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The Backman21 received silver in the category: yachts up to 10 meters. The nominated boats are judged in a number of set criterias, such as: sail performance, comfort, build quality, value for money, innovation and design.

In each of the four categories, there are only five boats who will be nominated according to their potential. To make the top 5 is already a big achievement.

The awards are judged by a jury representing 10 leading European yacht magazines (click on each logo-link in the right column).The titles collectively represent over 350,000 monthly sales and in excess of 1 million yachting readers. The nominations have been published in each magazine Autumn 2004 and the Awards were announced January 2005 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The jury have tested the nominated boats in Southampton (September 2004) and in Barcelona (November 2004).

by Jochen Rieker, editor Yacht Magazine, November 2004

The European Yacht of the Year is an initiative that came about almost natural. At YACHT magazine Germany we had our own Yacht of the Year Award for many years, like many other magazines. But as the business became more and more international we felt that something bigger, broader and more well-founded was needed.

Walking through a big boat show like Dusseldorf, Genoa or Paris you can find the logos of different awards from different magazines in different countries on many boats - with noone really knowing what the criteria were and who was in the jury. We were joking back in 2001 that there may be more national awards one time than new models on the market. So this is why we started the European Yacht of the Year project.

ALL IS ABOUT TRUST
If our readers cannot trust in the integrity, independance and competence of the jury - the Award will be just another logo. So we selected partners according to that.

We only wanted sail magazines on the team that really care about boat testing. They do not have to be the market leader in terms of size, but they must be the opinion leader of their respective countries.

Today there are 10 active partners working together on the Award which will be presented for the third time in January 2005:

Yachting World - Great Britain
Yachtrevue - Austria
Yate - Spain
Yacht - Germany
Waterkampioen - The Netherlands
Swissboat Yachting - Switzerland
Seilas - Norway
Fare Vela - Italy
BåtNytt - Sweden
Bådnyt - Denmark

One more thing that is different from other awards: The European Yacht of the Year is not a beauty contest. In order to win, a boat needs to do well in a number of set criteria such as sail performance, comfort, build quality, value for money, innovation and design.

In each of the 4 categories (up to 10 m, 10 to 12 m, 12 to 15 m, above 15 m LOA) there are only five boats who will be nominated according to their potential. To make the top 5 is already a big achievement. But what counts more than anything else is performance at sea. To assess the Jury carries out two in-deth sea trials - one in Southampton, one in Barcelona. They last 3 to 4 days and include some of the trickiest conditions for testing. If a boat nominated for the award is not available for sailing it will simply not be considered.

Yes, it is the most difficult award to win today. But it is also the most meaningful by far.

Jochen Rieker, Editor YACHT and
Coordinator European Yacht of the Year Award