16 ShowBoats Design Awards 2016 winners

Exterior Styling: Nauta Design

Builder: Baltic Yachts

The ShowBoats Design Award judges felt as if they were comparing apples and oranges among the finalists in this category and quickly opted to judge the modern yachts separately.

The owner’s brief for Nikata described a boat to not just enter regattas but to “race successfully”, which we all know means “podium finishes”, a result he experienced with his previous yacht.

To achieve this same performance on a larger boat, Judel/Vrolijk began with what they already know about high performance hulls and then refined it through CFD study to match the owner’s equally important demands for an attractive profile and for comfortable cruising in all sea conditions.

For racing stiffness with realistic harbor draft, Rolf Vrolijk chose a lifting keel with stainless steel fin and lead bulb extending from 3.65 meters in the up position to 5.85 meters in full extension. The sail plan developed with the help of extensive VPP studies led to a bow sprit and a special flat-top main for racing that adds 73 square meters of sail area, both of which are removed for cruising.

The deck is well laid-out for safe and efficient racing with good separation between the helm stations and jib/gennaker sheet winches and the guest seating areas.

This award is sponsored by RINA Services.

Naval Architecture: Andre Hoek to original lines by Frank Paine

Builder: Holland Jachtbouw

Because redrawing a classic yacht to meet a modern racing rule is a rare task, the jury chose to award a second naval architecture prize to Topaz. J-8, as she is known in her class, is a so-called Super J because of her 88-foot waterline.

She was designed by Frank Paine for the 1937 America’s Cup but never built. Topaz’s owner tracked her plans to MIT in Boston and bought the package. Included in the documents was a hand-drawn lines plan that was neither symmetrical nor fair. From this baseline Andre Hoek re-designed the yacht and rig in 3D, optimized to perform under the current J Class Association handicap system.

Mast position, stability, sail area and hull stiffness were extensively researched and compared with all existing J Class hulls. The hull and deck structure was augmented to take very high runner loads in order to reduce head stay sag.

The yacht’s deck layout suits both top-end racing and easy handling when cruising with good visibility for the helmsman and most importantly direct communication between the trimmers and the helmsman. The main cockpit can accommodate eight people for dining in comfort, something never imagined aboard a J in 1937!

This award is sponsored by RINA Services.

Exterior Styling: CG Design

Builder: Feadship, De Vries

Based on the number and strength of candidates for this ShowBoats Design Award category, the judges chose to split motor and sailing yachts.

Savannah is a yacht that presents herself differently from various angles and if seen bow-on only, the judges remarked that the straight lines of her exterior seemed completely at odds with her curvaceous interior architecture.

Yet yachts are truly 3D things and soon the cascading curves of her aft decks became apparent, as did the smoothness of the metallic seafoam-green profile — which bears no lumps, bumps or glass seams — and matches the sleek contemporary nature of her interior architecture. Just as the dark, tempered glass appears as an unbroken line on the exterior, the interior hides window frames within sleek architectural features.

There is no sense that any area of the yacht inside or out has less stature than any other and stainless steel is used inside and out. The custom treatment for deck furniture and exterior lighting was also part of the detailed design approach. The fact that one hand guided both interior and exterior made for an uninterrupted aesthetic vocabulary and harmony unequaled by any other contenders.

This award is sponsored by MTN.

Exterior Styling: Nauta Design

Builder: Baltic Yachts

Sailing yachts are an area where interior and exterior features and styling are expected to work together, so choosing a standout in this category is a difficult task and the two representatives of retro styling presented strong contenders.

Digging deeper, the remark “cool serenity” was heard more than once as the ShowBoats Design Award judges reviewed the design sketches and finished photos of Nikata. They were familiar with the minimalist Scandinavian interior approach that often accompanies yachts built by Baltic, but this time Nauta Design seemed to deliberately play to that strength, creating an interior that is just as smooth as the iron gray topsides.

Among the features the judges liked was the use of a strong rectangle shape introduced in the cockpit coaming and its repetition in the fixed portlights and the skylight. The planked floors of the salon and linen wall panels echo the theme of the bleached teak of the deck above.

Everything about the yacht inside and out – even the crew area – seemed dedicated to simplicity, speed and efficiency, achieved with use of top technology and materials. Apparently, it’s a program that works, as Nikata reportedly reached 28 knots on her first transatlantic crossing.

This award is sponsored by Kymeta Panasonic.

Jury Chairman Roger Lean-Vercoe notes that the Young Designer of the Year Award judges were impressed with the high quality of the 28 entries submitted for this year’s award, and this made selecting a winner from among six finalists a particularly difficult task.

All were highly accomplished designs, and while each young designer excelled in certain areas, the judges eventually homed in on one design that best fulfilled the identical project brief given to all the competition’s entrants.

Cercio was created by Baoqi Xiao, a student of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Well considered and visually attractive, Baoqi’s GA, interior design and exterior styling for a fast 45-metre motor yacht, created to entertain the guests of a female Italian fashion designer, was considered by the judges to be a good starting point for a vessel that would completely fulfill its imaginary owner’s specific wishes.

The judges particularly admired the clear presentation and well-executed hand-drawn sketches, while the originality and harmony of the exterior styling that blended well with a highly competent general arrangement plan and understanding of the client’s lifestyle was also praised. This is a worthy winner.

The Young Designer of the Year Award is in association with Oceanco.

There was little doubt that Frits de Voogt would be involved with boats; he is, after all, a Dutchman, but the fact that his father, Henri de Voogt, was a naval architect set him on his path. The fact that he was the first Secretary of a fledging venture called Feadship made the critical difference, to his son and to yachting.

Frits studied at Delft with the idea of designing great ships; in fact, the common feeling around Delft was that yachts were “silly things”. He took engineering seriously and was not interested in the small steel cruisers his father began drawing in the late 1940s. “I thought I was getting away from all of that to do big, important ships,” he says. “Then my father became both ill and busy. He insisted I come home at the end of my studies to help him… that turned out OK,” he says with his characteristic dry understatement.

Even though Frits had been a member of the 1952 Dutch Olympic rowing team, he had to earn his stripes in the design office year by year. The first yacht he points to as being truly his own is the 1960 Camargo V. That 116 footer was a “nice one”, he says.

“That’s when boats were getting bigger and we could put things in that people wanted like stabilizers and air conditioning. We got the idea to start making our own equipment.” Putting gensets on Feadships freed up space, and with that came de Voogt’s research into reduction of noise, vibration and soot, and development of desalination and sewage treatment plants.

Feadship had started with the idea of impressing American boat buyers with Dutch quality and Frits would take that to new levels, pushing for the intangible aura of quality that set the product apart. Once, while interviewing him about a new yacht, I asked if it was built to Lloyd’s. The already very tall de Voogt squared his shoulders. He seemed to have gained another foot and his impossibly bushy eyebrows were aimed like darts. “We build to Feadship standard,” he boomed.

The characteristic look of unbroken sheer, graceful flared bow and balanced profile are one thing but Frits uniquely combined design with creating the dream that sold the yachts.

Henk de Vries believes Frits de Voogt made modern day Feadship possible. “He was the glue that managed the individuals and the decisions he made, he made for the good of all.”

Frits shrugs off such notions by talking teamwork. “We were three families but we were of the same mind. You have to work, but hard work is especially fun. I was simply a developer and refiner of possibilities.”

This award is sponsored by Centtrip.