Nominations open for boatbuilder awards

With the 2020 Marine Equipment Trade Show (METSTRADE) cancelled due to COVID-19, IBI and METSTRADE will hold a special one-off virtual edition of the Boat Builder Awards for Business Achievement in 2020. In the abscence of the world’s largest trade exhibition for the international leisure marine industry, the awards event will recognize the challenges, ingenuity, and resolve in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

To be held virtually on December 10, from 4pm-5pm (CET), five awards will be presented, two of which will be new categories spotlighting the industry’s response to the COVID-19. The two new special awards for 2020 will be:

• Exceptional Commercial Achievement In An Unprecedented Year, sponsored by Kohler
This award is for boatbuilders or shipyards that have implemented strategies or protocols that not only protected their business and team but also enabled them to emerge strongly from lockdown.

• Community Support Initiative, sponsored by Fusion
This award is for a boatbuilder or shipyard and its employees who showed great social awareness by channelling resources, expertise or manufacturing capabilities to aid wider community Covid-19 crisis support.

The organizers have also retained the three regular awards that focus very specifically on the industry’s priorities of people, skills and the environment:

• Environmental Initiative, sponsored by Confindustria Nautica
This award recognises boatbuilders that have maintained their focus on sustainability, even in the midst of other challenges. Examples include reducing the environmental impact of production processes or of boats and yachts, recycling initiatives and support of environmental campaigns.

• Rising Star Award, sponsored by Lumishore
Individuals nominated in this category will be aged 35 or under, working for a boatbuilder or shipyard and will have been making a growing impact on any aspect of their business, from design and production, to management, buying and any other boatbuilding discipline. Nominees should be no older than age 35 on December 10, 2020. Top honours in this category last year went to Dominator Yachts’ Angela Pernsteiner and Riviera’s Kyle Davison.

• Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Side-Power
Nominees will have made a significant impact on the boatbuilding or shipyard businesses that they have been associated with in their careers. Past winners have included Azimut’s Paolo Vitelli, Sunseeker founder Robert Braithwaite CBE, David King, the founder of Princess Yachts , Groupe Beneteau’s Annette Roux and the Healy brothers, Robert and William, who founded Viking Yachts.

“In light of the ongoing disruption across the globe, we felt this year’s Awards was the perfect opportunity to highlight the heroic work undertaken by many of our boatbuilders and their employees in keeping the industry moving forward in these uncertain times,” said IBI Editor and Chair of the BBA judging panel, Ed Slack.

Deadline for nominations is November 3: https://bbaentry.co.uk.