Applicants are invited to apply to the BMF and the winners will be announced during Salon Nautique at a special reception to be held at the British Embassy residence in Paris in December this year.

The prize is the opportunity to take part in the annual Marine Industry Regatta in April 2007. The 2005 winners were French design company Inconito, French mountaineering company Petzl and the UK's Spinlock: together the three companies were responsible for Spinlock's innovative deck harness.

Our picture shows Spinlock's Rodney Hogg steering the winning boat in this year's regatta with members of staff from all three companies on board.

"These awards show how important cross market partnerships are to the continued success of the UK leisure marine industry, " said Toby Allies, BMF director of international development. "As we have seen from last year's winners, by working together and making the most of each company's skills, both companies can benefit from increased growth."

"We are delighted to be supporting these awards, which recognise and encourage the development of relationships between French and British companies and the contribution they make to the UK leisure marine industry's strong levels of growth, " said Rebecca Penna, commercial officer at UKTI.

Other partners in the awards include Boating Business, Neptune magazine and Reed Exhibitions.

See page 8 for coverage of the 2006 Marine Industry Regatta.