Europe's Yacht of the Year 2023: Show run of the nominees off Port Ginesta

Four days, 14 boats. This promised a varied but also packed programme for the editors-in-chief and chief testers, who are looking for the best newcomers of the year for the 20th time in this form. And even if the winners will only be announced shortly before boot Düsseldorf, where the award ceremony will take place on 21 January at the Flagship Night of Delius Klasing Verlag and Messe Düsseldorf: We can already reveal a few things. For example, that Oyster sent the most special yacht we have ever seen into the race. The 495 named "Tuga" came in a yellow and orange graffiti look and showed none of the usual British understatement below deck. The reason: the test boat belongs to none other than former Formula 1 racing team owner Eddie Jordan, for whom Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, among others, drove.

The colour scheme and design were not included in the jury's decision, which was frankly not that easy. The comments on the design varied: on the outside, some colleagues found similarities with "a piece of the Berlin Wall", on the inside with "psychedelic art". One colleague had to return to the cockpit immediately because otherwise he was in danger of getting seasick. However, this could also have been due to the swell, which was up to two and a half metres; it was not possible to differentiate that precisely. In any case, Eddie is a cool owner because he didn't take long to give us his boat, which was practically fresh from the resin bucket. On YouTube, he explains why he decided on the name and why the 495 should never be white.

Somehow we all ended up liking his "Tuga" in one way or another. Of course, this was helped by the really fine sailing characteristics and the propere construction of Oyster's youngest and smallest yacht.

Bente 28 and Excess 14 as exciting new products

Because we were just talking about swell: the Bente 28, one of the smallest in the field, also did well. We had her two weeks earlier sailed on Lake Constance for the first time now once again in the wild, at 5, in gusts up to 6 Beaufort. Antoine Cardin was also there, her designer, who normally draws regatta yachts at Judel/Vrolijk & Co and is working on an exciting small series project that we will be reporting on here shortly. He brings influences from the Breton offshore scene with him, and that's exactly what the Bente looks like. Although at just over three tonnes she is clearly a cruising boat, not a racer, she was easy to beat around the undulating course. She also slipped from time to time. Bravo!

Excess 14 hits the sweet spot between floating holiday home and speeding two-hull boat

The jury eagerly awaited the new Excess 14, the latest boat in the Beneteau Group's still young cat line. Those of you who come here often will know that we didn't completely approve of the earlier models because they fell short of Beneteau's own expectations, especially in terms of performance. Well, that's over now! The latest model really strikes the right balance between a floating holiday home and a racing twin-hull.

Two tonnes weight saving

We will show and tell you in detail how this was achieved in a few weeks' time. Although we're not actually allowed to show it. Developer Hervé Piveteau, formerly a feared mini-transat skipper and today still an inspired weight and propulsion optimiser, has thrown several hundred kilos overboard together with the designers at VPLP. In fact, it was almost two tonnes! But he doesn't want us to reveal all the tricks we found. Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, the "LP" in "VPLP", also came to Port Ginesta especially to see his creation during the tests. He has even more ideas for the next boat and revealed a few of them to us. So it will be interesting to see what else is in store. And Beneteau can be proud of what they have already achieved. Chapeau!

The tests for Europe's Yacht of the Year are like any meeting of several boats: Even if it's not really about who can run the fastest and highest (or deepest)- the match is always made. The Excess 14, nominated in the Multihull Cruisers class, repeatedly found itself involved in duels with cats in the Performance category. And it looked pretty good doing it.

Four performance cruisers at the start

Inevitably, the judges also measured themselves when they were travelling on the performance cruisers, those with only one hull. Four of the five nominees in this class came to Port Ginesta: the Elan E6, the Grand Soleil 40 Performance, the Italia 12.98 in the Bellissima version and the Solaris 50, as well as the Ice 62 and the Oceanis Yacht 60, both representatives of the luxury class, both similar in length, both not exactly slow. It goes without saying that spontaneous regattas were organised.

If you could have wished for anything, it would have been a Wolpertinger. That's what the Bavarians say about a creature that is somehow many. Our Wolpertinger at sea would have the precision of the Grand Soleil steering gear, the feedback of the Italia, the lines of the Solaris, the forward berth of the Beneteau, the lift keel and the Code 55 of the Ice, as well as the ingenuity of the Balance 482, its experience shower aft, the cheekiness of the Bente, the solidity of the Oyster, the sustainability of the Ecoracer 25 and a few more attributes from those not mentioned here. Maybe next year there will be a candidate that has all of this and can do it. That would be something!

The first round of tests took place off La Rochelle in mid-September. Here we show all nominees for the European Yacht of the Year 2023!