In a brilliant show the Best of Boats Award 2021 was presented at Boot & Fun Berlin on Thursday evening. International motorboat novelties were honored in a total of six categories in front of numerous shipyard CEOs and industry representatives in the audience. Best for Beginners, Best for Fishing, Best for Family, Best for Fun and Best for Travel. The special Best for Future award was given to a boating industry „game changer“ for the second time in 2021.

The 16-member BOB jury consisting of international trade journalists from all over Europe, Russia and the USA had viewed and intensively tested the award contenders throughout Europe in recent months: Despite the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic, the BOB 2021 judges conducted around 250 boat tests to select the best boats of 2021.

Exhibition project manager Daniel Barkowski and BOB coordinator Stefan Gerhard opened the award ceremony in hub27 after the successful virtual live BOB Award 2020 now again in front of an audience. The Best of Boats Award is considered one of the most important industry events and is the world’s largest award for powerboats in terms of the number of countries and jurors involved.

And the winners are …

It was obvious: The evaluation of the BOB judges is directly oriented to the needs of different boat users such as beginners, families, sports and fun which is also reflected in the composition of the practical categories. The expectations of the audience were high.

In the Best for Beginners category, the Axopar 22 Spyder prevailed over the other two strong finalists. Jan Sjölund, Editor-in-Chief of the Finnish magazine Venemestari, presented the award to Johan Holm, Head of Sales of Axopar Boats from Finland. He expressed his gratitude by saying, „We are overwhelmed that we won this award despite the very strong models by the competitors.“

Axopar executives Johan Holm and Marco Hindersson © Messe Berlin

Holm had arrived in place of shipyard co-founder Jan Viitala, who was also celebrating his birthday in faraway Finland on the day of the win. Holm added: „The prize is a reward for our hard work on the Axopar 22 Spyder and shows that the team has done an excellent job.“ After all, „The model is not only perfect for beginners – it’s also the ideal boat for experienced users, so it covers both areas perfectly.“

Best for Fishing: Quicksilver 705 Pilothouse

In the Best for Fishing category, the jury chose the Quicksilver 705 Pilothouse, a suitable model for both marine and inland fishing fans. Alexis Flechier, Global Sales Director of Venture Boat Group, accepted the award. It was presented by Stanislaw Iwinski, Editor-in-Chief of the Polish online magazine Yachtsmen.

Alexis Flechier received the award for Quicksilver © Messe Berlin