Spade Anchor

Since 1995, the Powerboat Reports editorial staff has, late in each year, pored over the gear reports published in the preceding 12 months. The result: A Gear-of-the-Year article summarizing the 10 best products.

Picking the year’s top gear isn’t easy. The degree of difficulty heightens as the list shortens, and when only 15 items or so remain, the fun really begins. Differing opinions make the staff discussions lively. Pure unanimity is hard to come by.

When the debate gets bogged down, though, we revert to our testing criteria to help us finalize our list: A Gear-of-the-Year product must embody clear superiority, innovation and, most importantly, value (or what you get for the…