Eugene Clement and J Koelbel from North Carolina, USA have won first prize in the BMF Concept Boat competition for their entry ‘Dynaplane’.

This year’s competition was supported by the Environment Agency and was focused on protecting the environment. Entrants were challenged to design a recreational or commercial craft that made increased use of renewable resources, was energy efficient or was of a low emission or non-polluting design.

At an awards ceremony held at the Schroders London Boat Show earlier today Clement collected a cheque for £5,000 for the futuristic powerboat which the judges praised as an extremely energy efficient design that offers significant potential to reduce emissions, yet maintains the ability to achieve high speeds. The design offers reduced fuel consumption and the possibility of using alternative fuel sources such as a fuel cell.

Second prize of £3,000 was awarded by Baroness Barbara Young to Alejandro Dos Santos, Norberto Fiorentino and Juan Bologna from Buenos Aires in Argentina for their entry ‘Clearwater1’. The design is a river pollution solution which recognises the fundamental importance of good quality water to communities. The craft cleans rubbish from rivers, processes the waste onboard, and then containerises it for disposal. It is even able to use the waste as a source of energy.

In joint third place were James Glencross from Edinburgh with his entry ‘Hydro Sol’ and trio Cristiano Battisti, T Rossetti and M Pizzarello from Rome, Italy with ‘Sunflower’. Impressed on a number of counts, judges commended both their efforts to design a craft capable of utilising clean fuels/energy in a stylish package. Both Glencross and the Italian trio were awarded £1,000.

The competition, which will be run again this year, is open to everyone from budding boating designers through to professional naval architects. To encourage even more entries the new theme is ‘boating for all’ and there are brand-new entry categories, such as a category for schools. For more information about the competition and how to enter, log onto conceptboat.com.