Everything you need to know about the Superyacht Design Festival 2025

The next edition of the Superyacht Design Festival will return to the alpine town of Kitzbühel on 2-4 February 2025 and tickets are available to purchase now. The two-day event will see some of the biggest names in design come together with experts from the wider luxury community for exciting discussions, plus a packed social programme and the famous Ski Cup, sponsored by Lürssen. The event will also host the Design & Innovation Awards, the Young Designer of the Year Award, sponsored by Feadship, and the BOAT Artistry and Craft Awards, sponsored by Parkway England.

Ticket information

With early-bird tickets now sold out, general admission tickets for the 2025 edition are now on sale at €1,500 plus VAT and includes access to the whole programme: a two-day conference as well as all social events and the Ski Cup. There is also the option to purchase the social ticket, priced at €999 plus VAT, which includes access to the social events and the Design & Innovation Awards, but does not include the conferences.

BUY A TICKET

The speakers

KEYNOTE: Yves Béhar

Swiss-born American designer Yves Béhar is a sustainability advocate who argues that a designer's role is to create products that are both commercially viable and contribute to social good. As the Founder and CEO of Fuseproject, a San Francisco-based design and innovation studio, he created the iconic Herman Miller Sayl chair and Samsung Frame TV and has developed products for brands such as Jawbone, Kodak, L’Oréal, Prada, PUMA, and SodaStream.

He also led humanitarian projects, such as a partnership with the non-profit The Ocean Cleanup and Proteus, a state-of-the-art underwater research station for the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center. With TELO, his groundbreaking compact design introduces a vehicle that redefines the EV category and transforms urban transit.

Béhar is now turning his attention to yachts with an ambitious new design project that puts sustainability at its heart. Working with Italian shipyard Rossinavi, Solsea is an innovative 43-metre catamaran concept unveiled at December’s Design Miami. In this inspiring keynote, Béhar will discuss the thinking behind his creation, and explain how he has drawn on his career in product design to approach the project from a unique perspective.

Béhar believes design accelerates the adoption of new ideas. His work is included in the collections of major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has received over 300 awards and has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 25 Visionaries. Forbes recognized him as the “Most Influential Industrial Designer in the World.”

View from the top

BOAT 's editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell exclusively opens up the Global Order Book for 2025 and outlines the state of the superyacht industry, bringing key insights into how the superyacht business is evolving.

Applying Project Zero innovation to motoryacht design

Vripack’s creative directors Bart Bouwhuis and Marnix Hoekstra offer an exclusive insight on how the new energy technologies from the ground-breaking fossil-fuel-free ketch Project Zero are transferring into motor yacht design. The 69-metre sailing yacht-in-build at Vitters Shipyard is an open source project meant to inspire yacht designers to radically take on what Vripack believes is their biggest design challenge yet.

Andrew Winch: My life in boats

One of the most celebrated designers of his generation, Andrew Winch started out under the great Jon Bannenberg before setting up his own studio with his wife Jane in 1986. Winch Design's first project was to design the interior and exterior of a Swan 36ft sailboat, which soon led to bigger projects. Fast forward three decades later and Winch Design is now recognised as one of the world’s leading international design studios with a portfolio that spans interiors, exteriors, private aviation and superyachts, including the 83-metre Here Comes The Sun, 60-metre Come Together, 74-metre Cloud 9 (now Samsara) and the 67-metre Sparta. Winch joins editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell to reflect on a remarkable career at the pinnacle of luxury yacht design.

The race for greener propulsion: is nuclear the answer?

From hydrogen to HVO, hybrid to solar, the race to find a green propulsion of the future has dominated the yachting industry for the past few years. Despite much debate, it has yet to land on a one-size-fits-all solution. Could nuclear power be the solution? In this insightful discussion, key experts, designers and regulatory experts get to grips with this complex issue and discuss possible technologies, opportunities, key challenges and safety concerns. The panellists include: Wesley Deason, manager of Pylon Program, Ultra Safe; Jo Assael, Yachts Commercial Director, International Registries Inc; Øyvind Gjerde Kamsvåg, chief designer, Ulstein International and Dr. Spyros Hirdaris, Manager, Global Ship Systems Centre (Corporate Technology), ABS.

