Vibrancy for Business at Seawork2011

This year’s 14th annual Seawork drew an enthusiastic response from all who attended the three-day event. Held in the ABP Port of Southampton (14-16 June), there were almost 12% more visitors than in the previous year. Of particular significance was the increase in those travelling from overseas. Examples included a party of 12 foreign Naval Attachés from countries including North and South America, Europe and Asia.  They were escorted by staff from UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI/DSO) and visited a large number of companies to talk export business, including a trip out on HMS Trumpeter – a 20m Patrol Boat manned by Royal Navy personnel and cadets from Southampton University.   Captain IO Kocer, the Turkish Defence and Naval Attaché, said that Seawork was an ideal opportunity to keep abreast of developments in vessels and innovative equipment. 

Focus on Marine Renewables & Supply Chain
Significant business success stories during Seawork arose from its focus on marine offshore renewable energy and its impact on the associated supply chain, including vessels, propulsion systems and equipment tailored to this burgeoning new industry. 

South Boats strong at Seawork with £28m orders
South Boats confirmed 15 vessel orders during Seawork 2011 including an order for 2 x Incat Crowther-designed South Boats 17.5m Wind Farm Service Vessels for P&O, to be delivered in September & October 2011. 

Ben Colman, Technical Director of South Boats, said:  “The delivery schedule will, of course, be a challenge for the company but with our increased capability we are confident that we can make the date.  This brings the value of our total orders at Seawork for 15 WFSV vessels to a total in excess of £28 million.” 

Ben continued:  “Seawork has become the leading marine renewable supply chain exhibition.  Our suppliers and customers now come here.  The middle day of the exhibition – Wednesday - was the busiest day at any exhibition anywhere I’ve ever been to and any day at Seawork is 50 times better than any other exhibition anywhere else.”

Scania Success
As evidence of the importance of the renewable energy supply chain, Sweden-based Scania confirmed the sale of 16 x DI16M marine engines to South Boats for wind farm service vessels at Seawork.  The vessels range between 15m and 16m and each will have a twin installation.  All engines and vessels will be delivered this year.

South Boats’ 9 vessel order for MTU
South Boats also placed an order worth in excess of €2.5 million with MTU for engines to power nine wind farm service vessels.  The 18 engines will produce a staggering 21,400 horse power in total, and have the highest power to weight ratio in the market.

Gardline names two new Alicats at Seawork
Gardline Environmental handed over the keys of one of their new Alicat crew transfer vessels during Seawork.

An 18m jet boat named Marianarray is being delivered to London Array, on the outer Thames Estuary - currently the world’s largest consented wind farm - as the first of three crew transfer vessels being chartered from Gardline.  The hand-over ceremony was attended by Richard and Marian Rigg of London Array.

Following a blessing by Peter Paine, Port Chaplain for the port of Great Yarmouth, of both Marianarray and a second 20m Alicat, Gaillion, Phil Durrant, Managing Director of Gardline Marine Sciences Limited commented “We are delighted to present both these vessels today.   Client reaction to our Alicat vessels has been tremendous, and we look forward to many more similar orders”.

Rosy Prospects for Rolls-Royce
Andy Brett of Rolls-Royce reported:  “As a result of being at Seawork on a regular basis and building up relationships, Rolls-Royce has taken several orders for its water-jet systems, including jets for the latest vessel to be built by Holyhead Marine for its sister company Turbine Transfers.  The latest order, for a wind farm support vessel designed by BMT Nigel Gee, is for twin FF600 water jets coupled with the very latest control system with joystick control.”  

Seawork Innovation Awards
The direct impact of the renewables industry on the commercial marine sector was further evidenced by the results of the Seawork Innovation Awards. 

Houlder Ltd was presented with the prestigious Seawork Spirit of Innovation Trophy at the Innovation Awards Dinner for its offshore wind Turbine Access System (TAS).  The lightweight motion-compensated gangway, developed with BMT Nigel Gee, provides safe and reliable access from workboats in the offshore wind industry.  It is already featured in several vessel designs. Increasing the significant wave height window for personnel transfer from 1.5m to 2.0m allows quick resets and minor turbine repairs to be undertaken on a higher proportion of North Sea work days.


On receiving the Spirit of Innovation Trophy, Rupert Hare, MD, Houlder said:  “Winning the Seawork Innovations Showcase repays – in an instant – all the efforts of the Houlder team in the development of our Turbine Access System.  We are a UK employee-based business and our future is looking good.  We must recognise the contribution made by BMT Nigel Gee in this success.”

