The Top 10 List for
2010
Our annual tradition at year-end is to take a look at our server logs
and see what boat models, engines, videos, and news items were most
popular with our readers during the year. In 2010 we have 30 categories
to report on – far too many for a single newsletter, so this week we are
running part I, and next week we will publish part II. We think these
lists are useful for several reasons; first, it lets you know what your
peers are researching at BoatTEST.com. Second, these lists can tip you
off to trends that are taking place among fellow consumers so that you
won’t get caught on the wrong side of a wind shift. Finally, these Top
10 lists are a good way for you to make sure that you didn’t miss any
popular and useful tests, videos or articles published on BoatTEST.com
throughout the year.
In 2010 BoatTEST.com published over 1,000 tests, reviews, boat buying
tips, news articles, how-to tutorials on seamanship, boat handling, and
many other subjects. That is more useful information by far than
published by any single boating magazine or marine website.
For the last 10 years our credo has been to provide in-depth
information, observations and opinions that will aid boat buyers in
finding the best vessel for their needs and to help them have a
successful, satisfying, and safe boat-owning experience. We re-dedicate
ourselves in 2011 to the same purpose.
Following is Part I of our Top 10 Researched in 2010 --
Top 10 Researched Boats
ALL SIZES & TYPES
Once again, the low
price-point Bayliner brand takes first place honors as well as three out
of the top four positions in most-viewed tests on BoatTEST.com. What is
surprising, however, is the fact that Bayliner 28’ express cruiser took
1st place, not the $12k Bayliner 160 outboard-powered bowrider, which
ranked 4th. But the other seven boats on the top 10 list are largely
from the top price range in their class. Ranking #2 is the new Formula
290 FX4, and also on the Top 10 list is the Cruisers Yachts Cantius 48
hardtop.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
BOWRIDERS
The bowrider category is
one of the largest selling types of boat on the market. Historically,
bowriders have been the battle ground for the nation’s largest boat
builders, but among people doing research on BoatTEST.com two brands --
Bayliner and Yamaha -- took eight of the Top 10 positions. Only the
Regal 2300 and the Formula 290 could capture top spots in our readers’
bowrider research. Please note that outboard models took the #1 and #4
slots. In the U.S. Bayliner is the largest selling sterndrive brand in
its
price class and Yamaha is the largest selling brand in the 20’ to
25’ range of boats no matter what class or propulsion.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
OFFSHORE
CENTER CONSOLES
The big news in the
Offshore Center Console category is that catamarans have now captured
the attention of America’s offshore anglers for serious buying
consideration. The World Cat 320 CC ranks #1 in research sessions, the
Glacier Bay Renegade 2740 CC cat #4, and the World Cat 290 CC #6! Two
other boats in this category are also noteworthy: the $400k Boston
Whaler 37CC which is probably the most innovate center console on the
planet, and the Hydra-Sports 4200 (formerly the 4100) which is one of
the largest production center consoles made. Four Makos are on the list
thanks to their value proposition.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
BAY BOATS
Seven different builders have garnered serious Bay
Boat consideration from BoatTEST.com readers, which is unusual in the
small boat realm where a few companies often dominate. Ranking #1 is
the newest boat to be offered on the market in this class – the FinCraft
19 CC, constructed with the VEC hull laminating process. The other
nine bay boats are built by conventional spray gun and hand layup. All
of these boats are designed for use in protected locations and for
getting onto flats and skinny water where feisty critters lurk. Other
than their length, they are differentiated from their center console big
sisters by their shallow draft, low freeboard, light weight, and
usually a casting platform forward.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
MULTI-SPECIES BOATS
Aluminum freshwater
multi-species fishing boats led all categories and types of boats in
sales increases in 2010 in the U.S. If aluminum boats are an “early
indicator” it may mean that many other types of boats will show sales
increases in 2011. This year several popular boat brands pushed the
perennially popular Tracker to the back of the pack in this category.
Lund, Crestliner and Triton all showed strong consumer interest among
our members, taking five of the Top 10 positions in our research
sweepstakes. The new VEC-made fiberglass FinCraft showed strong
engagement with freshwater fishermen, ranking #2 and #5. The FinCraft
was the only fiberglass boat brand that made the Top 10 Multi-Species
Boats list.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
WAKE & SKI
The Cinderella story in the
Wake & Ski Boat category is the 20% sales growth of Tigé from 2009
to 2010, moving this brand from seventh position among all boutique wake
& ski boat builders in the U.S. to #4, right behind the big three –
MasterCraft, Malibu and Nautique. At the same time Tigé even moved past
several famous sterndrive builders in the 20’ to 25’ category in actual
U.S. sales during the last year. Tigé was one of only four builders to
be up in sales in this popular size range. Among BoatTEST.com members
Tigé dominated the research in this category taking five of the 10 Top
research positions.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
BASS BOATS
The
research sessions in the Bass Boat category illustrate what appears to
be a new paradigm in boat buying – namely, the rise in popularity of
low-price point and value-oriented models. Tracker Marine’s fiberglass
Nitro brand took four of the 10 top positions and its aluminum Pro Team
170 TX ranked #6. Stratos, now owned by Platinum Equity and built in
the Ranger plant, is firmly in the “value” niche of bass boats and it
ranked #4 and #5 in research sessions. Given that trend, the emergence
of Triton’s more up-market fiberglass 21 HP DC, ranking #3, is
noteworthy in the bass category. Eight of the Top 10 bass boats were
fiberglass.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
PONTOON BOATS
If research
sessions on BoatTEST.com are any indication, the pontoon market is
still a free-for-all as more than two dozen brands, many of them
regional, contend for consumers’ attention. Seven different brand names
appear among our Top 10 list, which makes it one of the most diverse of
all boat types. Harris FloteBote took #1 and #2 research honors. This
venerable brand has shown market leadership in tri-toons and in the
sportier, more up-market models. With the advent of tri-toons, the use
of larger outboard engines, toons have been adopted by a younger class
of owners who use them for waterskiing, tubing and even exploring and
overnight camping aboard.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
PWCs
There are four builders of
PWCs, but for the most part we have tested only two brands over the
years – Yamaha and Sea-Doo. Not surprisingly, these two brands own our
Top 10 researched list, splitting it 50/50. The test we did a couple of
years ago on the Sea-Doo RXT-X 260 had the most research sessions,
followed closely by the Yamaha FZS and VXR. All together, we estimate
that consumers researching PWCs on BoatTEST.com spent more than 20,000
hours in 2010. Each year it seems that the PWCs become more and more
sophisticated as new innovations are introduced to appeal to specific
niche markets.
