Every day, writers contribute boat reviews, blogs, and other stories and videos to boats.com in the U.S. and Europe, plus its sister sites at YachtWorld, and BoatTrader. Staff and freelance—and spread across two continents—our team has diverse publishing and boating background and skill sets, and I was glad to see several of them recognized for their excellent work again this year in the Boating Writers International writing contest.

Carol Cronin and Lenny Rudow won six awards for stories published on boats.com in 2014.

Carol Cronin and Lenny Rudow won six awards for stories published on boats.com in 2014.



The awards were made this morning at the group's annual awards breakfast, held during the Miami International Boat Show. (Read 2014's boats.com Wins Awards at Miami Show and 2013's Lenny Rudow Wins Multiple BWI Awards.)

BWI's annual writing contest aims to "reward excellence in journalism in categories ranging from fishing to travel, boat tests to social media." The 2014 contest included nearly 350 entries by 134 writers, and 60 certificates of merit were handed out as well as the top three cash awards in each category.

Senior Editor Lenny Rudow led the charge with four awards:

Make Your Boat 1,000 Times Better (1st place, Boat Projects)

Chill, Baby!  (3rd place, Boat Projects)

Free and Cheap: In Boats We Trust (3rd place Boat/Engine Car & Maintenance)

Princecraft Xperience 188: Nature Calls (2nd place Boat Tests & Reviews). If you think boat reviews have to be dry reading, you haven't "Xperienced" Lenny's coverage of new models. This particular review even includes the phrase, "I gotta pee!"

Managing Editor Carol Cronin was recognized with a 1st place award for her boating adventure story about the 2004 Olympics, Olympic Broach: The No Good Very Bad Windiest Day. As she says in the introduction, "It’s taken me 10 years to swallow my pride enough to write about that day. And I’m only going to do it once, so listen up." Cronin also won 2nd place in the Boating Lifestyles category for Simple Boating: Which is More Fun, Kayak or SUP?

Our writers also won seven certificates of merit over five additional categories, including posts on sister sites, Boat Trader and YachtWorld. (If you missed it, one of my personal favorites is Doug Logan's "Embrace the Hacksaw.") We only submitted a fraction of the 1500-plus stories our team wrote last year, and while these were certainly some of the best, I promise you there are many more good stories waiting for you to discover—now and throughout 2015—on boats.com, YachtWorld and Boat Trader.

Written by: John Burnham
John Burnham is a boat owner, leadership coach, marine writer, editor, and champion sailboat racer. He is the former editor of Sailing World, Cruising World, and boats.com.
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