Innovative Outboard Wins DAME R&D Excellence in Adversity Award

Andre Hoek, Chair of the DAME Jury, presented the very special one-off prize to the TEMO 450 electric outboard from TEMO during METSTRADE Connect 2020 today. An incredible result for the French company against a very strong field of 47 entries.

The winning product takes a completely fresh look at how to design an electric outboard and has been introduced to market despite the challenges of 2020. Speaking during the virtual award ceremony, Andre explained: “The TEMO 450 is definitely new and something that none of the Jury members had never seen before. A lot of research and development work was involved, which was our focus for this year’s special award. The TEMO is modern, yet hints at long-tail motors in Asia and sculling oars on the transoms of small dinghies. It's very special and we wish the company a lot of success with this really unique product.”

The DAME Jury also selected four very strong products as close runners-up products:

• Seakeeper 1 from Seakeeper

• OSCAR ONE 320 from BSB Artificial Intelligence

• B&G Nemesis from Navico

• SATELLITE COMPASS™ SCX-20 from Furuno.

The DAME R&D Excellence in Adversity Award replaced the DAME Awards this year once it became clear that it would be completely impractical to bring the usual level of physical scrutiny to bear on many products across several categories. This one-off award was conceived to demonstrate how METSTRADE exhibitors have kept their R&D efforts fully active, despite COVID restrictions.

Commenting on the overall quality of submissions, Andre stated: “Given all of the difficulties of this year, we never expected such a large number of high quality entries. We saw strong evidence of commendable research and development effort in hybrid propulsion systems, marine electronics, electrical installations, fuel cells, dynamic stability, gyros among other areas. Very interesting new products have been developed and launched when people have been working remotely which, I know from the experience of my own design team, is not easy. I'm proud that so many people have entered this year's DAME R&D Excellence in Adversity Award.”

METSTRADE Exhibition Manager, Sarah Westdijk adds:“It’s hard to imagine METSTRADE without the DAME, so we were all very pleased to be able to conceive and run this special R&D focused edition. Our special thanks go to the Jury for being so adaptable at quite short notice and to all companies who entered.”

“The DAME is a truly unique competition with a global reputation which challenges our marine equipment manufacturers to ensure design is present in everything they do. Pushing the boundaries of design is such an important priority for the industry, particularly in a year when many new people have found boating for the first time. We’re already looking forward to celebrating our 30th edition next year in times that will hopefully be much easier for everyone.”

METSTRADE this year was due to celebrate the 30th running of the DAME (Design Award METSTRADE) competition, which typically attracts more than 120 products across seven categories. Logistical and safety concerns made it impossible to proceed with the usual stringent judging arrangements, including physical appraisal. The DAME R&D Excellence in Adversity Award was conceived as a one-off virtually judged replacement to recognise all the many good design achievements of companies across the marine equipment industry in 2020.

The 30th edition of the DAME Awards will now be held as a part of METSTRADE next year. The Jury members will assess a field of entries new to market between 1 September 2019 and 16 November 2021 – a particularly large field of products is therefore expected to compete for this globally recognised prize.

The DAME Jury for this year comprised:

• Andre Hoek, naval architect and yacht designer, founder of Hoek Design, The Netherlands (Chair)

• Elaine Bunting, group editor marine at TI Media and editor of Yachting World, UK

• Davide Cipriani, boat and industrial designer, president of yacht design at Centrostiledesign, Italy

• Ben Ellison, freelance marine technical journalist, Panbo marine electronics hub, USA

• Patrick Hemp, technical manager and trained designer, ICOMIA, South Africa

• David Marsh, independent technical marine journalist and naval architect, UK

• Olivier Racoupeau, naval architect and boat designer, owner of Berret Racoupeau Yachts, France

The DAME Jury was supported by a non-voting secretary – Kim Hollamby of Hollamby Partnership, UK

All 47 entries can be viewed here.