Philanthropic design took centre stage at this year’s annual Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition 2018, in partnership with Pendennis Shipyard and Olesinski, as Thomas Scowcroft, a promising young design talent from Merseyside, competed in the prestigious event at London Boat Show last week (Thursday 11 January 2018).
Hand-picked to compete out of university students from across the UK, Katherine, a product design student from the University of Central Lancashire, impressed the judges with his creativity, ingenuity and engineering capabilities.
The prestigious annual Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition is run by industry representatives, Superyacht UK, an association of British Marine. It is the only competition of its kind in the UK and is among a select few across the world to recognise future design talent and provide them the opportunity to truly grow such talent within the industry. The competition is judged by a world-class panel of designers and superyacht experts, including Chairman of Superyacht UK, Peter Brown from Burgess, Stephen Hills from Pendennis Shipyard, Justin Olesinski from Olesinski, Tony Dixon of RWD, Bill Dixon of Dixon Yacht Design, Dimitris Hadjidimos of D-iD Limited and former Superyacht UK Young Designer 2016 winner, Dastinas Steponenas.
This year’s design competition was unlike any other. Rather than being greeted with a blank piece of paper, the 10 competing students from Coventry University, Southampton Solent University, Staffordshire University, University of Central Lancashire, University of Plymouth and University of Wales, Trinity St David were tasked to transform a 52.12m ex-navy vessel, the Ocean Star, into a bespoke superyacht.
It was a tight race which left the judges divided, but in the end two young designers shone out from the rest. Christopher Mobley, a transport design student from Staffordshire University was crowned the winner, whilst Ashley Scott, a product design student from the University of Plymouth, secured the title of runner up.
Thomas was tasked with designing the ideal superyacht for a proclaimed philanthropist, looking for the prefer vessel to support research into the problem of plastics in our oceans, whilst also offering luxury transport to peruse his passion for adventurous and unique holidays.
Peter Brown, Chairman of Superyacht UK, comments: “Both Christopher and Ashley’s designs were sympathetic to the DNA of the original vessel whilst still coming up with innovative designs truly encompassing the character of the brief. A huge congratulations to all the students who were selected to compete in this year’s competition.”
“It is great to see so much up and coming talent from our British universities and we hope this competition has helped inspire these students with the diversity and wonders of a career in the superyacht sector and the connections and experiences they have gained throughout the competition prove fruitful. We look forward to seeing these students, and many more like them, driving forward Britain’s superyacht powerhouses in the future.”
On competing in the competition, Thomas Scowcroft, remarks: “Competing in the Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition was a learning curve. It was a brand new experience for me and I will be taking away a lot of new skills and knowledge.”
VIEW highlights of the Superyacht UK Young Designer competition, in partnership with Pendennis Shipyard and Olesinski.