A modern proa-style folding yacht has today won top prize at the London Boat Show’s Concept Boat 2002 feature.

The competition, jointly organised by the British Marine Federation and Royal Institution of Naval Architects and launched back in September 2001, was formulated to “show not just the global small craft industry, but the whole marine industry, what they want to be navigating in this new millennium”.

Substantial cash prizes of £5,000, £3,000 and £1,000 were offered for first through third places. A theme of ‘transportable’ boats was chosen although the parameters were only loosely defined to allow for sail and power entries with leisure and commercial applications.

The competition eventually drew a field of just under 100 entries, mainly from the UK but with a significant international field. Entrants included professional naval architects and students as well as many amateurs.

The winner was a design called Jasmin, a simple folding multihull sailing yacht with berths for four designed by Gray Treadwell of New Zealand, who works in the computer industry. Similar to a proa with a main hull and outrigger, both hulls are configured to nest together when folded to make them easier to transport on a trailer. A single beam connects the hulls and a degree of articulation is allowed, to enable the hulls to ride waves independently of each other.

The panel of judges was headed by the BMF’s recently retired technical manager Tom Nighy and included naval architects Tom Dinham-Peren, Lorne Campbell and Andrew Wolstenholme plus BMF Marketing Committee chairman David Lewin and ybw.com’s Group Editor Kim Hollamby. They were said to be “impressed with several aspects of Jasmin: its transportability, rig, performance, outrigger linkage, uninterrupted accommodation, and sheer innovation. There were a number of queries arising from the design but it was thought that these would be resolved as the project progressed.”

Second place was taken by UK-based Chris Laughton’s Rocat, a catamaran designed for skulling on all waters including the open sea and third was awarded to the Boxcat, a flood relief craft designed to be transported in its own 20ft container.

The BMF and RINA are very encouraged by the results and have already announced Concept Boat 2003 which broadens the remit even further, giving entrants a blank canvas for producing concepts for any leisure or commercial craft up to 24m length with the emphasis on new solutions and uses.

Full details of the 2002 entries and 2003 terms and conditions on the Concept Boat website .