Where do Contest yacht interiors find their signature styling? What inspires the ideas and detail in a Contest yacht interior? And what thinking was behind the interior design of the Contest 49CS and Contest 50CS? Meet Gillian Brown, creative director of Wetzels Brown.

I’m Gillian Brown. I’m based in Amsterdam, though you can probably tell I’m English. I set up a company in 2003 with my Dutch partner, and we specialise in yacht interiors and residential interiors. My career began in retail and restaurant design in London, where we really focused on defining branding. In the ’90s, that was a booming industry, and we see a perfect synergy between that experience and what Contest is doing now with their yacht interiors.

We’re helping to build a unified identity for the future of the whole fleet. We design yachts because they have a special quality that you often don’t find in land-based projects. We like to say they have a soul. When they’re launched, they join the family, the Contest Yachts family.

If you asked me which yachts I’ve worked on, it would probably be easier to list the ones I haven’t. We started with the 72, and following its success, we began thinking about how to develop the rest of the fleet. The 42 came next. The idea was to apply the concepts of a large yacht to a smaller one, maintaining the same high quality. That was the importance of the 42: launching a beautifully designed yacht with all the key features of a larger model.

Each new model we begin is incredibly exciting. We ask ourselves: what can we do? What have we learned? What are our new ideas? How can we bring everything together to give owners a fresh twist on the interior? It’s part of our journey. We always say it’s not about revolution, it’s evolution. There are great ideas we keep refining. So, with each new yacht, we look for ways to improve.

With the 49 and the 50, we had the opportunity to develop two yachts simultaneously, each with its own personality, while also moving into the next generation of Contest Yachts. The Contest identity has always included beautiful woodwork, and we never want to lose that. It’s the heart of the design, the seaworthiness, the rounded corners, the craftsmanship.

The joinery, the smooth transitions, the softness of the forms, these are key. And with the 49 and the 50, we really focused on what people need from a yacht. It’s not just about surviving at sea or sailing, it’s about living. Living, entertaining with friends and family, throughout the day.

In the saloon, we’ve worked to make the space really function as a lounge. Rather than having a separate dining room and lounge, we have a shared space with a chaise longue and stools that extend the seating area, making it ideal for relaxing or reading. The dining table is movable, so you can transform the space depending on the moment. The sofas are designed to be super comfortable, and we’ve paid close attention to the lighting and window heights so that when you’re inside, you still feel a strong connection to the outside.