By closing day of Seawork, on Thursday 16th June, Mike Carter reported that, since winning the coveted Spirit of Innovation Award, Houlder had been contacted by a number of vessel constructors with prospective orders in the WSFV sector:  “Our trophy success has given us a high profile entry into this expanding market and expectations of growth internationally”’ Mike concluded.

Seawork Innovations Showcase Winners
Seawork Innovations Showcase category winners were:
Vessel Design & Construction:  Damen - High Speed Support Vessel 2610
Marine Civil Engineering & Construction:  Wave Craft UK  - Waveblade PLUS
Marine Equipment, Electronics & Materials:  UNIMEC Srl - Sigmadrive
Diving & Underwater Technology: GRP Laminates, MSV Explorer
Safety & Training:  EchoPilot – 2D Forward Looking Sonar
Renewable Energy Marine Supply Chain:  Houlder Ltd – Turbine Access System (TAS)
Renewable Energy Onboard Generation and Conservation – KPM-Marine – EcoMast wind generator

Casper Vermeulen of Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards was delighted to win the Innovation Award in the Vessel Design & Construction category for the High Speed Support Vessel 2610:  “Winning a Seawork Innovation Award will be very useful in future publicity and the exhibition has been the perfect forum in which to introduce this catamaran, which can maintain high speeds in 2m significant wave height, to the offshore wind industry.  We’ve spoken to developers and turbine manufacturers among others and the feedback has been very promising.  This is my 13th Seawork, and it’s been busier than ever.”

Conference News
Once again, the Seawork Conference proved its reputation as a significant feature of the Seawork experience.

The middle day of the three-day conference programme was co-ordinated by The Crown Estate, whose extensive marine assets include the renewable energy rights out to the UK continental shelf, and RenewableUK, the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. 

The day was an opportunity for vessel operators and mariners from other marine activities such as commercial fishing and charter angling to identify how they could work with and alongside windfarm developments during construction, operation and maintenance.  The programme included papers by Adrian Fox, Supply Chain Manager for The Crown Estate and a presentation by Anker Lauritsen of London Array, currently the world’s largest consented wind farm, on how wind farm service vessels have developed to date.

Clare Lovett reported that The Crown Estate was very encouraged by the support for their conference sessions which produced lively Q & A sessions from audiences.

Other papers delivered at Seawork included those on ‘Selling to Defence – Home and Overseas’, marine civil engineering sessions and presentations on safety and innovation in workboat design and build. 

New Dates for Seawork2012
As a result of ABP investing in the construction of a new cruise terminal, Seawork will take place earlier next year – 22-24 May 2012 – on the same site.  The dates for subsequent years are:  11-13 June 2013 and 10-12 June 2014. 

What the people said

Andy Smith, Consultant Editor of International Tug & Salvage: “This is the best Seawork I have ever attended with a significant number of high calibre, influential visitors.”

Ramco, Ronnie Sinclair:  “I don’t come here for crowds of visitors but for the quality.  This is the only commercial marine exhibition we support.  It couldn’t be better for networking.  You can do a year’s worth of networking in one day.”

Ryan Langley, Hercules Hydraulics:  “Seawork delivers every year.  We do a lot of work with fellow exhibitors; networking is a very important aspect of the exhibition. It’s the best sales opportunity of the year.”

Seb Freeman, Golden Arrow:  “It’s been a very good exhibition: a good level of visitors of the right calibre.  We’ve quoted for several major projects at Seawork.”

Andy Pumfrey, Yamaha Motors:  “Seawork is a great opportunity to meet commercial buyers, architects and customers.  It’s been so good, we ran out of price lists!”

Simon Smith, Austal:  “This has been our first time at Seawork but we’ll be back next year with a bigger and better stand, as we’ve never seen so many vessel owners and operators in once place.  It’s a great networking venue and we’ve secured some good quality leads from senior people.”

Charlie Mill, Ocean Safety:  “There’s a very good buzz about Seawork this year.  It’s the busiest ever with a huge amount of interest in the new Kannad R10 AIS PLB.”

Mike Ingram, Side Power:  “It’s been a great show for Side Power, providing many interesting leads, including some very good enquiries outside our usual market area.”

Richard Beer, SEAC:  “This is our first time at Seawork and we’ve had good interest from our target group.”

Antoine Le Roux, Moteurs Baudouin: “It’s our first time exhibiting at Seawork and it’s been very interesting, especially the focus on wind farms.  We also appointed a UK marine distributor, which was one of our objectives.  Being here shows we are in the wind farms market.  We have achieved what we set out to achieve and we will be back again.”

Damian McCann, Royston:  “We met really good quality people interested in our fuel and engine monitoring system especially from defence, tugs and big shipping companies.  We’ll be back next year.”

