Bill Dixon, Chairman of the Jury of the DAME, presented the Award to the winner of the prestigious prize at the start of METS this morning. An excerpt of the Jury Report on the DAME winner:

Overall Winner of the DAME Award 2010 is the Seldén Reversible Winch of Seldén Mast AB. The Jury felt that this winch would have the largest impact on the leisure marine industry and would appear on many sailing boats in the future. By backing the line off the winch instead of easing it by hand, there is greater safety for the operator. The backwind is operated from a push button in the handle of the winch, making it far more intuitive than a more conventional style winch that may use a switch located in the bottom non-turning part of the drum. Being hand operated ensures that the winch does not need additional below deck space and makes a winch retrofit extremely easy. When using the winch in either direction the line is captured by self-tailing device which sheds line easily when the winch is in the backwind mode.  Seldén Mast can be found at METS in stand no. 09.204

Presentation of the DAME Award.Winner 2010 Seldén mast by the chairman of the Jury Bill Dixon to Peter Rönnbäck and design engineer Jan Karlsson

The DAME Award’s Jury chairman, Bill Dixon, commented on the opportunities of the nominations, “On this 20th anniversary, I was delighted to see the number of new companies to METS that had also put products up for these awards among the 132 entries. One can see the tremendous effort that the nominees have put into identifying new product opportunities, and then ensuring that these designs meet the ever more demanding customer expectations. These are the products that we hope will excite the end user, to invest both in new boats and equipment, all designed to enhance the overall experience of today’s demanding boater.”

Overall DAME Winner 2010

Seldén Reversible Winch
Seldén Mast AB – Sweden

This year’s Category Winners are:

Marine electronics:
ZS RopeSense
Spinlock Ltd. – United Kingdom

Interior equipment, furnishings, materials and electrical fittings used in cabins:
BARIGO STEEL MEL
BARIGO Barometerfabrik GmbH – Germany

Deck equipment, sails, and rigging:
Seldén Reversible Winch
Seldén Mast AB – Sweden

Life saving and safety equipment:
Jet-trak
Global Marine Tracking Systems S.L. (Seetrac) – Spain

Machinery, propulsion, mechanical and electrical systems and fittings:
Panda 45 i PMS generator
Fischer Panda GmbH – Germany

Marine related software:
Marine: Mediterranean HD
NAVIONICS S.p.a. – Italy           

This year’s special certificates were awarded to:

‘Most ECO-Friendly Product’ certificate:
CONVERTER NV SERIES
Officine Meccaniche Pejrani S.r.l. – Italy

‘Most Innovative Product’ certificate:
Marine: Mediterranean HD
NAVIONICS S.p.a. – Italy

‘Most Innovative Product’ certificate:
SiMON2 (squared)
Palladium Technologies, Inc. – United States

The 20th annual Design Award METS competition attracted a total of 132 products from 19 countries. A total of 63 products were short listed for final consideration in 2010 and these are the ‘Nominated’ products that appear in the DAME stand at METS. From these the Jury selected the Overall DAME Winner, together with 6 outright Category Winners, one special certificate for ‘Most ECO Friendly’ and two for ‘Most Innovative’ product and 14 Special Mentions.

When making any assessment under the DAME rules the most important aspect, central to the final judgement, is design in its fullest context — the degree to which the overall styling, construction, functionality (the capability of the product in relation to its intended use) and level of innovation are seen as equally balanced features of the entry. Originality, use and ease of human operation are also taken into account, as well as other considerations such as the ratio of price to performance.

DAME participants support Whisper Boat Building Academy
All participating companies paid a non-refundable registration fee per product entered to support a worthy charity. This year Whisper Boat Building Academy (WBBA) in South Africa, the only boat building school for people with disabilities, received a cheque of 19,800 Euros. The WBBA helps deaf, previously disadvantaged, South African young people acquire learning and skills in composite construction and boatbuilding. The DAME proceeds will be used to fund development of a skills programme with learning aids suited to deaf students, and to train teachers and interpreters

About METS incorporating SuperYacht Pavilion
METS, the world’s largest trade exhibition of equipment, materials and systems for the international marine leisure industry, is organised by Amsterdam RAI in association with the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA). The show’s target groups are yacht builders, naval architects, repair yards, distributors, dealers, wholesalers, captains, marina operators and equipment manufacturers from around the world.

The SuperYacht Pavilion is the central platform for the worldwide super yacht industry and a ‘’show within a show’’ at METS.