Pioneering anchor completes on-land trials

Seawork 10th - 12th June 2025	Speed@Seawork 9th June 2025	Get Set for Workboat 2050

The 26th edition of Europe’s largest commercial marine and workboat exhibition provides businesses the opportunity to showcase their services, equipment, vessels and supplies to an international audience.	Speed@Seawork on 9th June in Cowes offers a sector specific event that showcases fast vessels operating at high speed for security interventions and Search & Rescue.	The Commercial Marine Network, in partnership with Seawork and Maritime Journal, introduce Series 3 of ‘Get set for Workboat 2050’. An online conference series of expert panels navigating the waters of decarbonisation compliance and looking at practical applications across the workboat industry.
Visit the Seawork Website	Speed@Seawork on the Seawork Website	View on Commercial Marine Network

A new marine anchor solution has successfully completed on-land trials validating the technology and sealing approval for full-scale production and ocean deployment.

The UMACK (Universal Mooring, Anchor & Connectivity Kit) Project has developed a unique mooring and anchoring solution in a bid to supersede traditional ‘gravity-based’ and tubular monopile anchors – reducing CAPEX, installation and O&M (Operational & Maintenance) costs by more than 50%.

the system underwent rigorous field trials in northern Portugal

The system underwent rigorous field trials in northern Portugal

After undergoing rigorous field trials in northern Portugal, the novel technology is now rapidly advancing through full-scale production ahead of ocean deployment. The UMACK system will be integrated with wave energy developer, CorPower Ocean’s first commercial-scale WEC (Wave Energy Converter), as a key part of the overall flagship HiWave-5 Ocean Demonstration Project.

This recent field trial build upon previous successful stages of the anchor test programme at the world-class scaled anchor centrifuge testing facility at University of Dundee (UoD), and on-land testing at the world-renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy System (IWES) in cooperation with the Test Centre for Support Structures (TTH) of the Leibniz University of Hannover.

CorPower Portugal Country Manager Miguel Silva said the HiWave-5 ocean deployment project is now gathering pace, with teams being mobilised on the ground in northern Portugal.

“The initial anchor lay is pivotal, providing a solid foundation for our wave energy converter to operate in extreme Atlantic conditions,” said Miguel. “The UMACK system provides us with a series of unique benefits, including quick-connection and full-surface operation, removing the need for dive support. This not only streamlines marine operations for the installation process but also the retrieval of our WECs for maintenance, helping maximise operational windows.”

The UMACK Project is led by a European consortium including geotechnical specialist Ternan Energy, wave and tidal energy developers CorPower Ocean and Sustainable Marine, mooring experts TTI Marine Renewables, EMEC (European Marine Energy Centre) and marine renewable energy modelling experts from the University of Edinburgh.

UMACK is funded by Scottish Enterprise and the Swedish Energy Agency with co-funding from the OCEANERA-NET COFUND (via the European Commission under Horizon 2020).