Mercator Media, the organisers of Europe’s largest commercial marine exhibition, Seawork, introduced the inaugural Speed@Seawork - the latest sector-specific feature for Seawork.

The new dedicated two-day event started on Monday 2 July, and ran in parallel with the main Seawork 2018 exhibition that took place 3-5 July at Mayflower Park, Southampton UK.

Fast vessels operating at high speed for security interventions and Search And Rescue are a significant specialist sector of the commercial marine business. Speed@Seawork is aimed squarely at facilitating growth and development for the design, build and operation of these specialist vessels.  As operating demands increase, new solutions for propulsion, navigation, communications and care of the crew will be needed. Speed@Seawork offers a great opportunity for new exhibitors, and the many existing Seawork exhibitors, to service this dynamic and growing market.

Day One Speed@Seawork Sea Trial Day |  Monday 2 July

Departing from Southampton, exhibitors, delegates and speakers travelled to Cowes, IOW aboard the Ocean Scene  with informal breakfast served on board. Delegates were able to access sector-specific companies throughout the day on the dedicated exhibitor deck. Specialist equipment manufacturers, operators and trainers from UK MOD and abroad also attended.

Sea trials, coordinated from the mothership at Cowes, provided a base for a flotilla of demonstration craft as well as hosting key note speeches. The floating exhibitor lounge hosted experts and industry influencers who focussed on practice, people and procurement.

Boats trialled included Tideman Boats indestructible HDPE hull, a bespoke RIB from manufacturer Parker Ribs, and the SRA750 from Zodiac Ribs. Rafnar trialled its RIB from the Leiftur 1100 series.  Golden Arrow brought its Tactical Water Craft; based on a COTS Sea Doo; available in small and large variants, the TWC has been heavily modified to handle the demanding environment of military and commercial operations and to cope with hot and cold extreme conditions.

Equipment suppliers included Drumgrange, demonstrating its Diamond Intercom system, and SCISYS which showed its high-speed navigation systems developed specifically for the fast vessel market. SHOXS and Scot seats exhibited and CJR Propulsion demonstrated the Trials App; a high-performance Android tablet preloaded with the App, 3 x wireless vibration FFT / sound level sensors, optical rpm sensors for measuring shaft speed, GPS for boat speed and axis gyroscopes for measuring vessel running heel angles and turning circles.

Day Two Speed@Seawork Conference Day | Tuesday 3 July

Day two saw the new Speed@Seawork Conference launch. Designed to provide industry insights and methods of improving operations and cost efficiency, topics covered included; hull design,vessel building, propulsion, navigation and communication, in addition to biomechanics and crew welfare.

Contact speed@seawork.com to find out more.