WSA Judging Weekend 2019

In the 2005 Superyacht Awards Adèle scooped the awards as best Sailing yacht of the year, and the year thereafter we could collect the prize, which still proudly is displace at home in our library. When Jennifer and i had finished our sailing adventures, i was asked if I wanted to join the judges of Boat International’s World Superyacht Awards.

I did join with pleasure and have been a judge ever since. We are nearly 20 judges in total and we try to make sure that at least a couple of the judges can visit every yacht that participate. There were about 70 yachts that participated in the 2018 judging, which are the majority of all yachts built in 2018 that are larger than 100 foot.

A lot of the yachts are seen at boat shows around the world, of which the dominating ones are the Monaco Show in September every year and also the Cannes Show slightly earlier but also in September. In Miami there is another show normally at the beginning of November.

Apart from the boat shows, the judges travel around most of the world to try to visit as many as possible of the yachts. And sometimes a couple of judges can meet up and if we bring our partners we will often also meet for a pleasant dinner afterwards.

In the beginning of the year, towards the end of February or beginning March the judges meet for a Judging Weekend, when we decide which yachts to be granted the different awards. It is a meeting that takes place during a very full day, but we normally have some activities both before and after the judging event. Our partners are invited as well.

And in May we have the grand Awards Night with a gala dinner, when the awards are given out. And around that event there are always a lot of social activities. For three years before we have been in Florence for the Awards ceremony, but this year it will be in London.

The Judging Weekend has had more varied locations. We have been to Trieste, Milan, Kitzbühel and London to mention a few. This year at then end of February 2019 we met at Cowdray House just south of London.

We started off with a dinner on Thursday night followed by the Judging Day on Friday, where our partners had some social activities. We had a big Judging Dinner on Friday night and on Saturday morning we had clay pigeon shoot competition followed by a final lunch.

The images in the slide show below are my selection of pictures that were taken by Boat International Media. Unfortunately there were no pictures of the judging meeting itself (Maybe that was off limit for the photographers?).