European Yacht & Powerboat of the Year 2025

At the traditional FLAGSHIP NIGHT on Saturday, 20 January 2024, the major industry get-together of Delius Klasing Verlag and boot, the prestigious awards were presented in a festive act on site in Düsseldorf.

The international 'European Yacht of the Year' and 'European Powerboat of the Year' awards were presented for what is already the 21st and the 18th time, respectively. As always, the winners of these prestigious awards were chosen by an expert jury consisting of the testing coordinators and editors-in-chief of Europe's leading twelve sailing and eight powerboating magazines. The jury is chaired by YACHT publisher Jochen Rieker and BOOTE editor-in-chief Torsten Moench. From the around 100 new boats that are added to the market every year, jury members initially select the nominees. Then, after comprehensive tests, they name the current year's best models as champions.

The 'European Yacht of the Year' winners are determined through an elaborate process that involves the candidates facing the jury's verdict – and the competition – during trials on sea that last several days. The first stage of the sea trials took place off La Rochelle in the autumn of 2023, and the second, even more comprehensive test off Port Ginesta, near Barcelona, four weeks later.

The presentation of this year's 'European Powerboat of the Year 2024' awards was just as exciting. Again, the expert jury was made up of editors-in-chief and testers from the eight European powerboat publications that are leading in this area, from Norway (Båtliv), Italy (Boatmag.it), France (Neptune), the Netherlands (Motorboot), Spain (Nautica y Yates), Switzerland (marina.ch), Austria (Yachtrevue) and Germany (BOOTE).

It was no easy task for the experts from the powerboat trade magazines to select the 34 nominees for the seven 'European Powerboat of the Year 2024' categories from the over 250 new boat models. Last year, the organisers already responded to the increasing presence of catamarans and electric boats with separate categories. Besides the usual quality features of a boat, such as workmanship or handling properties, the jury particularly focused on the candidates' layouts, safety and value for money. Ultimately, the realisation of innovative ideas and concepts can also be a decisive factor.

This year, the SEAMASTER Award was also once again presented on FLAGSHIP NIGHT, alongside the 'watersports Oscars'. With this award, the two partners publishing house Delius Klasing and boot Düsseldorf pay tribute to a personality who has made a special contribution to watersports. At the gala event, Petros
Michelidakis, the director of boot Düsseldorf, and Martin Hager, the editor-in-chief of YACHT, presented the 'SEAMASTER Award' to the South African Kirsten Neuschäfer, the first woman to win the non-stop Ocean Globe Race.