The 2025 edition of the Monaco Yacht Show has drawn sharp attention to the future of sustainable superyachting. At the heart of that conversation are the Blue Wake™ Awards, introduced this year to honour high-impact innovations in eco-yacht design and engineering.
Five standout winners emerged from the Blue Wake Awards, reflecting how the luxury-yacht sector is embracing hydrogen propulsion, fuel-cell systems and circular materials as core technologies rather than niche experiments. The winners include:
- TYKUN, awarded in the “Tenders / Water Toys” category for its H1 hydrogen-propulsion system, designed in Italy and production-ready.
- Deasyl, recognised for its sustainable marine fuel that claims up to a 93 % reduction in CO₂ emissions.
- Sanlorenzo, noted for integrating a reformer fuel-cell system (in partnership with Siemens Energy) into a superyacht, yielding 20-30 % lower annual emissions while at anchor.
- Silver Yachts’ catamaran Reduce, awarded the Special Jury Prize, built entirely in recyclable aluminium with a low-resistance hull and high fuel-efficiency design.
These recognitions are not symbolic only; they reflect measurable performance improvements and practical applications of green technology. According to the selection criteria, entries were evaluated for credibility, relevance to major yachting-impact areas, innovation, and measurable environmental benefit.
Why This Matters for the Luxury-Yacht Sector
In recent years, sustainability often appeared as a marketing tagline. The Blue Wake Awards signal a shift: sustainability is now being judged by engineering, verified data and real-world application. For yacht owners, operators and charter firms the implications are significant:
- Hydrogen propulsion and fuel-cell systems are moving from prototype phase toward production readiness.
- Owners who build or retrofit with these systems are likely to benefit from lower fuel cost, longer term regulatory resilience and better charter market appeal.
- Charter firms and management companies will increasingly need to support vessels with complex energy-systems, hydrogen bunkering, fuel-cell maintenance and sustainable-material interior supply chains.
For firms operating in the charter and vessel-management space, this moment opens up a new competitive axis: delivering green performance and luxury service.
Kamnaki Maria, Reservation Manager at DanEri Yachts, says:
“The Blue Wake Awards are more than an industry badge; they mark the point at which sustainability becomes central to luxury yachting, not optional. At DanEri Yachts we are advising charter-clients and owners to ask: ‘How does the vessel perform environmentally and operationally?’ because future value will depend on both.”
