Young Designer of the Year Award finalists visit Oceanco

15 May 2014 • Written by Risa Merl

Finalists of the Young Designer of the Year Award visited superyacht builder Oceanco's facilities in The Netherlands this week.

Part of the ShowBoats Design Award, hosted by Boat International Media, the Young Designer of the Year Award seeks to recognise young superyacht design talent. The competition is open to student and trainee designers under the age of 25 who must submit a design that meets a realistic client brief. Entries are judged by a group of international superyacht designers.

Oceanco is sponsor of the Young Designer of the Year competition and welcomed the six finalists who had competed for the award, Lujac Desautel, Dennis Dreier, Graham Kukla, Raphaël Laloux, Jiantao Zhu and Daniel Zoghby. Raphael Laloux won the Young Designer of the Year Award for his Project Symphony, pictured above.

The Young Designer of the Year winner and finalists were accompanied by Oceanco's Paris Baloumis, Patrick Casanova, Iris Bosschaart and Robert Tan to a welcome dinner, then visited the Oceanco shipyard the next day. The finalists toured facilities and discussed the first fully Passenger Yacht Code (PYC) compliant yacht, superyacht project PA164, which Oceanco launched this year. The finalists also enjoyed a high-speed ride in a RIB tender to Rotterdam to have lunch at the Hotel New York before returning to Amsterdam for a tour of the Heineken Brewery.

By sponsoring the competition, Oceanco hopes to encourage young talent with innovative views on yacht design. says ‘Winning this prestigious award is an important milestone in the career of student and trainee designers,' Dirk de Jong, Manager Project Development and Innovation at Oceanco. 'Their fresh interpretation of the ultimate luxury in yachting and lifestyle onboard often offers an original look at standard requirements and new trends. At Oceanco, we follow new design talent with great interest and are pleased to be able to encourage and celebrate the vision of young designers.’

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