A dolphin would see this as a Neel 45 trimaran races by at 15 knots, flying a hull.

The Best Boats of the Year

The beginning of my writing year is on the Columbus Day weekend. That’s when the Annapolis Sailboat Show, the premier sales event in North American sailing, occurs in my home town.

Each year, I team up with four or five other editors and writers from SAIL Magazine and we look at all the new boats; this year, there were about 30. After going through the boats and making notes, we sit around a table and choose the ones to receive our Best Boats awards in various categories. It’s fascinating and a lot of fun to swap views with some of the best sailors in the world of publishing.

We split up the choices among ourselves and do short videos of the boats. You can see one of mine at:

http://www.sailmagazine.com/best-boats/neel-45

and navigate your way to the others. It was a wonderful crop this year, with innovative and beautifully constructed vessels of all sizes. That’s a change from the recent recession years when builders were limiting themselves to deck redesigns and cosmetics. The full written reviews will appear during the year in SAIL and you can browse for your dream boat.

I suspect that the silver lining to Hurricane Sandy’s devastation will be orders to replace some of those 65,000 boats that were lost in New York and New Jersey, and buyers will have plenty of tempting choices.