The long-awaited Superyacht Design Festival returns for the 2025 edition in the Austrian ski town of Kitzbühel. BOAT brings you all the action live from the slopes...
The Superyacht Design Festival follows the BOAT International Design & Innovation Awards on 2 February, where the winners were crowned in a glamorous ceremony. Attendees can look forward to a packed agenda, with a keynote speech by Yves Béhar on designing the future of luxury on water and a closer look at the interior of the 67-metre Kasper 7 with her designer/owner – followed by the famous Ski Cup.
The festival would not be possible without the support of our valued event partners - as well as our supporting partners - Oliveri, Feadship, KMF, Compass Tenders, F/Yachting, Metrica, Fema Marine, Dunya Yachts, Cantiere Delle Marche, MB92 Group, Paragon Studio, Volvo Penta, Videoworks, Lürssen, Benetti, Ocean Alexander, - as well as our trophy partner - Lasvit.
The Superyacht Design Festival will return to Kitzbühel in 2026 on 1-3 February. A limited number of special price early-bird tickets are on sale now.
Day one
The day kicked off with a welcome coffee and registration at the K3 in Kitzbühel. Guests were then invited to the conference hall, where Shirley Robertson OBE officially inaugurated the event.
The State of Superyachting
Stewart Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, BOAT International
BOAT's editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell kicked off the festival with a detailed insight into the state of the current superyacht fleet, with data from our Global Order Book, powered by BOATPro. He noted that the global fleet of superyachts has grown 611 per cent in the past 40 years, with motor yachts leading the way. Campbell said that Italy tops the leaderboard for both the total length and number of projects under construction – 572 superyachts on its order book with an average length of 38.8 metres – while Turkey's order book has grown 8.9 per cent in 12 months, with 146 projects with an average length of 43.9 metres.
Campbell also drew on the significant increase in semi-custom yachts in build during the Covid years, which now make up over 80 per cent of all boats over 24 metres in build or on water. He added that Germany remains a leader in the market for the very largest yachts, but the Netherlands is challenging its dominance.
Read More/Global Order Book: Full analysis of yachts on order in 2025Shaping horizons: Designing the future of luxury on water
Yves Béhar, Industrial Designer and Founder, Fuseproject
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. 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 recognised him as the “Most Influential Industrial Designer in the World.”
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 discussed the thinking behind his creation and explained how he has drawn on his career in product design to approach the project from a unique perspective. Talking about his concept, Béhar said: "I really wanted to design it for the lifestyle I'm familiar with, which is the ocean, towards community, physically active."
He concluded his panel by stating: "When you ask somebody, 'What is your intent?', you could say, 'What is your design?'. 'What is your plan?' For me, design really accelerates the answers by remaining humanistic and by addressing the paradoxes of modern life. I think design can make a difference in bringing a future that is more sustainable and more enjoyable."
The art of kinetic: Moving sculptures that create waves
Zolty, Artist and Founder, BREAKFAST
Zolty is the visionary artist and founder of BREAKFAST, a fine art studio specialising 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.
In this captivating talk, Zolty unveiled his groundbreaking portfolio, inviting us into the innovative world of kinetic art and revealing how he conceived The Pearl, the world’s largest kinetic sculpture which takes centre stage on new cruise ship Icon Of The Seas. At 15 metres in diametre and composed of 3,000 motorised tiles, it mimics the sea’s movements in real time.
Zolty said: "Oftentimes, people come to me very late in the game and they say, 'I have a rectangle on the wall', or 'I have this space on the floor' and everything's kind of finished. In my dreams and my future, my hope is that there doesn't need to be this separation between architecture, interior design and art. We don't need to put just a piece on the wall itself, the ceiling, but the materials – all of those can change. You can block the sun or let it in just by letting the wall actually change and move."
Driving forward Project Zero’s energy solutions
Bart Bouwhuis and Marnix Hoekstra, Creative Directors, Vripack
Vripack’s creative directors Bart Bouwhuis and Marnix Hoekstra started with an exclusive update on how the new energy technologies from the ground-breaking fossil-fuel-free ketch Project Zero are taking shape. The 69-metre sailing yacht, in-build at Vitters, is a radical open-source project meant to inspire yacht designers to take on what Vripack believes is the superyacht industry’s biggest design challenge yet.
Speaking about the yacht's progress, Bouwhuis said: "It's really getting there. On the deck, the two carbon deck houses are mounted [and] the 38 deck hatches are all in place. Painting is about to start. And the 420 square metres, of which is about 210 squares of wood decking, is about half complete."
The creative directors also explained the rationale behind some of the design features, including the wood of the interior, which is European oak harvested from Slovenia and Croatia, "consciously chosen to avoid shipping wood all over the globe". Bouwhuis continued: "The owner made a conscious choice to accept that nature is not perfect, and it comes with small defects. They were very receptive to having small defects in the wood joiner. With that decision alone, they saved about two-thirds of waste."
