Project Utopia wins SYOG award for Superyacht Design of the Future

The Monaco Yacht Show 2011 saw the launch of the SuperYacht Owners' Guide (SYOG) awards.

BMT Nigel Gee, a subsidiary of BMT Group, picked up the award for “Superyacht Design of the Future” for their avant-garde concept design Project Utopia, developed in partnership with Yacht Island Design and unveiled at the event last month.

The latest edition of the SYOG included a six page editorial on the future of Superyacht design. Three designers exclusively provided us with their thoughts and let us in on some of their unique concepts. Rainsford Mann Design (RMD) talked about their futuristic 100m creation ‘Project Basilisk’, and Clifford Denn provided a piece on The Oasis 200, a 200m yacht which includes a potential SBM Offshore berthing solution.

In the end however, it was Project Utopia that won over our judges.

James Roy, Yacht Design Director at BMT Nigel Gee picked up the award from Jack Robinson, Head of Commercial at the SYOG. He explained: “The level of enthusiasm around Project Utopia has been overwhelming and it’s great that the judging panel of these awards has recognised and duly credited the concept as a real and possible vision of the future. The origin of Utopia came from a client’s brief which was to have ‘a piece of floating real estate that could be moved between nice locations’. I remember very clearly a moment of excitement when the design team realised that the project would not necessarily have to end up looking like a traditional yacht. However, that particular brief evolved into a need to travel at speed, which forced the design into a more traditional form”.

Measuring 100m in length and breadth, and spanning over 11 decks with the equivalent volume of a present day cruise liner, there is enough space to create an entire micronation. The Project Utopia design is based on a four legged platform employing the same principals of any small waterplane area design for minimum motions in even the most extreme sea conditions. Each leg supports a fully azimuthing thruster and with four such units, the design can redeploy between desired locations at slow speeds. A large central structure bisects the water surface acting as the conduit for the mooring system which is a critical element of the design, as well as housing a wet dock for access by tenders. In addition to tender access the design features multiple helicopter pads.

We are pleased to be able to acknowledge the innovative talent within the industry currently, and look forward to what the future holds for Superyacht design.