Oceanvolt’s HighPower ServoProp 25 was the overall winner of the DAME Design Awards at METSTRADE 2023

The DAME Design Awards 2024 is now open for nominations. Launched in 1991 to promote and recognise the best-designed products at METSTRADE, the DAME Design Awards are some of the most coveted prizes in the leisure marine industry.

A panel of jury members assesses each entry’s total design, including aesthetics, functionality, efficiency, environment and innovation. The awards highlight the efforts of manufacturers that bring new design concepts to market and recognise incremental design improvement of equipment that has been in use for years or decades.

Entrants are directly contributing to providing better watersports holidays and experiences for people with disabilities through Dutch charity SailWise.

DAME Design Awards 2024 entries open

METSTRADE exhibitors are encouraged to submit entries online until the 16 September 2024 deadline. A month-long process of virtual and physical assessment will follow, led by the jury, which comprises boat, interior and industrial designers, and user experts. In a final two-day product inspection meeting at RAI Amsterdam, the jury selects a nominated shortlist of entries, before identifying the best product in each category. An eventual DAME Design Awards overall winner is chosen from this list.

All DAME-nominated products enjoy from a high-profile presence in METSTRADE’s Hall 13. In the past ten years, more than 500 products have been nominated and showcased in this way.

Category winners and the DAME Design Awards overall winner are announced at the METSTRADE ICOMIA Breakfast Briefing in front of leading industry players on the show’s first day. The DAME jury also awards a series of special mentions and a discretionary Environmental Design Winner.

DAME Design Award categories

Metstrade Dame Design Awards

The DAME Design Awards categories were revised in 2023 to bring them in line with the latest industry trends. This year’s categories are:

Personal equipment; comfort & entertainment afloat; navigation & communication; electronic & electrical systems; propulsion & dynamics; deck equipment; security & safety aboard; shoreside equipment & materials.

The jury will additionally name a product from among the field of DAME Design Awards nominations as an Environmental Design Award winner if it finds a product that has “clear and obvious” merit.

DAME 2024 chosen charity

Each year, all DAME entrants pay a fee to submit their products, which is donated directly to a charitable cause chosen by the METSTRADE exhibition committee from a list of applications.

METSTRADE has chosen SailWise as the DAME Award charity for 2024. This Dutch organisation provides active multi-day water sports activities for those with disabilities. Each year, more than 1,500 people aged between 10-90 participate at Robinson Crusoe Island, its watersports centre in the Loosdrechtse Plassen, located to the south of Amsterdam, and on its specially adapted two-masted clipper.

Lisette Koopmans has a disease that affects her muscles and is a regular visitor to Robinson Crusoe Island: “When I am sailing, I leave my disability on the jetty. That’s how free I feel in an adapted sailing boat from SailWise,” she says.

The 2024 DAME Design Awards proceeds will be applied directly to provision of a new, low maintenance and long-term sustainable jetty and terrace on the wheelchair-accessible Robinson Crusoe Island, in time for the April-November 2025 season.

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