seawork Soars With So Much More

The appeal of seawork , which celebrates the range, diversity and interweaving of the commercial marine industries, has extended beyond European shores with an ever increasing number of exhibitors and visitors from even further afield.

New international exhibitors for seawork2004 include B & B Winches of Canada, Micad Marine and Freeman Marine Equipment Inc of the USA, Effer Holding SPA and Marco SPA of Italy, Restech Norway, Poralu International of France, UKI Workboat of Finland and many more. So many more in fact that visitors to seawork2004 will have 30% more to look at than a year ago.

Also new this year are seawork ‘s responses to the RIB and Diving industries’ support for the show.

RIBwork will be presented in the form of a ‘show trail’, a series of conference sessions, and a display of the latest and most innovative RIBs on the seawork pontoon. Exhibitors of specific significance to the RIbwork forum will be identified by a RIBwork logo in the seawork catalogue and on the stands.

DIVEwork will focus on the commercial diving sector, including the manufacture and supply of diving equipment, the design, build and operation of dive and survey boats, and underwater contracting. The seawork2004 catalogue and exhibitors’ stands will feature the DIVEwork logo.

On seawork ‘s unique floating marketplace, built each summer by Walcon Marine especially for seawork , the planned facility for 2004 has had to be extended five times to accommodate a workboat population that has leapt from 38 craft in 2003 to 60 widely varied boats this year.

These range in size from a 4m Ally Duck all aluminium RIB style workboat to the original, unique and highly innovative 80m multi-purpose pontoon Terra Marique , built by Damen Shipyards for Robert Wynn & Sons. This vessel, built with an £8.5m Freight Facilities Grant from the British Government, has a primary purpose of taking Abnormal Indivisible Loads off the nation’s overcrowded roads and started that service in style recently when it delivered the last British Airways Concorde from London to a museum in Scotland. Visitors to seawork will be able to examine for themselves the sophisticated and precise engineering which goes into cutting edge boatbuilding.

seawork stalwarts VT Halmatic set an exhibition record by bringing no fewer than six boats to the show this year. The company entered into a pioneering Marine Services contract with seawork ‘s host port, ABP Southampton, last year whereby the prolific Portchester boatbuilder owns the Port’s pilot, survey and patrol fleet and leases it back on a fully supported ten year contract.

Under the terms of the contract, ABP Southampton has taken delivery of four new Nelson 48/50 pilot cutters and one of these, Hampshire , will be on display at seawork .Also on show from VT Halmatic will be a 7m rapid response RTK Marine Fire Boat for the Tyne & Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade and an RTK Marine Logistic Support Boat, a 9m catamaran powered by twin Yanmar diesels driving through Hamilton waterjets to deliver the 40 knots plus performance which made it the ideal workboat for its recent role in filming the big budget film Sahara . VT Halmatic will also be showing two new boats for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, a Pacific 32 RIB and an Arctic 22 RIB. Now established as seawork ‘s de facto floating meeting hall, Brownsea Island Ferries’ Maid of the Harbour launched VT Halmatic’s move into steelbuilt boats and will again serve as venue for the many marine organisation AGMs which are held at seawork .Another new boat of interest at seawork is Walcon Marine’s Walcon Wizard , the very vessel that built the seawork floating pontoon. Designed by Walcon in conjunction with John Pattison Associates and built by the Aveco Shipyard on Teesside, the 24m piling barge will be christened at seawork at noon on the 24 June by six year old Miss Emily Walters.

Located by the new DIVEwork area, seawork ‘s Bond Pearce sponsored Innovations Showcase immediately highlights new products of specific importance and identifies the stand where more information can be found. Spotlighting manufacturers of products as diverse as electronics, carbon fibre mouldings and safety equipment, the Innovations Showcase will be bigger than ever for 2004. Among the exhibitors unveiling new designs is Inform Design & Development, which will show a new range of TFT marine monitors for Melford Electronics Ltd which have been created specifically for the marine market.

There will be ‘Spirit of Innovation’ Trophy winners announced in a number of categories at the social highlight of the seawork experience, the Gala Dinner at Southampton Football Club’s sparkling St Mary’s Stadium. Once again on the evening of seawork ‘sopening day (22 June), the ZF Marine sponsored Gala Dinner provides good food and fine wines in a convivial atmosphere conducive to relaxed networking.

The seawork Conference is now established as a leading forum reflecting the range of commercial marine activities seen in the Exhibition. Tuesday’s programme, ‘Regeneration for Waterfront and Marine Projects, is the only ‘paid for’ day of the three and has been organised by Mackaoui Communications with sponsorship from the Institution of Civil Engineers.