The winners
Each year, owners, designers and builders gather from around the globe to attend the annual World Superyacht Awards. Overseen by an independent panel of judges, who visit yachts personally and scrutinize photos, videos and specs before debating each entrant, there is no higher accolade for a superyacht than winning a coveted Neptune. The ceremony itself is fittingly spectacular too – this year's took place by special arrangement with the Mayor of Venice, at the Arsenale di Venezia, once the hub of Venetian shipbuilding, with welcome drinks at the Palazzo Pisani Moretta. Read on to discover which yachts triumphed - this certainly won't be the last you hear of them…
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
WINNER ALCHEMY
Length 65.7m
Builder Rossinavi
Naval architect Vitruvius Yachts/Rossinavi
Exterior designer Vitruvius Yachts
Interior designer Team for Design - Enrico Gobbi
MOTOR YACHT OF THE YEAR
Each of the winning motor yachts from all of the WSA categories is considered for Motor Yacht of the Year. This year, it was the winner in the second-largest category - Displacement Motor Yachts, 1,000GT to 1,499GT - that the judges deemed most worthy. Proving “biggest isn't always best”, as one judge put it, the 65.7-metre Rossinavi Alchemy stood out to the judges to take home the prestigious Motor Yacht of the Year trophy.
The fully custom tri-deck was conceived by Rossinavi and Philippe Briand of Vitruvius Yachts. Her pièce de résistance, the judges noted, is the suspended glass staircase, a sculptural element that opens up the main saloon and pushes boundaries of a typical general arrangement. The staircase is a work of art in its own right, with white marble steps adorned in leather details floating between two glass partitions.
Besides her striking looks, imaginative layout, flowing interiors, mesmerising staircase and efficient hull form, the judges noted the many small operational details that made Alchemy stand out. For instance, storage is an integral part of the design. A good amount of space was allocated to store watersports equipment that could be easily set up and retrieved by the crew. The experienced owners also requested large pantries, as well as plentiful luggage storage. As one of the judges surmised, “There's nothing not to like on this boat.”
SAILING YACHT OF THE YEAR
Sailing Yacht of the Year is the title bestowed upon the yacht that is considered by the judges to be the most notable of the class winners in two sailing yacht categories. Selecting the winner is not a matter of merely choosing the yacht that won its class by the greatest margin - the judges are required to consider all the other elements that led to their being chosen as class winners. Both Zemi and Sarissa were built with performance sailing and environmental sensitivity in mind. Choosing a winner was no easy task. But it was Sarissa, with her groundbreaking propulsion system, state-of-the-art sails and rig and exquisite interiors by Liaigre, that almost unanimously won out among the judges for the honour of Sailing Yacht of the Year.
The high-performance sloop represents many firsts for her builder and the sailing superyacht fleet writ large. She has the largest square-top mainsail in the world, the largest 3Di RAW sail to the highest spec ever built by North Sails, and it's the first time this type of carbon sail has been used for in-boom furling. Her 76-metre modulus carbon mast with aero Carbon rigging was refined through extensive aerodynamic studies in collaboration with North Sails and has both a lifting keel and a high righting moment configuration. All of this innovation, along with her clean lines, holistic design, organically flowing interior and creative layout with an abundance of exterior living spaces not usually found on a sailing boat made a clear choice for P Sailing Yacht of the Year.
