The Concept Boat competition provides opportunity for keen designers, both amateur and professional, to present ideas which are full of innovation and imagination.
The 2007 brief called for new designs of recreational or commercial craft of up to 24m in length that will make best use of time whether afloat, enjoying or using the boat, or accessing or launching the boat.
This year saw 10 entries shortlisted with a strong international representation: two British entries and then entries from Italy, America, Ukraine, Thailand, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Germany.

The overall winner of the competition was Stefanie Kruicke from Germany with her design Kite Sailing Yacht ‘Kitano’. Judges were particularly impressed with this design, deciding to award Stefanie first prize for the Pure Concept Category, as well as naming her the winner of the overall competition.
Judges described Stefanie’s work as ‘An elegant, eye-catching, powerful, purposeful and thoroughly modern design, capturing the growing trend to harness nature’s energy in novel ways.’

Overall, Stefanie was said to have entered ‘an excellent effort, combining design and boat design to produce a worthy winner with potential for the future.’ On collecting her award Stefanie said: “I am surprised to receive this but am delighted with the positive feedback and am pleased that people have enjoyed m design so much. This design was part of my industrial design diploma and I hope to go onto bigger things. I have always loved sailing and it was always my intention to design boats. This is my first effort and I hope this will be the future.”

Past runner-up of three Concept Boat competitions was David Hitchin with his design ‘Wet n’ Dry Catamaran’.
Due to an exceptionally high standard of entries this year, two designs shared the winning prize fund of the Design & Concept category.

John Zimmerlee from America was honoured with his design ‘Versa’. Judges commented that the design was a clear improvement of previous designs and ‘is now a proven prototype with good prospect to be commercially viable.’ Sharing the honours was Britain’s Antony Harman with the Kayak Cycle. Judges stated that the eye-catching design was a ‘well thought through design’ with a ‘pleasing shape and good use of resources’.The winners were presented with cheques amounting to £7,000 from Sue Baggaley of CSL Publishing as well as Nik Parker, BMF Technical Director.

This is the final year of the successfu Concept Boat competition. Since its debut in 2002, hundreds of exceptional entries have been received and many designers have benefitted from the competition, whether by investing the prize into further research and development or using the award as an opportunity for future careers in design.

The British Marine Federation is looking at new ways to encourage innovation within the industry and to market the industry and bring boating to the mainstream press and is looking forward to announcing these new channels soon.
Overall winner of the Concept Boat competition, Stefanie Kruicke from Hanover, Germany, with her kite boat 'Kitano'.