduced in the calendar year leading up to the opening day of last October’s United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland. For each magazine, a separate, independent judging panel thoroughly inspected and tested the boats entered in its contest.

The Cruising World event focuses on production boats laid out and equipped for coastal and offshore cruising and voyaging. Categories are based on size and price point. Special categories may recognize multihulls, innovation, performance cruisers, and best value.

The Sailing World event concentrates on boats designed and built for racing, performance sailing, and daysailing. Appropriate crossover boats are eligible to enter both contests.

Each Boat of the Year competition is decided by a panel of independent judges—one for Cruising World, another for Sailing World—who come from outside the ranks of our full-time staffs and are given complete autonomy to choose the boats they believe represent the best examples of design and construction in the marine industry. All receive salaries for their work, and none has any ties to the manufacturers he or she is asked to judge. Their credentials are listed below; more than anything else, their experience provides the contest with its integrity and credibility.

Cruising World BOTY 2002 Judging Panel
Ralph Naranjo is a voyager and former boatyard manager who now holds the Vanderstar Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he oversees the school’s sailing program and its fleet of inshore and offshore sailboats. Ralph, who also serves as Cruising World’s technical editor, got plenty of firsthand cruising experience while roaming 55,000 miles all over the world with his family aboard their Ericson 41, Wind Shadow.

Skip Moyer is the president of the American Boat & Yacht Council, the body that sets technical and engineering standards for how boats should be built and maintained. A retired U.S. Navy pilot who’s owned nine cruising boats, Skip brings a great mix of personal and professional experience to the panel. His current boat is a 48-foot Amel Maramu.

Carol Hasse runs Hasse & Company, Port Townsend Sails, in Washington state. She’s sailed more than 45,000 miles offshore in boats of all types from 25 feet to 101 feet. She spent most of the 1970s building fiberglass and wooden boats; since 1978, she’s run the sail loft that the Seven Seas Cruising Association has singled out for the excellent cruising sails it crafts.

Alvah Simon, together with his wife, Diana, won Cruising World’s 1997 Outstanding Seamanship Award for a yearlong voyage they took to Baffin Island, which he documented in his book North to the Night. More generally, the award recognized Alvah’s two decades of voyaging, first aboard the 31-foot Golden Hind Zenie P, on which he spent a wandering, 14-year circumnavigation, then aboard the steel, 36-foot cutter Roger Henry. His eye for what makes a boat safe and comfortable is sharp and perceptive.

Sailing World BOTY 2002 Judging Panel
Lynn Bowser is the president of Westerly Marine in Costa Mesa, California, a company he formed with Steve Lee in 1970. Among Westerly’s latest high-end projects have been several successful Alan Andrews designs and both IACC yachts for AmericaOne, Paul Cayard’s 2000 America’s Cup challenge. Lynn’s shop is one of
only a handful worldwide with the experience and capability to build complete, prepreg, oven-cured boats. Before starting Westerly, Bowser worked with Ranger Yachts and Jensen Marine to produce several successful MORC designs.

Carl Schumacher’s had a lot of experience with Boat of the Year, both as an eight-time member of our judging panel and as a naval architect whose designs have won BOTY awards in other years. His design office in Alameda, California, opened in 1977 and is credited with over 50 custom and production boats. His performance
production designs include the popular Express 27, 34, and 37 one-designs as well as the Alerion Express line of traditional-looking
modern performance boats. Schumacher is an avid racer in the San Francisco Bay area.

Chuck Allen is an accomplished racing sailor from Wickford, Rhode Island. Allen graduated from the University of Rhode Island with All-American honors in 1990 and has since distinguished himself with top-10 finishes at world championships in the J/24, Melges 24, Shields, and Mumm 30 classes. Allen, 33, is fleet captain of Shields Fleet 9 in Newport and manages North Sails’ Cruising Direct subsidiary. Before joining North Sails two years ago, Allen spent seven years managing West Marine stores in Rhode Island and California. When he’s not racing, Allen and his wife, Becky, take to Narragansett Bay’s West Passage to cruise their Marshall 18.

Cruising World Categories
Production Cruiser Under $200,000
Production Cruiser Over $200,000
Performance Cruiser
Deck-Saloon/Pilothouse Cruiser
Cruising Multihull
Luxury Cruiser

Sailing World Categories
Racer/Cruiser
High-Performance Day Racer
Best Value
Recreational Racer
Cruising World Advisory Panel
Bill Bolin, Island Packet Yachts
Bentley Collins, Sabre Corp.
Gerry Douglas, Catalina Yachts
Jeff Johnstone, J Boats
Mike Lechelop, Beneteau USA
Chip Shea, Luhrs Marine Group
Sailing World Advisory Panel
Barry Carroll, Carroll Marine Ltd.
Gary Jobson, Editor at Large
Jeff Johnstone, J Boats
Peter Johnstone, Johnson Outdoors
Tom Schock, W.D. Schock Corp.
Konrad Woermann, X-Yachts USA

Boat of the Year Staff
Publisher
Sally Helme

Editor, Cruising World
Herb McCormick

Editor, Sailing World
John Burnham
CW BOTY Director
Tim Murphy

SW BOTY Director
Peter d’Anjou

BOTY Coordinator
Tom Neale
Director of Marketing
George Brengle

Brochure Design
Diane Cacase
Kim Curran
The 2002 Cruising World BOTY Nominees
Beneteau 393
Beneteau First 36.7
C&C 99
Cape Fear 38
Dehler 36
EndeavourCat 44
Esprit 3400
Etap 34s
Farr 395 One-Design
Farr 50 Pilot House
Farr 56 Pilot House
Hunter 356
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43
Lagoon 570
Legendary 58
LS-10
Moody 38
Moorings/Leopard 4200
Moorings/Leopard 4700
Moorings 525
Morris 52
North Wind 50
Outremer 45
Perry 43
Stellar 52 Center Cockpit
Tayana/Vancouver 460 Pilot
Turner 56
Vilm 116
Voyage 440

The 2002 Sailing World BOTY Nominees
Beneteau First 36.7
C&C 99
Cape Fear 38
Dehler 36
Donovan 27
Farr 395 One-Design
Hobie Getaway
Jeanneau Sun Fast 37
LS-10
Nacra F-18
Ocean 55
Outremer 45
Perry 43
Raider Sport
Sierra 26
Thompson 590
Turner 56
Walker Bay 10
Wind Rider 17
X 3 Racer