The designers explained how the project aims to inspire sustainable marine technology and expanded on Project Zero's energy sources – wind and solar – and the generation of 250 kilowatts of electrical power.
Marnix rounded off the panel by talking about collaboration and how, even with people outside the industry, "if you just all picture the same thing, you can think of things which you've never thought before."
Read More/Exclusive: The inside story of the world's first zero-emission superyachtBOAT Artistry & Craft Awards in association with Parkway England
The first half of the day was closed with the winners of the BOAT Artistry & Craft Awards in association with Parkway England. Now in their second year, the Artistry & Craft Awards celebrate the unique hand-crafted and artisanal objects and details on board the world's finest superyachts. BOAT's group creative director Chris Whale was joined on stage by Parkway England’s CEO Jay Rushton to crown the winners, who were presented with intricate, hand-crafted trophies designed by Nature Squared.
Read More/The winners of the BOAT International Artistry & Craft Awards 2025 revealedYoung Designer of the Year lunch
The Young Designer of the Year lunch, in partnership with Feadship, saw winners and finalists join the shipyard's designer and wider team in an intimate lunch setting to discuss this year's competition and all things superyacht design.
Read More/Aleksandra Orescanin wins Young Designer of the Year Award 2025How to make a horse ‘gallop’ on water – and become the most talked-about event at the Paris Olympics
Morgane Suquart, Naval Architect, MMProcess
Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer, Merchant Navy officer, MMProcess
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 appeared to gallop over the water, powered by a 14-metre-long electric trimaran partly submerged underneath. Innovative Breton naval architect duo, MMProcess explained how they used cutting-edge racing boat technology to create an illusion, how they ended up being more involved in the ceremony than they initially intended and the short timeline of three months for the project, starting only a year before the opening ceremony.
“We’ve worked with Atelier BLAM studio before, but when they came to us, they didn’t tell us that it was a horse at first,” said Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer. "All they asked was if it was possible to move a huge mass of metal over the water and do it invisibly. At first, we decided to make an underwater glider which could move under the water, but it was too late to make it, and too expensive, so in the end we proposed the trimaran and built it in four months to be ready for the first test in July.”
Nuclear-powered luxury yachts: A bold vision or science fiction?
Øyvind Gjerde Kamsvåg, Chief Designer, Ulstein International
Dr. Spyros Hirdaris, Manager, Global Ship Systems Centre (Corporate Technology), ABS
Jo Assael, Ambassador for Technical and Regulatory Affairs, British Superyacht
Wesley Deason, CEO, Emerald Nuclear
Hosted by Lucy Dunn, Content Director, BOAT International
With no one-size-fits-all answer to green propulsion, it is no surprise that the conversation has turned to nuclear - aided by the rise of new, fourth-generation small modular reactors (SMRs) which are compact enough to fit on a luxury yacht. But along with plus points including total energy independence and the fact that nuclear in marine settings is already well-established, nuclear raises many pertinent questions over safety and cost. The conversation also highlighted the need for public education and regulatory updates to facilitate the adoption of nuclear power in marine applications.
They also discussed whether nuclear power needs a rebrand. Øyvind Gjerde Kamsvåg, chief designer at Ulstein International said: "I think it does. It's a heat source. If we burn petrol, gasoline or diesel, we have learned how to convert that into mechanical energy. You convert it just the same way as you burn or make heat from a nuclear reactor. So, it's heat basically – you're just converting it. It's about the conversion of energy. So I think a rebrand would be choice."
Redefining interiors
Nisrine Karagulla, Owner of Kasper 7
In conversation with Cecile Gauert, Editor, BOAT International US Edition
In this fireside chat, interior architect and owner of Kasper 7, Nisrine Karagulla, sat down with Cecile Gauert, Editor of BOAT International US Edition, to share her approach to design on a yacht that is also her family’s home away from home. Practical decisions, a smart lighting plan and pieces of exceptional art and craftsmanship comprise an uncluttered interior that puts guests at ease. One of the BOAT Design and Innovation judges likes to say it is about telling a story, a memorable one that will create emotion. Kasper 7 tells such a story, using all the senses, and her owner shared the story of its design.
Karagulla started by acknowledging Kasper 7's victories at the BOAT Design and Innovation Awards, where she claimed the title of 'Best Interior Design - Motor Yachts, 500GT and above' and 'Best Naval Architecture - Displacement Motor Yachts'. Karagulla said: "I'm really touched and grateful for this award. This recognition is a shared one, so I would like to thank my creative team and collaborators. And a special thanks to my husband, who was always unwavering in his support of the design of Kasper 7."
Gauert asked if there was anything Karagulla would do differently, or advice she would offer to other designers. She replied: "Be flexible because there are a lot of things that you can imagine but you cannot physically do. So flexibility is the first thing that I would say and, of course, give time for the design."
