Left,fromtop:Guehen
Lee, Damien Bovie, who
won Best Professional in
theBoat International
YoungDesignerofthe
Year Award, and 2017
winner Eric LaurentThe first day was capped of with a high-
speed RIB ride into the centre of Rotterdam,
and a meal at Brasserie Kaat Mossel.
On the second day the group was joined
by more than a dozen finalists from previous
years at the R A AF Rotterdam creative
centre. Representatives from Oceanco,
Bolidt, Jean Boulle Luxury, Waterstudio NL
and BMT Group gave presentations on the
evolving nature of the industry before Peter
Economides of Fenix BNI explained the day’s
task – to design the ideal superyacht for a
millennial owner : an 80-140 metre yacht with
a focus on transparency, sharing, connectivity
and artificial intelligence. The young designers
had 45 minutes to conceive an exterior design,
support platform, hospitality areas and client-
facing systems and then pitch their ideas. The
expert judging panel was impressed by the
volume of fresh ideas generated in such a short
space of time.
Paris Baloumis, group marketing manager
at Oceanco, said: “The number of billionaires
worldwide continues to rise and yet the
number entering our industry is not increasing
at the same rate. Not all owners know what
they want until they see it and that’s why
young designers have to be provocative and
not reactive.”T
he two-day event, which ran from
18 to 19 April and was jointly
organised by Oceanco and Bolidt,
allowed the next generation of superyacht
designers to freely share ideas with their
peers and industry experts.
Day one began with a private tour of
Oceanco’s headquarters in Alblasserdam
for the finalists of the 2018 Young Designer
of the Year Award: Nicolò Piredda, Damien
Bovie, Aristotelis Betsis, Gianmarco Cardia,
Francesco Conte, Yilin Huang, Elizabeth
Kozlova, Guehun Lee and Filippo Phelan.
The young designers pitched their ideas
to Oceanco’s senior management before
working together on a case study to design
the perfect owner and viewing a superyacht
in build.
Bolidt , the parent company of Esthec, has
created synthetic decking for high-profile
yachts including Okto, and Madame Gu.
The designers toured its in-house research
and development department, which is
working on security sensor decking.
The group was given the chance to create
a self-levelling floor by mixing diferent
coloured pourable synthetic resins. Next
year’s event will take in the new Bolidt
experience centre, due to open in early 2019.My generation
Some of the brightest prospects in the superyacht industry converged on Rotterdam
for the second edition of The Annual Young Designers Getaway