The Honours: Celebrating the Inspirational Voices of Superyachting at the 2023 Monaco Yacht Show

From groundbreaking designs and cutting-edge innovations to spectacular dedication and unwavering commitment, the superyacht industry is renowned for being a powerhouse. Design, sustainability, philanthropy, the list goes on in regards to how the industry continues to break boundaries to achieve the unprecedented. However, more often than not, these huge ideas and remarkable movements do not come with the appreciation for the minds, hands and bodies that work tirelessly behind the scenes to bring the industry to life.

In a monumental effort to recognise the people behind the superyacht industry, The Honours is a brand new awards ceremony taking place the evening before the official start of the 2023 Monaco Yacht Show. Founded from those within the very heart of the industry, from designers to superyacht builders, the brand new awards ceremony is a chance to applaud and showcase a true appreciation that there is so much more to the superyacht industry than just luxe and glamour. 

Nominations for The Honours officially opened during last year’s Monaco Yacht Show and concluded in March with organisers receiving hundreds of nominees from all over the world, each one nominated by their peers from across the industry. Who better to choose the winners, than a panel of some of the very best and most experienced industry specialists including renowned designer Espen Oeino, Burgess CEO Jonathan Beckett, and Feadship’s Chief Marketing Officer, Farouk Nefzi. This year, three honourees have been chosen for the award, each one undergoing thorough evaluation based on a range of criteria encompassing their contributions within their respective fields; their engagement in voluntary work; their leadership aptitude and the extent of their influence; their dedication to their professional or community endeavours; their ingenuity and imaginative thinking; as well as their overall character, ethical standards, and personal values.

The Honours is set to be an incredible evening of celebration, made completely personalised to the three chosen laureates with each dinner course celebrating their stories. Organised to be an exclusive and high-end, yet experiential evening, attendees will follow the life and journey of each award recipient through mini-documentaries. After each story has been heard, the awardsgiving will take place, and there will be a short Q&A with the honourees. The evening is set for ‘three honourees, three courses and three incredible stories to be heard’.

Often recognised as the pinnacle of the yachting calendar, taking place annually in September, it seemed a clear choice for The Superyacht Life Foundation to collaborate with the show on such an award. Superyachts.com heard from Dilan Sarac, Executive Director of The Superyacht Life Foundation on how the event came to life. 

‘In the last few years, we have seen a lot of misunderstanding about the industry in the mainstream media and that was always our objective - to change that storytelling as much as we can and spread positive stories,’ shared the Executive Director. ‘What we wanted to do with The Honours is create a showcase surrounding the superyacht industry’s most exceptional individuals and combine this with a monumental event that can spread the word around the globe.’ 

‘We wanted to collaborate with Monaco Yacht Show because their mission recently has shifted; they're not promoting the show itself and they don't need to, but instead, they’re promoting the positive side of the industry - sustainability, innovation, economic and social impact, and all of these things combined. Once we aligned in this mission, of course, the Monaco Yacht Show was the perfect place to hold this new event, invite industry clientele, and spread the word even further to the public’, Dilan explained. 

‘Overall, we wanted to do something experimental and meaningful. With the Q&A, we wanted to give the audience a chance to hear more from the honourees, but also make the conversations more intimate by hosting them on stage: it's quite hard to show everything in a short documentary!’

For its first-ever year, the event has been sponsored by Agusta, Begum Yachting, BWA Yachting, Feadship, Preciosa, Richard Mille and Rina Maxima. Leading international glass manufacturer and sponsor of The Honours, Preciosca, has crafted the spectacular award that the honourees will receive. Named The Bowsprit Award, this stunning accolade replicates the top-down outline of a bow with a bowsprit cutting through the water, crafted with carbon fibre and nested in a crystal glass wave. Alongside its beautiful design, the award in fact symbolises the very people that it will be presented to: just as the Bowsprit points forward, so do the people, leading the way and charting a new course for the industry. 

‘After this year, we will look to continue hosting this awards ceremony because it's a very good start to making the industry heard. The unheard stories of people doing good should be out there too, to provide a more balanced opinion about the industry itself. We are very proud of our industry, and I think this event will be good proof to showcase who we really are,’ concluded the Executive Director. 

‘Behind every superyacht, is a story. Inspiring people, inspiring change.’ We couldn’t agree more. Find out more about The Honours and the trio of winners next week during the Monaco Yacht Show.