{"id":56890,"date":"2024-12-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=56890"},"modified":"2024-12-04T13:21:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:21:23","slug":"boty-judges-special-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/sailboats\/boty-judges-special-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Boat of the Year: Judges’ Special Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Windelo <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Windelo 54 Yachting<\/span>\n Walter Cooper<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Every year, it seems, the Boat of the Year<\/a> fleet includes a company and boat with a groundbreaking approach that borders on the radical, something that seems completely different from everything else afloat. For 2025, that yacht was an impressive catamaran, the Windelo 54 Yachting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Mark Pillsbury said: \u201cIn the past few years of our Boat of the Year inspections and sea trials, it has seemed like there are fewer and fewer differences between the various nominees. So, stepping aboard the 54-foot Windelo, it was refreshing to see all sorts of new thinking in terms of building material, layout and propulsion. The forward cockpit was a new take on a trend popular with some high-end cats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hybrid diesel-electric motors and electrical system were very innovative,\u201d he added. \u201cIn addition to solar power, the large lithium-ion battery pack can be recharged with hydrogeneration, which greatly expands the cruising range. The move to build the boat using basalt fibers rather than fiberglass was definitely out-of-the-box thinking. Berths in the aft cabins were surrounded by glass. Underway, the water views are fantastic, and at anchor, the living space is filled with light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The father-and-son entrepreneurs who launched the company in 2018 were originally interested in developing an eco-friendly personal boat to sail around the world. The design team of Christophe Barreau and Fr\u00e9deric Neuman was commissioned to draw the lines. Windelo\u2019s tagline is \u201cOcean Future,\u201d and before long, the builder had expanded its line to three models. Along with the 54, there are 47- and 50-foot cats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Special Recognition prize is in honor of the unusual building materials and methods, as well as the forward-thinking approach to systems and power. But this is also a striking boat, and it sails very well. With a crisp inventory of French-built Incidence Sails, including a square-topped main and multiple headsails, the 54-footer provided plenty of sailing thrills, topping off at more than 8 knots of boatspeed under gennaker in a mere 11 knots of true wind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windelo is a company that we expect to hear much more about going forward. In appreciation of what its team has already achieved, we present the company with the Judges\u2019 Special Recognition award for Boat of the Year 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to return to the 2025 Boat of the Year main page.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Windelo 54 Yachting’s innovative design and eco-friendly features earned it the Judges\u2019 Special Recognition for 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":56892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":"","sponsored_image":false,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[167],"tags":[282,2057,195,1980],"class_list":["post-56890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sailboats","tag-boat-of-the-year","tag-boty-2025","tag-sailboats","tag-windelo-catamaran"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}