Each year Oceanco, the Dutch superyacht builder sponsors of the annual “Young Designer of the Year” Award, a competition,
The competition, celebrates the best of superyacht design. Eligible student and trainee designers under the age of 25 must submit a design that relates to a realistic client request. They are encouraged to exhibit detailed technical and design skills. The entries are judged by a group of international superyacht designers.
This year as in every other year the builders hosted the six finalists who had competed for the trophy on a tour of Holland and their shipyard.
The international group of young designers were:
- Lujac Desautel
- Dennis Dreier
- Graham Kukla
- Raphaël Laloux
- Jiantao Zhu
- Daniel Zoghby
They arrived in Amsterdam and were accompanied by Oceanco’s Paris Baloumis, Patrick Casanova, Iris Bosschaart and Robert Tan to a welcome dinner at the I-Dock restaurant.
The next morning, the group was shuttled from Amsterdam to the Oceanco facilities.
Upon arrival, the finalists toured the facilities and conversed about the industry’s first fully Passenger Yacht Code (PYC) compliant yacht.
Afterwards, the finalists were taken on a high speed thrill ride to Rotterdam via RIB tender and were hosted to lunch at Hotel New York-an historic landmark building that used to be the headquarters of the Holland America Line.
The group was returned to Amsterdam where they took part in a tour of the Heineken Brewery also referred to as the Heineken Experience.