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2017 Boat of the Year Judges

Meet our independent panel of judges who determined the 2017 Boat of the Year winners.
boty judges
For 2017, our independent panel of judges included Tim Murphy, Carol Hasse and Ed Sherman. Billy Black

Ed Sherman is the vice president of educational programming for the American Boat & Yacht Council and is the former chairman of the marine technology department at the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick, Rhode Island. An experienced racer and cruiser and BOTY judge, Sherman is the author of four technical marine books, a frequent contributor to CW and other boating publications, and often works with boatbuilders, marine surveyors, field-service personnel and engineering staffs in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Cruising World editor-at-large Tim Murphy grew up living aboard a 41-foot ketch and sailing along the U.S. East Coast and in the Bahamas. At age 18, he earned a 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard license and has worked around boats ever since, delivering them, writing about them, and teaching people how to use them. An independent writer and editor based in Rhode Island, he is the co-author of Fundamentals of Marine Service Technology (ABYC, 2012) as well as dozens of articles. He sails Ave Marina, a Vineyard Vixen 29, on Narragansett Bay and surrounding waters.

Carol Hasse has logged over 45,000 offshore miles in northern and southern latitudes on boats ranging from 25 to 101 feet. The founder of Port Townsend Sails in Washington state, she is also a founding member of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and a longtime civic leader in her adopted town. She sails her beloved Folkboat, Lorraine, out of Point Hudson Harbor in Port Townsend.

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