Yacht building trends I: How designers are creating the boats of tomorrow

They determine what the world will look like in five or ten years' time, how yachts will change, which technical innovations will find their way into series production and which will not.

To be able to paint at least a rough picture of what is to come, we visited globally recognised design studios for the current cover story and spoke to the leading minds in the industry.

• Judel/Vrolijk & Co - Torsten Conradi and Matthias Bröker from Germany's first address for yacht construction explain why the most decisive trend in series boat construction remains invisible - and why it is very likely that in the medium term, boats specially designed to meet the needs of older sailors will come along

• Design Unlimited - Stylist Mark Tucker, who has already designed for Hanse, Moody and Bavaria and has been responsible for the visual polish at Baltic Yachts for two decades, on the responsibility of designers for the products they create, the trend towards recyclable materials and the nonsense of some trendy "boat show features"

• Volkswagen Design - Why Klaus Bischoff, chief creative officer at the Wolfsburg-based automotive group and head of 400 designers, would like to see more courage in yacht development, why he likes the new Bente 39 - and how the passionate Baltic Sea sailor imagines his own dream ship

• VPLP - Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and his team of engineers design just about anything that is fast, from Figaro racers to high-speed trimarans for record hunters. The opportunities he sees for hydrofoil technology and other innovations from the regatta sector in series boat construction

Also in the big trend focus: How 3D printing is changing boatbuilding.

Read all this and many other exciting topics in the new YACHT 3/2019, available from Wednesday at newsagents, station bookshops or directly here digitally!