Lewmar wins DAME award

Prestigeous gear trophy goes to British manufacturer at the Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam

Kim Hollamby, chairman of the Jury of the DAME Award, announced the winner of the prestigious prize during the Breakfast Briefing this morning. An excerpt of the jury report on the DAME winner:

“A strong and varied mix of category winners presented the jury with a challenging task of selecting an overall winner. The OneTouch Winch Handle from Lewmar Ltd. of the United Kingdom won that tough contest thanks to its extremely clever rethinking of a piece of equipment whose formulaic design most people take for granted.

"The OneTouch rejects a traditional bi-square lock arrangement in favour of a plunger pin and ball system similar in concept to that used in racing car quick-release steering wheels. The mechanism is operated by a lever that runs the length of the winch handle; allowing it to be easily engaged and released with one hand.

"Elegant in concept, aesthetically pleasing, strong on detail design, well executed, effective and a great step forward - Lewmar’s OneTouch Winch Handle ticked all of the essential DAME boxes and is therefore a very worthy winner.”

The 16th annual Design Award METS competition attracted a total of 166 products from 136 companies. A total of 74 products were short listed for final consideration in 2006 and these are the ‘Nominated’ products that appear in the DAME presentation at METS. From these the Jury selected the outright winner, together with five outright Category Winners, an Innovation Award winner and 20 Special Mentions.

When making any assessment under the DAME rules the most important aspect, central to the final judgement, is design in its fullest context - the degree to which the overall styling, construction, functionality (the capability of the product in relation to its intended use) and level of innovation are seen as equally balanced features of the entry. Originality, use and ease of human operation are also taken into account, as well as other considerations such as the ratio of price to performance.

Read our reivew of this winch handle here