A full house sat enthralled as Pete Lagden, DE&S Boats Team Leader, and his colleagues from Navy Command and the NSO (National Shipbuilding Office) took this year’s Speed@Seawork delegates and exhibitors through the rapidly changing requirements of the MOD DE&S Boats Team, as evinced by outside events over the past few months.
Speed@Seawork is unique in combining military and security requirements with civil and commercial activities.
Tim Rowsell, Coast Risk Lead at the RNLI, explained how the RNLI has changed the way it assesses the needs for services and equipment with in-depth analysis of public activities and trends and how they affect the potential for risk to evolve into occurrence.
Speed@Seawork, which takes place the day before Seawork itself opens, is held in partnership with SMI (Society of Marine Industries) and, this year, was sponsored by Chartwell Marine, Vessel Arrest Systems and Mecal, with the added and valued assistance of the Cowes Harbour Commission Harbour Masters and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, Cowes.
Jim Parrott, Chess Dynamics, said, “Speed@Seawork is a great opportunity to network with suppliers and customers for both crewed and uncrewed systems. Today has opened new avenues to the defence small craft sector in an interactive environment with a collaborative and informed audience.”
It’s not just the times that are a-changin’ but the vessels too; Griffon Marine brought the 2400 TD Hovercraft (a first for Speed@Seawork), HDPE as a construction material made a double appearance in the forms of Damen’s MPV 903 and Proteum’s Tideman RBB 11-meter. Vessels were also on show from Berthon with two new Gemini RIBS, Zodiac Milpro’s SRA855, the Metropolitan Police brought its super-fast Zodiac Hurricane, CGI showed their latest system aboard a Gemini Waverider 780P, a new hull form in the shape of the Fugu 29 from Swedish exhibitor Petestep AB, and the new Galaxy Trident 8 powered by Suzuki. A striking appearance by Vessel Arrest Systems Delta Sentinel 12.5m complete with vessel arrest system(s) fitted certainly caught the eye.
Equipment and services exhibitors Skydex, Spinlock, Marlborough Communications, Axnes, Chess Dynamics, Landau Marine, Marine AI, Shoxs, Loki Dynamics, Seasafe Systems, Exposure Marine, Ullman Dynamics and Salmon Power Sports put on an outstanding pop-up show between them with plenty of opportunities and food for thought for delegates and exhibitors alike.
