The Top 20 Boats of Puget Sound                       and the Can-Am Top 5 for 2004 Four Boats Tie for Top Spot on Top 20       Here we go with our 17th year of Top 20 Boats of Puget Sound and our 9th year of Can-Am Top 5 Boats. The boats that have earned a spot on our lists have shown excellent performance in a number of regattas and the challenging sailing conditions the Northwest has to offer.       To qualify for consideration for the Top 20 Boats of the year, a boat must have sailed in at least four (4) or more of the series listed below. A boat's best three (3) series finishes of the four (4) or more series she participated in, determined her score. The more series a boat raced, the more "throwouts" she had, thus the more you raced, the better your chances. All classes on all courses were scored. The following six sailboat racing series were tracked in an effort to find our Top 20 Boats of Puget Sound: South Sound Series Center Sound Series Puget Sound Sailing Regatta Puget Sound Sailing Championships Tri Island/Tri Point Series Whidbey Island Race Week       The performance of all boats sailing in one or more of these six series was tracked, with a boat's best three (3) complete series performances, having raced at least four series, being used for calculating her final score. That end number was determined by scoring each boat one point for starting in an event and one point for each boat that she beat in her class. A boat's total points were then divided by the total number of boats that started in her class. That number became her score. A total of 317 boats took part in the events used for our scoring search.       If we needed a tie-breaker between boats with identical scores, it could be based on a closer look at the size of their fleets. However, we are just leaving the ties as the more winners the merrier, and it's hard to argue with those first four perfect scores of 1.000!       The same scoring procedure was used in selecting the Can-Am Top 5. For this selection a boat had to start in the: Southern Straits Swiftsure/Cape Flattery/Juan de Fuca Regatta Whidbey Island Race Week       These three events draw 25% or more of the entries from across the Canadian and United States border. All three of the evetns were used in scoring the boats. For this search a total of 305 boats were scored. For the Top 20 and Can-Am Top 5 we're going to use the same criteria.       Yes, these are the top boats that sailed well and sailed often, but we also salute the other almost 300 boats that make all this racing possible. View the list... ...back to 48° North title page.