The Game Changer Award, Boat International Design & Innovation Awards 2019

This new category honours a product, process or technology that adds to the design and build sophistication or ease of use and owner enjoyment of a yacht. After much discussion, the judges decided the “clear winner” to be the various frameless curved structural glass bulwarks, walls and pool created at the request of an owner who wanted all of his views to be unbroken by frames or supports. Key to the success was Tankoa’s partnership with Italian glass manufacturer Viraver. Among the stand-outs of the installation are a 180-degree glass-walled winter garden, frameless laminated glass railings and bulwarks, a laminated glass balcony with glass-walled spa pool and the main deck’s seamless infinity pool with its rounded corners and glass-bottom skylights. Viraver’s new bending tools produced cylindrical glass shapes with no optical distortion or undulations. Viraver also expanded its chemical hardening facilities to accommodate larger pieces such as all of Solo’s main deck windows, which received class approval to remain uncovered by storm ports during crossings and a platform level glass door.

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