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Top 10 Researched Boats
CRUISERS – 20' TO 30’
The general societal trend
toward downsizing has focused more consumer scrutiny on trailerable
cruisers the last year or so. Indeed, the most researched boat in this
category – the Bayliner 285 Sunbridge – was the most researched boat of
all 1600 boats on BoatTEST.com in 2010. It accounted for 40,000
research sessions. Little wonder, then, that it is the largest selling
boat in class. Builders of trailerable cruisers usually attempt to pack
all of the amenities found in 35’ to 40’ boats in boats under 30’ with a
beam generally of 8’6” (2.6 m). As a result this category gets
attention from people moving up from sportboats, fishing and pontoon
boats, as well as people moving down from larger cruisers who want the
versatility (and range) of a trailerable boat that can cruise the
highways to new destinations.
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Top 10 Researched Engines
STERN DRIVE ENGINES
One of the most popular
features of BoatTEST.com is its links to engine videos that appear on
most tests. Since the desired performance of a boat is directly related
to the engine powering it, for most buyers it accounts for at least 50%
of the buying decision-making. While BoatTEST.com has not made a video
on a MerCruiser engine in years, the ones we did make early in this
decade are still popular with BoatTEST.com members as they search for as
much objective, 3rd-party information as they can get. We’re happy to
announce to those members requesting more information about Volvo Penta
stern drive engines, that in 2011 we will be testing and reviewing its
most popular models.
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Top 10 Reseached Engines
OUTBOARD ENGINES
The tests we conducted this
year of Evinrude outboard engines were warmly received by BoatTEST.com
members who looked at them in great numbers. These 3rd-party,
independent tests, to a large part, put to rest much of the debate that
for years had been swirling around Evinrude’s E-TEC technology. It is
little wonder that Evinrude outboards grabbed our readers attention in
five of the Top 10 spots. We look forward to testing more units in the
coming year. The repower market has been a large part of outboard sales
the last couple of years and that trend will likely continue in 2011.
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Top 10 Viewed
RELATED VIDEOS
Videos that “relate” to the
boat test being viewed have always been a popular feature at
BoatTEST.com. There is more to boat buying than performance numbers and a
profusion of cup holders. Engine control systems, construction methods
and materials, warranty programs, the integrity of top management, and
customer service all play an important role in providing a satisfying
boat-owning experience. BoatTEST.com studies indicate that the more
serious the buyer, the more related videos he/she watch in order to soak
up all of the available information with which to make a better buying
decision.
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Top 10 Watched
NEWS VIDEOS
BoatTEST.com was
the first recreational marine website in the world to stream video, a
full five years before a little company called YouTube.com started up.
YouTube showed the world how powerful videos could be on the Internet,
something we’d been trying to do all along. Today many of our news
videos come from YouTube including most from our Top 10 list. This
year’s winner among BoatTEST.com viewers is a 1:20 video titled “Ships
in Storm – Incredible Footage” by Schirello. In our opinion this video
is a work of art and well worth viewing (again and again – we never seem
to tire of it). Three or four videos of different ships have been
edited together and made to look like they were all shot at the same
time. The movements of the ships in huge seas have been carefully
choreographed to the stirring music which makes it a classic.
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Smart Boating
BoatTEST.com's Boating Course
Is for Veteran Boaters, Too
We’ve been overwhelmed with the response to our
DVD Boating Course. Based on the feedback we’ve been getting, it’s
clearly not only for beginners getting started, but also for veteran
boaters as well. We are surprised to see that most of the courses are
being purchased by seasoned boaters, doing exactly what we did --
learning things that we forgot, or never knew. Perhaps that is why the
NMMA started promoting the course after just one look. Let's look at who is buying BoatTEST.com's Smart Boating Course...
Order your copy here...
Watch the trailer...
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Where in the World
Picture of the Week
Send us your favorite boating images.
When sending a photo, let us know what boat you were on, where and when the photo
was taken.
Visit BoatTEST.com and "like" our page to watch unedited video found only on Facebook.
Facebook page...
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Boat Show
New York Boat Show
Jan. 19-23, 2011
The oldest boat show in the U.S. will be celebrating
its 106th anniversary next month, Jan 19-23, in New York City. If you
do not live in the New York metro area, we couldn’t think of a better
reason to visit the Big Apple. See the boat show during the day and
enjoy a Broadway show at night. The city is festive in January and it is
usually a surprisingly good time to visit. Do your research on
BoatTEST.com then check out your short list in person at the show. One
advantage of a boat show in a convention center is that you can check
out the bottom shape of most of the boats you see. Dealers come to the
show to do business, so if you are serious good deals can usually be
made there. Remember the new boat buying paradigm: for the most part
boats now need to be ordered in advance of construction. Get your new
boat order in as soon as possible to insure delivery before the season
starts.
Visit the NY Boat Show website...
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