ADAPT OR DIE?

The 2026 European Boat of the Year Winners, Reality-Checked

Every awards season brings shiny trophies, breathless press releases, and the quiet assumption that these boats represent the future.

So let’s talk about the 2026 European Boat of the Year winners—and put them where they belong: next to reality.

For context, the median U.S. house price in 2025 was about $410,000. Not a mansion. A house. Roof. Walls. Plumbing. A place to live. We’re real estate appraisers by trade - so we’re not making this up.

Now let’s compare.

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The Winners (and Their Prices)

Dragonfly 36 — ~$700,000

Bust out your goggles and helmet & and maybe some body armor.

Yes, it’s fast. Very fast.
So fast, in fact, that you won’t see:

• Navigational aids

• Other boats

• The charming lighthouse you just blew past at 22 knots

It’s a technical marvel, no doubt. But at nearly 2× the price of a house, this is sailing as an extreme sport for people with excellent insurance and no interest in scenery. Get there fast, get there now! (This is NOT Lin Pardey’s new mantra.)

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Beneteau First 30 — ~$170,000

It only costs $5,666 per foot…

The “affordable” one.
Also known as: “Your kids don’t need college—buy a new boat instead.”

It’s small. It’s lively. It’s fun.
It is also $170k for 30 feet of fiberglass that would’ve cost half that not long ago.

Least expensive winner on the list—and that alone tells you everything you need to know.

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PURE 42 — ~$800,000 (est.)

Channel your Shackleton, but wait a year…

Actual pricing not fully out yet, but let’s be honest: north of $800k is a safe bet.

This is the boat where:

• You’ll spend $50k in sacrificial anodes a year to keep this aluminum beast from being devoured by the sea. Is this true? No. But at $800,000 + it feels emotionally correct.

• We might suggest you wait for year two. Yes, it does look a bit like a rugged high-latitudes boat. But since this is PURE’s very first production boat, you know, take a beat, let them work the kinks out before you pull a Shackleton…

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Excess 13 Catamaran — starts ~$620,000

Chunky. Bulky. High-freeboard. Seriously high.

The freeboard is so high it blocks out the sun… :)

Looks like it was designed by a committee that never met the ocean.

Does it have space? Sure.
Does it sail? Technically, yes.
Does it inspire anything resembling affection? Jury’s out.

Six hundred and twenty grand gets you a floating apartment complex that will age exactly as well as most apartments do.

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Wauquiez 55 — starts ~$2.1 million

Multiple tons. Multiple zeros. Multiple windows…
A starting price that makes you involuntarily say:

WTF?

This is no longer a sailboat—it’s a financial instrument. A yacht in the most capital-Y sense of the word. The kind of boat you manage, not sail. And the only way to see what you’re about to hit is to stick your bean out the side window. One viewer nailed it: train engineer energy. Choo-choo, Captain—hope that wasn’t a mooring field.

LOL

At this price point, the comparison isn’t other boats.
It’s real estate portfolios.

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WOY 26 — ~$233,000

The “modern, wooden, sustainable” daysailer…

And yes—this is the only genuinely pretty winner of the bunch.

But let’s be honest:

• You’ll sail it once or twice a year

• It lives on a trailer or a hoist

• It exists largely to be admired by people holding espresso

At $233k, it induces a very specific reaction:

(w)OY… good grief.

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So… Is This the Future?

If these are the award winners, then the message is clear:

• Bigger cabins

• More glass

• Higher prices

• Less grace

• More marketing

And somewhere along the way, sailing—the quiet, elegant, human-scaled thing many of us fell in love with—gets pushed aside.

One BoatFools viewer said it best when referring to the Wauquiez 55:

“That looks like a whale with a harpoon stuck in its back.”

Hard to unsee it.

Thank you, Art K., for inspiring me to write this piece!

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The Used-Boat Reality Check

Here’s the part the boat shows don’t talk about:

If this is what’s being built now…
this is what the used-boat market will inherit.

Will these boats:

• Age well?

• Be repairable in 25 years?

• Make sense without factory support and proprietary systems?

• Still be loved when the screens go dark?

History suggests… maybe not.

Meanwhile, 40–50-year-old boats—drawn with restraint, built with excess strength, and priced for humans—are still out there crossing oceans.

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So…Adapt or Die?

That’s the question.

Our answer?

We’ll adapt—
by choosing wisely, buying used, and keeping the good boats alive.

Put us in the ground before we give up sheer, balance, and beauty.

What will you do?

I need a drink…

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A Small Note of Hope

In better news, Tartan Yachts has found a new owner.

Here’s hoping that owner brings:

• Taste

• Restraint

• A sense of proportion

• And maybe—just maybe—a boat someone who isn’t a hedge-fund manager can afford

Because if sailing is going to survive as more than a luxury showroom exercise, it needs boats that people can actually own, maintain, and love.

The company is now owned by a group led by Jon Duer, longtime owner of Great Lakes Rigging & Supply and a man who’s been supplying Tartan boats for decades. In other words: someone who actually knows how boats are built, rigged, and sailed.

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Thank you all for your support!