Oceanco, the sponsor of the annual ‘Young Designed of the Year‘ awards, a design competition organised by ShowBoats Design Awards, presented by Boat International Media, is proud to host the finalists of this prestigious award, aimed at young aspiring designers aged 25 and under.
Oceanco Young Designers
The yacht designs submitted must correspond to the requirements, such as being created for a realistic client request. The designers are asked to showcase their detailed technical and design skills. The concepts entered are judged by a panel of international superyacht designers, including the Oceanco Director of Design & Innovation, Dirk de Jong.
This year, the group of young designers arriving from various countries to Amsterdam, included Baoqi Xiao, Lujac Desautel, Leah Gowoon Park, Ben Hills and Marlene Ratajska. They arrived on 17th May and were greeted by Oceanco’s Marketing team, which was followed by a dinner at Lotti’s, a bistro on Amsterdam’s historic Herengracht canal.
The following day, the group went to Oceanco where they were welcomed by Patrick Casanova, the Head of Design, as well as Dirk de Jong, Director of Design & Innovation. The young designers had the possibility to talk about their projects in detail with Patrick and Dirk and, in turn, they were provided with practical feedback, based on real life examples.
The finalists then went on a tour of Oceanco facilities including the new state-of-the-art building and dry dock, which is expressly designed to accommodate yachts up to 140 meters in length. They got a feel for the unique projects that are currently under construction at Oceanco.
During and after lunch, Martin Selles, Oceanco’s Head of Fleet Support talked about how the yachts are utilised, and-and provided the group with information on the operational side of yachts as well as with examples of functional design elements.
The tour ended with a meeting with Bolidt, experts in synthetic and ecological materials. The designers discovered and experienced innovative applications through a workshop where they had to create some new deck designs.
It is in Oceanco’s DNA to be open to innovative ideas and to embrace forward thinking technology. By sponsoring the “Young Designer of the Year Award,” Oceanco hopes to encourage young designers to express a fresh and original approach to yacht design and get a step closer to joining the yachting industry.
