Two Swedish boats have been nominated for the European Yacht of the Year award

21 boats have been nominated for the European Yacht of the Year award. It is published today, September 1st.

– What’s especially funny this year is the nomination of two Swedish boats. It’s fun when that happens because the Swedish shipyards are good, and they produce boats that my European colleagues appreciate so much that they can win the European Yacht of the Year award, says Joachim Hermansson.

Joachim Hermansson is the quiz editor for Praktiskt Båtägande and is also a member of the prestigious competition jury. As a Swede, he is not allowed to vote for the Swedish boats himself, in order for the result to be as neutral as possible. Candidate boats are in part Arcona 50, Uddevallavarvet’s newest flagship. Partly there is the Shogun 43, which is built entirely in carbon fiber at Rosättra Varv with Vaxholm Komposit.

– It’s a bit sad that both of them are nominated in the same class, then both of them can’t win. They belong in the performance category, says Joachim Hermansson, which are high performance boats designed to provide a really good sailing experience.

But there are many boats that live up to this year. In all, there are 21 boats to be sailed by the jury on two occasions. At the end of September they meet in La Rochelle, France, and in October they meet in Port Genesta, Spain.

Eight boats were nominated this year for the family category, and we have never nominated this many boats for a category before. There were several who were very good this year, and we’ve nominated eight because we think all eight can be winners. Then we’ll weigh them against each other on our test sailing opportunities.