The art of kinetic: moving sculptures that create waves

Zolty is the visionary artist and founder of BREAKFAST, a fine art studio specializing in digitally controlled kinetic art and sculpture. With a team of highly skilled engineers and specialists, BREAKFAST has crafted over 300 kinetic masterpieces that now enhance some of the most prestigious collections worldwide, including those at Harvard University, Rockefeller Center, and Tiffany & Co.

From Interwoven Existence, a kinetic flip-disc artwork showcased at this year’s Venice Biennale, to The Pearl, the world’s largest kinetic sculpture—a 15-meter diameter marvel composed of 3,000 motorized tiles that mimic the sea’s movements in real-time—Zolty’s work is at the cutting edge of artistic and technological innovation. In this captivating talk, Zolty will unveil his groundbreaking portfolio, inviting us into the innovative world of kinetic art.

Next-level superyacht interiors: rise of the immersive video room

We’ve had virtual, augmented reality, IMAX, video walls and holograms, but now one of the fastest-growing areas in immersive technology are installations where video comes to life and cinematography, sound design, and visual effects work together to create spaces so realistic and enveloping you can’t help being drawn into the experience.

Cinesite is one of the leading companies specialising in visual effects and animation for film, television, streaming media and immersive entertainment, with a collaborative partnership with award-winning art gallery, Frameless London. In this illuminating talk, Cinesite’s head of CG, Andrew McNamara will take us on a journey to the realms of where immersive film can go, and how it could be used to create extraordinary, one-of-a-kind interiors.

The end of GRP? What boats could be made of in future

Glass reinforced plastic (GRP), widely used since the 1960s in boat manufacturing, is renowned for its durability and low-impact manufacturing. However, it can be expensive to recycle or dispose of properly.  Now, a number of leading-edge startups are developing radical new alternatives, many of which are being developed into exciting prototypes and concepts within the small boat industry. Could we see some of this out-of-the-box thinking filter down into superyachting? First up, Nico Voorzee marine sales lead from engineering consultants and composite specialists STRUCteam Ltd will take to the stage to talk us through the next-gen alternatives and applications, after which boatbuilding pioneer Alessandro Stagni, CTO, nlcomp will present their novel ideas and innovations. 

How to make a horse ‘gallop’ on water - and become the most talked-about event at the Paris Olympics

Without doubt, one of the highlights of this summer’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony was a masked woman riding a metallic horse along the River Seine.The stunning silver leaf horse was designed by French design agency Atelier Blam, but the really clever bit was how it worked - for hidden underneath the horse was a 14 metre-long, semi-submerged, electric trimaran designed by the innovative Breton naval architects, MMProcess. The innovative flotation system was specially designed for the event, took a year to complete and tests were carried out in the greatest secrecy in the middle of the night.

In this insightful talk, MMPProcess co-founders Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer and Morgane Suquart will explain how they used cutting edge racing boat technology to create an illusion that the animal was ‘flying’ on the waves - and how they ended up being more involved in the ceremony than they initially intended…

The location

Known for its charming medieval town centre, fantastic slopes and vibrant nightlife, the Superyacht Design Festival was first held in Kitzbühel in 2016. Following previous successful editions, the event is returning to the Austrian town by popular demand. It will take place across multiple venues within the town centre to create an informative, diverse and entertaining event, with many recommended hotels nearby.

Travel information

The Superyacht Design Festival will be held in Kitzbühel, which is easily accessible from Salzburg, Innsbruck and Munich airports. There are many direct flights to these airports at the height of the ski season. Booking your flights early and any additional required transportation is encouraged to secure the best rates and guarantee availability. See below the distance from each of the nearby airports.

• 74km from Salzburg Airport, approximately 1hr 10mins drive
• 97km from Innsbruck Airport, approximately 1hr 20mins drive
• 174km from Munich Airport, approximately 2hr 5mins drive

We strongly recommend you book transfers with world leader Ski Lifts, known for its reliability, punctuality and excellent customer service. Able to get you to and from Kitzbühel safety and on time, BOAT International has negotiated discounted prices that you can book here.

Recommended hotels

BOAT International has secured some preferential rates at partner hotels for attendees of the Superyacht Design Festival. All of the selected hotels are within close proximity to the event locations in Kitzbühel. View the hotel rates here.

If you have any questions about the Superyacht Design Festival 2025, please don't hesitate to contact the events team.