Superyacht UK Young Designer announced

The Superyacht UK Young Designer Award 2016 has been announced at the 62^nd annual London Boat Show.

Dastinas Steponenas, a final year student of Coventry University, was awarded the prize after 10 students from universities across the UK created entries from scratch over a 36-hour period, live at the London Boat Show.

After being presented with his award at the show’s theatre by leading couture designer, Nicholas Oakwell, Dastinas said, “It’s an absolute honour to win this prestigious award. I’ve had a passion for fine art from a very young age and am really excited about completing my four-week internship at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth.”

The Superyacht UK Young Designer Award aims to raise the profile of essential hand-drawing skills, while also increasing awareness of the marine industry as a potential career option for emerging designers. The judging consisted of three representatives from various well-known British yacht design and naval architecture companies. They were Peter Brown from Burgess, Bill Dixon from Dixon Yacht Design, and Justin Olesinski from Olesinski.

Richard Selby, international development manager for British Marine and Superyacht UK commented, “On behalf of Superyacht UK and our judges, may I pass on our congratulations to Dastinas.

“His award is a true reflection of the hard work that he has put into his studies and we’re thrilled to be able to offer him the opportunity to be recognised by the industry and gain invaluable work experience and contacts. There is such incredible design talent in Britain, and it was a real privilege to be a part of this fantastic competition.”

Mike Carr, joint MD of Pendennis Shipyard and chairman of Superyacht UK (SYUK) added, “Pendennis is delighted to once again support the Superyacht UK Young Designer annual award. We have been impressed by the extremely high level of skill and imagination shown by the competitors.

“When Pendennis was founded 27 years ago, the industry was dominated by hand-drawn designs and production schematics. It is refreshing to be part of a competition that embraces traditional creativity – skills that are just as important to our industry as using modern technology. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Dastinas to Pendennis for his internship later this year.”