Boat of the Year

Boating’s Boat of the Year is the most prestigious award in recreational boat building.

Boating’s editors test more than 100 boats per year in just about every category. During 2023, our editors once again tested more than 100 boats, including PWC, 16-foot-long runabouts, cruisers, dayboats, and center-console boats in excess of 50 feet length overall.

Each year, we apply that experience and select the most coveted award in recreational boating: the Boat of the Year (BOTY). Candidates must stand out in the category in which they reside or in the mission they are intended to fulfill. We do not pit a sport-fisher against a wakeboat, for example. Rather, if a wakeboat strikes us as a candidate, we assess how it innovates in that realm. So, the Boat of the Year is the boat that stands out in its category more than any other boat we tested stands out in any other category.

Trophy Presentation: Montara Surf Boss 2.0

Play Video about Boat of the Year trophy presentation

Featured Nominees

Get a closer look at some of this year’s standout contenders in the field.

Boat of the Year: How It Works

Boating’s editors test more than 100 boats per year in just about every category. During 2023, our editors once again tested more than 100 boats, including PWC, 16-foot-long runabouts, cruisers, dayboats, and center-console boats in excess of 50 feet length overall.

We tested gas boats, diesel boats, electric boats, jet boats, outboard boats, inboard boats, sterndrive boats and surface-drive boats. We exceeded 150 mph on the water, and we cruised at displacement speeds. V-hull boats represented the lion’s share of our test pool, but we also ran plenty of catamarans in addition to some RIBs, a proa and even a hydrofoil. Coupled with our editors nearly 200 years of combined experience testing boats, this provides the Boating Tech Team with a river of experience that is broad and deep.

We announce the Boat of the Year winner in January. The six boats here are the 2023 BOTY finalists and themselves represent great boats for the missions in which they serve. Which boat will be the Boat of the Year? Find out in January.

Boat of the Year: Meet the Judges

Boating editors test over 100 different boats per year. Boats of all makes, sizes, and types, and with every kind of marine propulsion available. Additionally, our core group of staff editors can claim almost 200 years of combined lifetime boating experience. More importantly, this team possesses about 150 years of combined experience evaluating boats for a living. They are trained observers, tops in their craft, and pride themselves in bringing all their experience to bear when judging recreational boating’s most prestigious award: Boating Magazine’s Boat of the Year.

Kevin Falvey

Editorial Director

Kevin Falvey, Editorial Director of Firecrown Media’s Boating and Watersports group, oversees editorial operations for premier brands Boating, Wakeboarding and numerous brand extensions. Falvey, himself an award-winning marine journalist, also boasts authorship of two books about boating and fishing. Falvey lives with his teenage daughters in East Quogue,NY, where they live the boating life.

Pete McDonald

Executive Editor

Pete McDonald is the executive editor of Boating Magazine. He has been involved with the magazine as an editor, boat tester and award-winning writer since 1998 and has contributed to several other Firecrown Media titles, including Yachting, Sport Fishing, and Salt Water Sportsman. In addition, he is the author of the book “The Blitz: Fly Fishing the Atlantic Migration.”

Randy Vance

Editor-at-Large, Boating and Fishing Group

Randy Vance’s credits include a decade as a professional fisherman, marine sales, and public relations for Bass Pro Shops and Outboard Marine Corp. Author of “Power Boating for Dummies,” Vance is a popular video boat-review host with millions of combined views, and is a 45-year veteran of outdoor and boating journalism.

Jim Hendricks

Electronics and West Coast Editor

Jim Hendricks has built a 40-year career in the marine and sportfishing industries in capacities that have ranged from advertising and public relations, to magazine editor. An award-winning boating writer, Hendricks joined the staff of Boating Magazine as West Coast and Electronics editor in 2011, and today creates marine- and sportfishing-related content across a wide range of media channels, including print, video and online. Prior to this Hendricks served as editor of Trailer Boats magazine, and in 2003, he received the Moulton H. “Monk” Farnham Award for Excellence in Editorial Commentary from the BoatUS Foundation for probing and provocative editorial work while editor at Trailer Boats..