Bill Dixon, Chairman of the Jury, presented the prestigious DAME Award 2014 at the commencement of METS to the Steering Traveller from Jefa Steering ApS of Denmark. The jury praised the product for the way it offers a genuine solution to chain/wiresteering. In addition to this overall winner, six category winners of the DAME were also announced during the Breakfast Briefing, the official start of METS 2014 which will be held until Thursday 20 November in Amsterdam RAI.

Photo: Boating Industry Canada Publisher Greg Nicoll congratulating  Stig Jensen, owner partner of Jeffe Steering System.

In its comments the Jury stated that it is “always on the look out for clever design solutions that challenge the status quo to deliver obvious improvements for boat owners and builders. There were several examples this year but the standout entry was the Jefa Steering Traveller. This product removes the need for bulky steering quadrants and improves rudder feedback at the helm for twin rudder, twin wheel sailing yachts. Special attention has been paid to save installation space and weight as well as to eliminate backlash, which improves yacht handling.”

Jefa’s elegance overrode the strong field of entries
The Jury appreciated the elegance of Jefa’s approach to this application, describing it as a commendable example of how current practice can be examined and redesigned to produce tangible improvement. Commenting on a strong field of entries, the Chairman of the DAME Awards Jury, Bill Dixon, observed that it is commendable to see so much product development at a time when the marine industry has been experiencing a long period of constrained budgets.

“Developing new, well designed and innovative products is very difficult for relatively low manufacturing volumes,” Dixon commented. “Nevertheless many of the companies that we recognised in this year’s nominations have looked at a problem, found a new and interesting way to solve it and come up with a confident solution. Others have discovered ways of making the boat builder’s life easier though better integration and ease of installation.

“Simple, elegant design with cohesive integration is the future; this is the challenge that the DAME Awards will continue to address by highlighting the achievements of the best entries.” 

 
2014 Overall DAME Award Winners: Jefa Steering ApS from Denmark
This year’s Category Winners are:

Marine electronics and marine related software 
weBBoat 4G by Glomex SrL, Italy
Stand 01.213

Interior equipment, furnishing, materials and electrical fittings used in cabins
SilKEN2 Induction Cooktopby Kenyon International inc, USA
Stand 02.210

Marina equipment, boatyard equipment and boat construction tools and materials
Seabung by Seabung, United Kingdom
Stand 03.522

Deck equipment, sails and rigging
Steering Traveller byJefa Steering ApS, Denmark
Stand 11.333

Clothing and crew accessories
No winner of this category was declared this year
 
Lifesaving and safety equipment
MOB Search Light by Exposure Marine, United Kingdom
Stand 03.223

Machinery, propulsion, mechanical and electrical systems and fittings
Pro-Installer EZ-Mount Battery Switches by Marinco by BEP, New Zealand
Stand 02.321

Overall DAME 2014 winner
Steering Traveller byJefa Steering ApS, Denmark
Stand 11.333