Ullman safeguards the Olympic flame

Built by the UK’s Ice Marine, the Bladerunner boat, piloted by ex England football captain, David Beckham, was tasked with delivering the Olympic flame safely to the opening ceremony at the Olympia stadium during its final leg of journey from Athens.

The vessel was equipped with four Ullman Biscaya seats as standard, but Ullman also designed a special seat to safely support the torch bearer in near standing position on the bow of the boat to safeguard against the impacts of vibration.

Dr Johan Ullman, owner and founder of Ullman Dynamics, said: “It was a challenge to bring a boat down the Thames at full speed with a standing torch-bearer in the bow – the boat driver was inexperienced with high speed boats and so was the torch-bearer.”

“In case there had been waves on the Thames, or in case any of the security boats around the Bladerunner needed to speed up creating wake, the torch-bearer had to be fully protected against unpredictable conditions.”