Staffordshire University student Oliver Rommelrath has been crowned the winner of the 2023 Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition.

Sponsored by recruitment firm, Marine Resources, the results were revealed on Thursday (21 September 2023) at the Southampton International Boat Show. Second place went to Ben Kenward from Coventry University and third place to Dhruv Raajput, also from Coventry University.

“This is fantastic, I really didn’t expect it,” says Rommelrath of his win. “This is the first time doing a superyacht design and winning feels like a great achievement.  It has really been heads down right from the start and although the process is exactly the same as my other design work, there have been challenges such as working out how to fit the exterior design around the interior design. 

“I knew from the start I wanted to do a motor yacht and once I had the brief, I had a vision in my head of how it would look.  As for the prize, I’m going to sleep on it before I decide, but I am definitely going to have a smile on my face on my drive home.”

Along with the winners’ title, Rommelrath can now choose from either an internship with naval architect Olesinski or UK boat builder Sunseeker, with the runner-up taking advantage of the other internship.

Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition winner

Getting underway on Tuesday 19 September, judges Justin Olesinski, managing director at Olesinski and Douglas Hynd, senior project manager at RWD provided the competitors with an overview of what to expect and outlined the competition brief which had been created by the judging panel.

The competitors were given a day and a half to produce a profile illustration/drawing of the vessel, a block General Arrangement (GA) drawing defining the general space allocation and detailed sketch developments (including 3D illustrations as appropriate) illustrating at least three unique selling points of their proposal, which they then presented to the judges on the final morning of the competition.

Before revealing the 2023 winner, Stephen Hills, chairman of Superyacht UK and one of the judges for the competition said: “These young designers have produced a really impressive body of work; from a blank piece of paper to these fantastic outputs on display is incredible. The judges have been really impressed by the diversity of the designs and commend everyone for using their imagination and for the quality of their designs in such a short space of time. We were all also incredibly impressed with how everyone presented their designs to the judges.

“It was incredibly hard to pick a winner, but the top three really stood out for the judges. We loved everything about Dhruv’s design, there was an excellent level of detail and mature design. Ben showed real imagination and quality of visualisation, whilst the judges loved the profile drawings presented by Oliver. His designs quickly caught the judges’ eyes and stood out, with exceptional quality of line, fantastic.”

James Ward, founder and CEO of Marine Resources, says: “We are absolutely thrilled to support this event. It is vital for the industry and showcases the talent that is out there outside of the industry and it is key that we seek to attract this talent to the sector. None of these designers come from a marine background, these amazing designs have come purely from talent. It is important to keep supporting events of this nature and providing these opportunities, so we are delighted to be involved.”

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