James Hall, Spinlock:  “This is our third year at Seawork - it’s important for us to establish ourselves in the commercial marine market.  We’ve certainly benefited from entering products in the Innovations Showcase which has led to plenty of interest in our lifejackets and hardware.”

Andrew Brown, Marine Rescue Technologies:  “We’ve got a bigger stand than last year and have had lots of good enquiries.  We’ll be back in 2012 with a range of new products.  Seawork is a great meet and greet venue.”

Noel Gould, DuroWipers:  “It’s been fabulous.  We’ve taken more orders than expected from new customers and seen a lot of interest in our Class 60 and Class 90 wipers.  Seawork’s fantastic.  We’ll be back next year.”

Melanie Noel, WP Group: “The quality and calibre of businesses here, from large to small, is fantastic. On day two alone, more than 250 visitors attended our trade stand.”

Laurence Smith
Managing Director
Del Norte Technology Ltd:  “What a busy Seawork!  We had three nice orders:  £20,000 for an Echo Sounder, £10,500 for a Sub-bottom profiler and a Brazilian purchased a Side-Scan sonar off our stand and took it away with him late Thursday evening.  Book me that position for next May please!”

Wil Hocking, BCB R&D Unit:  “The demonstrations of our Buccaneer device at Seawork 2011 brought us a great deal of attention and I believe that, as a result, we have sold 2 units.  This was my first experience of the show and it was one of the best organized and well executed I have attended.”  

John Wells, Marine Safety Solutions Ltd:  “I had two visitors to my stand wanting to buy a system and expect a further eight orders over the coming months.  All in all I’m a happy chappie – well done in setting up a very professional show.”

Margaret Dunk, IHS Fairplay:  “A very well organised event.  I met a lot of contacts and managed to find all the information I wanted. EXCELLENT EVENT. Thank you.”

Andrew Braimbridge, Mullion:  “The wind farm industry is where it’s at now, so we have developed our High-Rise 275 SOLAS fully automatic lifejacket with built-in Sea Marshall MOB beacon specially for that market.  We have had a lot of wind farm workers visiting the stand.  We also launched the Mullion Compact Lifejacket for the fishing market at Seawork and it’s proved the perfect vehicle.”

Paul Hickinbotham, Dometic Marine:  “Seawork seems to be going from strength-to-strength and it was a busy time again for us. The exhibition provided the ideal opportunity for us to meet existing customers, as well as establish new relationships for potential new business.”
 
James Hewitt, Ocean Signal: “As Ocean Signal is a relatively new name in the industry, I am positive that Seawork has enabled us to raise our profile and further strengthen our presence within this important sector.”
 
Simon Wood, SES: “We secured a number of orders for the Clear-Com communications systems and met many potential clients; the whole show was hugely beneficial to us and we look forward to attending again next year.”

ENDS
23 June 2011
A selection of images can be downloaded at
http://gallery.me.com/alinepilcher#100530
Images & captions:
Seawork 2011 crowded exhibition halls:  There was a real vibrancy to the 14th edition of Seawork
Seawork 2011 vessels on pontoon:  Seawork continues to reinforce its position as Europe’s leading commercial marine exhibition and conference
Seawork 2011 busy registration:  Held in the ABP Port of Southampton, Seawork 2011 attracted 12% more visitors than in 2010.
Seawork 2011 Naval Attaches visit:  Visitors from overseas included a party of 12 foreign Naval Attachés from countries including North and South America, Europe and Asia. 
Seawork 2011 Ben Colman South Boats:  Ben Colman, Technical Director of South Boats said: “Seawork has become the leading marine renewable supply chain exhibition.  Our suppliers and customers now come here.  The middle day of the exhibition – Wednesday - was the busiest day at any exhibition anywhere I’ve ever been to and any day at Seawork is 50 times better than any other exhibition anywhere else.”
Seawork 2011 - Gardline - Marian & Richard Rigg - credit London Array: At Seawork, Gardline Environmental handed over the keys of Marianarray, an 18m jet being delivered to London Array, named after the wife of London Array’s Richard Rigg.  (l-Marian Rigg; r-Richard Rig, London Array)
Seawork 2011 - Houlder-Rupert Hare: On receiving the Seawork Spirit of Innovation Trophy, Rupert Hare, MD, Houlder said:  “Winning the Seawork Innovations Showcase repays all the efforts of the Houlder team in the development of our Turbine Access System.”
Seawork 2011 conference:  Once again, the Conference proved its reputation as a significant feature of the Seawork experience. 

For further information, contact: Brian Pilcher, BPPR
 + 44 (0)1243 839384
 +44 (0)7702 617794
 bppr@pilchers.net
 www.seawork.com