In the throes of our ShowBoats Awards nomination process, we judges had a lively debate over whether we should regroup our awards into categories more relevant to what is happening in the world of yachtbuilding today. Our big topic was "series" yachts.

Each year for the last 18, ShowBoats International has acknowledged yacht owners, builders and designers in "Best Of" categories. To be eligible, a yacht must be more than 80 feet (25 meters) in length and delivered to her owner during the calendar year of the awards. This means that a yacht that splashes in 2007, but hasn’t been delivered to her owner, is not eligible.

Our 2008 ShowBoats International Awards Rendezvous takes place in Monaco June 25 to 29, with the awards ceremony taking place on June 26. In this issue, we list the yachts that are nominated for 2007.

Photograph by Laurent Benoit. (Click image to enlarge)

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Evaluating yachts of disparate design is a challenge. Being well aware that we cannot compare apples and oranges, we do not attempt to compare a 100-footer with a 250-footer. We recognize yachts today are built for different markets, different pocketbooks, different parameters and dzzifferent tastes.

We’ve noticed a trend in recent years among many leading shipyards toward building semi-custom—or series—yachts. The concept is gaining popularity even among yards that previously only built custom yachts. Witness our cover feature on the new Limited Editions Amels 171, Deniki. Executive Editor Kenny Wooton spent time aboard the yacht in Sint Maarten and talked with Victor Caminada at the Amels shipyard to discover why and how Amels came up with this new series. His feature story in this issue speaks volumes about this trend.

I spoke with Francois van Well from Feadship about that company’s new F45 Vantage series. "Three years ago," he says, "Feadship took a look at the different yards manufacturing smaller boats on a production or semi-production scale, such as the Benetti Classic series and the Sunseekers."

Van Well says Feadship saw these yards building bigger and bigger, increasing the length of their boats to accommodate the demand. His company decided it was time to claim its share of that market—to build a Feadship series and thus become competitive on price, "but still build with the Feadship brand of high standards and quality."

"Series boats are particularly appealing to a new, young clientele; people new to boating," Van Well says. "Their starter boat may be over 100 feet in length. These people didn’t grow up yachting with their parents. They aren’t aficionados. They know how to purchase cars, houses and airplanes, but if they go to buy a custom yacht the learning curve can be overwhelming."

With a series yacht, the engineering is already in place. A prospective new owner can choose a hull color, interior décor and loose furnishings, and take delivery of the yacht years sooner, in some cases, than if they went the fully custom route. This is very appealing to the new generation of boat buyers.

"If a buyer comes to Feadship," says Van Well, "they can let us take care of the technical platform. Whereas a prospective buyer of a custom yacht will be hit with 3,000 questions: What kind of engines? Rudders? Props? Etc."While series yachts are not a new concept, our editors have decided to rethink the way we judge them for our awards. Do we recognize new additions to a series on an annual basis? If we are looking at the Westport 164, do we look at every new one? Do we look at both Deniki and the second Limited Editions Amels 171, YN 453, or just at one? The same goes for the new Marco Polo Explorer series from MCC and built at Cheoy Lee. This new concept, designed by Ron Holland, promises to have others follow. We do not look at every Benetti Classic, but when they went from the 115 to the 120, we did take notice.

Whatever the results, it’s an interesting time in yachtbuilding. We’ll see what happens when we sit down to choose this year’s winners.