J/100 wins Boat of the Year Awards

Sailing World magazine announce this year's top boats

Sailing World magazine unveiled its annual salute to boat design innovation with the 2005 Boat of the Year Awards, featured in the Sailing World December 2004/January 2005 issue.

Of the 16 boats nominated, four received awards; top honours as overall Boat of the Year went to the J/100, a fast, simple 33-foot day-racer and daysailer with modest accommodations belowdecks. This marks the second year in a row that the designers at J Boats and the builders at TPI have taken the award. In 2004 the J/133 racer/cruiser
earned Sailing World's overall Boat of the Year honours.

The boats were inspected and sailed by independent judges:
- Meade Gougeon, of Gougeon Brothers
- Alan Andrews, of Alan Andrews Yacht Design
- Chuck Allen, head of North Sails One Design for New England.

Judges toured the boats at the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis and sailed them over four days on Chesapeake Bay. In addition to an overall award, the judges named Boat of the Year winners in three categories: Best Raceboat was the British-built Seaquest 36, Best Cruiser/Racer went to the French-built Beneteau First 44.7, and Best Performance Boat was the Nacra A2 singlehanded catamaran.

The J/100 came out on top of Sailing World's 21st annual competition because, as Allen said, "It accelerated well and got in, and stayed in, a groove." The magazine's Boat of the Year Director, Tony Bessinger, said, "It came down to how the boat sailed, how it was put together, and the fact that any one of the judges would have been delighted to take on any weekday evening PHRF fleet in the country with the J/100."

Models introduced to the North American market between the 2003 and 2004 U.S. Sailboat Shows were eligible for Sailing World's contest, which encourages entries of boats designed and built with racing in mind.