MYS 2026: Espen Øino on Balancing Bold Vision With Real Delivery

At the Monaco Yacht Show, Shari Liu sits down with Espen Øino to explore the thinking behind a portfolio that spans almost every end of the yacht-design spectrum. The Windy SR40, the Amels 60 and 80, and the Nuclear Emerald concept might appear to have little in common, but together they reveal something more interesting about Øino’s approach: how do you take an idea from the immediately achievable to the deliberately ambitious — without losing sight of what a yacht actually needs to do?

Few design studios could claim a stand as varied as Espen Øino International's this year. The Windy SR40 sits alongside the Amels 60 and 80, and — a considerable leap in every direction — the Nuclear Emerald concept. The story goes back further, however, to Zeus — a boat Øino credits with sparking his career in motor yachting.

"One of them is particularly important to me... Zeus... that is the boat that got me into motor yachting."

The Windy SR40 recently won European Powerboat of the Year 2026 — a notable result for a designer best known for some of the world's largest superyachts. Scaling from a 40-foot powerboat to a superyacht might look like a matter of proportion, but Øino suggests the underlying discipline barely changes.

"The design process doesn't actually change much. You try to fundamentally understand what you're setting out to do... it's all about condensing."

Then there's Nuclear Emerald, presented this year in the Designer Gallery — a concept built around technology that's moved on considerably since nuclear propulsion was last seriously discussed in yachting circles.

"It's a whole new generation of nuclear generators which are operating at completely different parameters."

Across a powerboat of the year, an established superyacht platform, and a nuclear-powered concept still finding its audience, Øino's stand this year reads less like a collection of unrelated projects and more like a single design instinct, applied at wildly different scales.