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 --
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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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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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Ducky Award Winner
First Place
"I’ll see your Sea Ray, and raise you a Glastron." - C. Nikel
Second Place
"When you call Billy Bob's Boat Hauling make sure you tell him you want 'Last on, First off'" - S. Merkel
Honorable (almost) Mentions
"Wow, boat sales are really stacking-up."
- J. Kenney
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