THE NOMINEES
Welcome once again to the annual Classic Boat Awards in association with Classic Marine, where we celebrate the best in the sometimes unsung world of classic and traditional boatbuilding and restoration. The pages that follow feature everything from large, antique restored sailing yachts to plywood folding dinghies, motor boats and cutting-edge spirit-of-tradition yachts, along with some of the people who have achieved great things on and on the water.
Some have been complete rebuilds, others partial, some at the best boatyards in the world, some in backyards. Choosing the shortlist is a big job, but now the bigger job falls to you – and that is to pick the winners of our 2020 Awards.
To do that, please visit awards.classicboat.co.uk, a dedicated Awards page that makes it easy to cast your votes. Just tick your winner in as many or as few categories as you like. Anyone may vote, with nearly 5,000 doing so last year. The awards can only happen with the support of our sponsors: Classic Marine, the Boat Building Academy, Boat Nation, Gstaad Yacht Club and Simon Winter Marine.
Finally, we must thank the determined owners, boatbuilders and associated industries for keeping this most elegant worldwide fleet of vessels afloat and looking forward to bright futures.
VOTE ONLINE awards.classicboat.co.uk
THE NOMINEES RESTORED SAILING VESSEL UNDER 40FT (12.2M)
ZISKA
Designed and built by Crossfield Brothers, Arnside, 1903, 38ft 6in (11.7m) LOD, rig gaff cutter
Ziska first called to young English boatbuilder Ashley Butler, who restored her, aged 19, and sailed her to the Americas in the late 1990s. She was found again recently by new owner Stanford Siver, who, with a cast of local Port Townsend (WA) shipwrights, found himself in a race to restore her for the madcap 2019 Race to Alaska, which she did in style.
TASSIE TOO
Designed by WP Batt, built by Lucas and Gronfors, 1927, 25ft (7.6m) LOD, rig gaff cutter
, one of a series of ‘Tassie’-named boats to the 21 Foot Restricted Class, won the coveted Forster Cup an incredible 10 times for Tasmania, as part of a period of near-complete domination
