February 12, 2005 The winner of the 2004 Concept Boat of the Year competition is 'Dynaplane', a futuristic powerboat, an extremely energy-efficient design that offers significant potential to reduce emissions, yet maintains the ability to achieve high speeds. The design offers reduced fuel consumption and the possibility of using alternative fuel sources such as a fuel cell.
Seeking to inject new dynamism, originality and innovation into boat design, Concept Boat is an annual competition run by the British Marine Federation (BMF) and supported by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. The competition, open to everyone from budding boating designers through to professional naval architects, is to design a boat for the future. Supported by the Environment Agency, the 2004 competition was focused on protecting the environment. Entrants were challenged to design a recreational or commercial craft that makes increased use of renewable resources, is energy efficient or is of a low emission or non-polluting design.
Announced each year at at the Schroders London Boat Show, first prize this year was awarded to Eugene Clement and J Koelbel from North Carolina in the US for their Dynaplane entry.
Second place went to 'Clearwater1', a boat designed to combat the ever-present problem of river pollution. The craft cleans rubbish from rivers, processes the waste onboard, containerises it for disposal and is even able to use the waste as a source of energy. The designers of Clearwater1 were Alejandro Dos Santos, Norberto Fiorentino and Juan Bologna from Buenos Aires in Argentina for their entry.
In joint third place were James Glencross from Edinburgh with his entry 'Hydro Sol' and trio Cristiano Battisti, T Rossetti and M Pizzarello from Rome, Italy with 'Sunflower'. Impressed on a number of counts, judges commended both their efforts to design a craft capable of utilising clean fuels/energy in a stylish package.
Commenting on the strength of the entries, James Gower, Marketing Director of the British Marine Federation said: "We have been amazed at the variety of designs submitted to the competition. The creativity and thought the designers have shown in their entries this year demonstrates a real passion to protect the environment. Everyone has come up with innovative, creative and practical designs. Concept Boat is continuing to go from strength to strength and is now a fully-fledged international competition - hopefully soon we'll see some of the concepts become a reality."
Baroness Young, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, supporters of the 2004 competition added: "It's been great to see such an array of environmentally friendly designs. With entries ranging from a modern day camping boat through to an underwater craft to help with eco-friendly tourism, there were some fascinating ideas. We hope that some of the entrants will go on to take their concepts to the production stage so that they can play a real role in preserving the water environment."
To encourage even more people to enter the 2005 competition, the new theme is 'boating for all' and there are brand new entry categories, such as a category for schools, making the competition more accessible than ever before.
Cult designer Wayne Hemingway has joined the judging panel which is looking for practical, original designs that create a safe, useable, yet stylish vessel of the future.
The new categories are:Concept and Design - detailed designs that have moved beyond pure concept into a developed conceptPure Concept - a simple illustration of a concept boat with a brief written summarySchools - for teams of school children to develop their ideas into concepts, as part of the national curriculum
In addition to the traditional focus of the competition, which continues in the 'Concept and Design' section, the new categories allow amateur designers to convey the concept of their boat through a simple illustration, without the need for in-depth supporting technical information.
Entries to the 2005 school category must be received by the end of April 2005 and for other entries by the end of May 2005. The Concept Boat competition is organised by the British Marine Federation and Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). Entries to design a concept boat of the future were welcomed from all people interested in small craft, whether professional or amateur.