The 18 winners of the ShowBoats Design Awards 2017

My Song

Length: 39.6m

Naval architect: Reichel-Pugh Yacht Design

Interior design: Nauta Design

Exterior styling: Nauta Design

Builder: Baltic Yachts

This was a strong category and the top three finishers were separated by just four points. With My Song, Nauta, Reichel-Pugh and Baltic triumph with things you don’t see: a sophisticated, fully retractable, azimuthing propeller, hydraulic and line runs hidden in the bulwarks to reduce deck thickness, a “crush nose” on the keel bulb to reduce impact and damage of a grounding, and a construction weight-shaving program by the yard that rendered even small parts such as electrical cable trays in carbon fibre. Even the interior has some weight-saving tricks with resin-coated linen used for floors, countertops and bulkheads. In three hours the rig can be switched from a typical cruising mainsail to a flat-topped main and split running backstays for racing. For stowing the 400kg Code Zero racing headsail, a very large drum hidden in the forepeak coils the 55m sail. For cruising, the wide stern creates a sheltered sunbathing area that features hydraulic seating integrated into the flush decks.

Sybaris

Length: 70m

Interior design: PH Design

Exterior styling: Perini Navi

Lighting Specialist: PH Design in collaboration with Lindsey Adelman

Builder: Perini Navi

Reflecting on the fact that lighting can make or break a yacht interior and take its exterior from merely functional to exciting, the ShowBoats Design Awards added this category to the line-up for 2017. The inaugural winner of this award, PH Design, collaborating with Lindsey Adelman, noted that the lighting plan began with the first pencil strokes for the interior, which was planned from the beginning to showcase art amongst subtle finishes. It is the design firm’s first yacht. The judges were impressed with the sophistication of the plan, which in some cases uses asymmetry to give the illusion of extended spaces and floating walls. The use of both uplighting and downlighting for ambient light draws the eye to special pieces and helps direct movement through the yacht and set various moods. Adelman’s seemingly delicate fixtures were modified especially for this project and installed by the renowned artist herself.

PLVS VLTRA - Wellness Centre

Length: 74m

Builder: Amels

Naval architect: Amels

Interior design: Winch Design

Exterior styling: Tim Heywood

Another new category, this one seeks to uncover and celebrate those spaces that give a yacht its joie de vivre. Most of the entries were from fully custom yachts, although the winner, a new model from Amels’ Limited Editions range, shows how a niche feature can be smartly adapted as the length and volume of the vessel grows. Rather than simply increase the size and offerings of the aft beach club on its smaller models, Amels took the bold step of moving it amidships on the lower deck and making it full-beam so that it would be a pleasant space even if wing doors are closed or the yacht is underway. When the yacht was sold during its build, the owners embraced the idea, creating a 75m² wellness space, with every feature from a hammam to a hair studio. At anchor, folding decks put the space in touch with the sea.

9.5 Limousine

Length: 9.5m

Builder: Cockwells

Interior design: Cockwells

Exterior styling: Andrew Wolstenholme

Six entries were declared finalists for this award by the subcommittee and reviewed by the full panel of judges. While several tenders captured their eye, the performance, the simplicity of the forward helm position and the luxury automobile-like interior of the 12-passenger-plus-crew Cockwells 9.5 Limousine won their votes. They especially liked the glass skylight panel and sliding glass access hatch, which help to prevent passengers from feeling a sense of confinement in a vessel that had a contractual low profile of 1.75m to fit a particular tender garage. Carbon composite kept weight to 4 tonnes, while a single Yanmar engine delivers 32 knots at full throttle.

**The two winners of the Young Designer of the Year 2017 are Student Designer, ****Thibaud Le Merdy, and Professional Designer, **Eric Laurent.

You may read more about them here.

PH Design

Yacht: Sybaris

Length: 70m

Three design firms were put forward as finalists for this award, which recognises individuals and companies undertaking their first large yacht project. The judges welcomed and carefully scrutinised their fresh approaches to design and reviewed how their participation factored into the overall project. Sybaris is the first yacht commission for PHDesign, the Miami-based design firm headed by Peter Hawrylewicz, although he has completed residential projects for the yacht’s owner. As well as interior and furniture design, the firm is grounded in architecture, a trifecta of sorts for this project, which presented the team with the envelope of a very powerful sailing machine designed to circumnavigate. The judges applauded the boldness of materials and unique details in the design. “Each environment we create is specific to time and place, but global and hopefully timeless in its appeal,” says Hawrylewicz.

Germán Frers

Naval Architect

Buenos Aires, Argentina

First yacht design: Mirage, 1958

Some people are said to be born with a silver spoon; for Germán Frers it was more like a silver pencil. There was little doubt that Germán would learn naval architecture as his father, also Germán, was a leading figure in sailboat design. He grew up racing dinghies and later crewed on powerful yachts his father designed for offshore races such as Buenos Aires to Rio, the Bermuda Race and Onion Patch, Admiral’s Cup and SORC. Helping in his father’s studio as a draftsman after school, in 1957, the first boat launched to his design. It was a 10 metre offshore yawl and the first fibreglass boat ever built in Argentina. He was just 16. While Germán was still at college, Rod Stephens heard about his talents and invited him to work at the legendary Sparkman & Stephens design firm, where he became one of the principal architects, before establishing an independent studio.

In 1970, however, he returned to Argentina to take up the reins of his father’s studio. His first two yachts for the Argentine Admiral’s Cup team did well and his next big project, the 55 foot Scaramouche, won nearly every race it entered. His designs have won all the major trophies around the world and his client list is a Who’s Who in both racing and luxury cruising circles. Straddling both those worlds, he began designing for Nautor’s Swan in 1979, a relationship that continues to today. In 1989 he moved to Italy to design Raul Gardini’s America’s Cup challenger, and in so doing created Il Moro di Venezia, the fastest challenger of the new America’s Cup class of yachts that replaced the 12 metres in 1992. The Frers team next joined Prada for the 2000 Cup and the Frers-inspired Luna Rossa also won the Louis Vuitton challenger series.

He maintains a design office in Milan, run by his son, naval architect, Germán “Mani” Frers. Together, three men named Germán Frers have designed more than 700 boats. In recent years, Germán’s star shines in the stratosphere of superyachts, from Rebecca and Hyperion in 1999 to Indio in 2009 to 2013’s multi-award-winning Inukshuk, and 2016’s Unfurled, Sailing Yacht of the Year in 2016. We congratulate Germán Frers for his lifetime of yacht design excellence.