Read More/The winners of the BOAT Design & Innovation Awards 2025 revealedBattle of the bricks
This year our hugely popular design competition went 3D. With the guidance of superyacht model-builder Arjan Oude Kotte, we challenged participants to build a model superyacht (using plastic blocks) while enjoying a few beers.
Festival social
Wrapping up a jam-packed programme of panels and fireside chats, day one finished with the annual Festival Social, which took place at Rosi’s Sonnbergstuben – a cosy, traditional hotel nestled high on the Bichlalm mountain. Guests networked and unwound from the day, enjoying a three-course meal served at the restaurant, a range of drinks and live entertainment.
Day Two
Day two kicked off with another welcome coffee, with guests gathering at the K3 ahead of the first panel of the day.
Sensory superyachts and the rise of the ‘immersive room’
Andrew McNamara, Head of CG, Cinesite
We’ve had virtual, augmented reality, IMAX, video walls and holograms, but now one of the fastest-growing areas in immersive technology is 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. In this illuminating talk, Cinesite’s head of CG, Andrew McNamara took 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.
Examples spanned from immersive galleries to interactive artworks and themed dining experiences. One idea revolved around an interactive viewing deck, which could include panels on the ground of a glass-bottom-type boat.
McNamara provided some key takeaways regarding the use of immersive video. He said: "Engage senses. Audio is really powerful and often underused in these experiences, but it can amplify what you see visually. The audience is a sophisticated consumer of content these days, especially young people, so we always encourage people not to skimp on this aspect of the project. There are a lot of people that can do content, but to raise the bar of what that looks like, you need to find a production partner."
Next-gen composites: What boats could be made of in future
Nico Voorzee, Marine Sales Lead, STRUCTeam
Alessandro Stagni, CTO, Northern Light Composites
Composites are widely utilised in some areas of yachting, allowing for sleek, streamlined designs, reduced weight and enhanced speed. But now, a number of leading-edge startups are developing radical and sustainable next-gen composites, many of which are being developed into exciting prototypes and concepts within the small boat industry. In this presentation, Nico Voorzee, marine sales lead from engineering consultants and composite specialists STRUCteam Ltd., took to the stage to talk us through next-gen alternatives and applications, after which boatbuilding pioneer Alessandro Stagni, CTO of Northern Lights Composites (nlcomp) presented their novel ideas and innovations.
The conversation emphasised the integration of sustainable practices in design, manufacturing and certification, aiming to reduce energy demand and improve operational efficiency.
Voorzee said: "I think this is the key to understanding the complexity of the problem, with several disciplines coming together. In terms of manufacturing, the supply chain, the design, the material – not to forget certification. All these aspects need to fall in place."
My Life In Boats
Andrew Winch, Founder and Trustee Director, Winch Design
In conversation with Stewart Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, BOAT International
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 an 11-metre Swan sailboat, which soon led to bigger projects. Fast forward three decades 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 joined editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell to reflect on a remarkable career at the pinnacle of luxury yacht design.
He started by discussing his early days with Jon Bannenberg. Winch said: "He came to my degree show on the very last day and I asked him for a job. He said, 'No, you go and get some experience, go sailing around the world. Understand what yachts are about. That's when I went across the Atlantic. When I came back, I knocked on his door again and I said, 'I really, really want a job'. Jon's office was the chocolate factory."
Winch also discussed challenges throughout his career where he had to negotiate and manage contracts. One of the projects he mentioned was the famous 55-metre Feadship yacht Tits (now Olympus) built for Prince Jefri of Brunei. He also discussed some of his studio's innovations, citing his exterior and interior design on the 62-metre Feadship yacht Aviva (now Attessa).
He said: "I had some specific requirements. The most important thing he said is, 'I get seasick. Where am I going to put my cabin?'" Winch explained that he ended up putting the owner's cabin on the main deck midships, resulting in him moving the tenders forward. He continued: "Feadship got pretty crazy because I wanted to put the tenders behind doors in the bow, and they said, 'We can't do it, the concave shapes are too much'. But I believe that this was the first boat ever to have garage doors in the bow of the boat."
The speaker emphasised the importance of mentorship, resilience and adaptability in his career. To conclude, Campbell asked what the most important thing he's learned across his career was – to which Winch smiled and replied: "Dancing on tables."
Read More/What's in a name? The story behind Prince Jefri’s fruitily named FeadshipSki Cup
After the presentations, attendees headed out to the slopes to participate in the annual Ski Cup, held in partnership with Lürssen. As well as the Women’s Giant Slalom race, Men’s Giant Slalom and Snowboarding Giant Slalom, there was also a Team Race, which saw participants compete in the final leg of the famous Hahnenkamm run. Victors were crowned with medals and prizes and sprays of champagne. A live DJ set rounded off the festivities.
The Superyacht Design Festival will return to Kitzbühel in 2026 on 1-3 February with limited early-bird tickets available. For more information, please email the events team.
BUY TICKETS