Left to Right: Dan Griffey of Laser, Pip Tyler and Lucy Jackson of Neilson Holidays, Roland Bachli of Bachli International, Ian Atkins of boats.com, Miles Mendoza of Radio 2 and David Loenholm of KVH Industries.

Left to Right: Dan Griffey of Laser, Pip Tyler and Lucy Jackson of Neilson Holidays, Roland Bachli of Bachli International, Ian Atkins of boats.com, Miles Mendoza of Radio 2 and David Loenholm of KVH Industries.



The London Boat Show saw the presentation of the first boats.com Marine Industry Web Awards take place on Centre Stage at Earls Court. The panel of five carefully selected judges ranged from web designers to BBC Radio 2s Web Site of the Day presenter, Miles Mendoza, who scrutinised a wide range of sites including boat manufacturers, brokers and equipment suppliers.

Over 60 representatives from the European marine industry attended the award presentation which saw the Neilson Holidays site www.neilson.com take the Best Overall Marine Site. Pip Tyler of Neilson commented on their success; "We are delighted to have won the award. We have devoted a lot of effort into making our site user friendly and effective and to see this recognised is fantastic. The awards offer a great opportunity for all marine companies to reap what they sow in terms of web communications and we look forward to the awards becoming an important annual event on the marine industry's calendar."

Leading dinghy manufacturer, Laser won the Best Manufacturer Award while Bachli International took the top Broker/Dealer spot with www.boat-trade.com. KVH Industries from Denmark won the Best Marine Equipment award.

Ian Atkins, Managing Director of boats.com commented; "With an overwhelming response to the awards which saw almost 80 entries, it was difficult to choose winners and judge Miles Mendoza commented on the excellent standard across the board."

Ian continued; "The results showed that the marine industry overall has embraced the Internet as an important part of the marketing mix. We hope that the boats.com awards will encourage more companies in our industry to look at their sites carefully from the customer's perspective and to develop them as an integral part of the business. It is our intention to run the Awards again next year, so those disappointed with missing the deadline this year will have the opportunity to show even more innovation and exciting use of the web next time."

The judging panel consisted of: Ian Atkins, MD of boats.com Europe; Kim Hollamby, Group editor of marine business and Internet International Boating Industry (IBI) magazine and ybw.com; James Gower, Marketing Director of British Marine Federation (BMF); Ian Burton, MD of Aptek - Website experts/designers and trainers and Miles Mendoza , "web site of the day" presenter on BBC Radio 2s Steve Wright in the Afternoon show.

22 companies were shortlisted for one of the final 5 awards, certificates for those in 2nd and 3rd places were also handed out for each award.

Best OEM/Manufacturer Site
Fairline Boats
Laser - 1st

Nimbus Yachts

Oyster Marine

Princess Yachts - 3rd

Sealine

Sunseeker - 2nd

Best Broker/Dealer Site

Bachli International - 1st
Camper Nicholsons - 3rd

J-UK

Opal Marine

Peters Plc - 2nd

Best Marine Equipment Site

Henri Lloyd

International Coatings - 2nd

KVH Industries - 1st

Simrad

Thrane and Thrane - 3rd

Outstanding Contribution to Online Marine Industry

GBR Challenge

Neilson Holidays - 1st
Nicholas Hilsden

Offshore Challenges for Kingfisherchallenge.com - 2nd

Yachts and Yachting - 3rd

All 5 judges awarded each of the shortlisted sites marks out of 10 in
the following criteria;

Quality and relevance of site
Overall look and design

Site navigation

Ease of Use

Speed of Use

Accuracy of Information

The award was exclusively designed by world renowned yacht designer
Tony Castro.

Further information can be obtained from

Ian Atkins

Boats.com Europe

Tel : +44 (0)1329 227 663

Fax: +44 (0)1329 227 544

Email: iatkins@boats.com

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