20th Annual Seawork International Opens its Doors for Business

Europe’s leading commercial marine and workboat exhibition, Seawork International, has opened its doors today, at Mayflower Park in Southampton, UK and will welcome attendees from across the globe until Thursday.

Since its inception, Seawork International has been a sell-out success and this year is no exception. It is home to over 10,000 products, equipment and services, together with a range of vessels, plus on-water and onshore demonstrations. It is expected to host around 7,500 international commercial marine professionals.

The Commandant General of the Bolivian Navy, Admiral Yamil Borda Sossa of Bolivia, will officially open the exhibition, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The exhibition also boasts enhanced and purpose-built exhibition halls, which house 630 exhibitors, providing many opportunities for networking, a broad range of sector-specific new industry-specific debuts, plus valuable contract signings which will announced throughout the three days of the event.

Around 50 international products, services and vessels are being launched, including: Netherlands-headquartered Vanclaes’ (A1) first ever fifth wheel boat trailer with electric brake system with a Full European Type Approval; Ocean Signal’s (PO5) E101V float-free EPIRB with integrated voyage data recorder (VDR) memory capsule which will be unveiled at Seawork, as will MIT’s new Transfluid HM560 hybrid and electric driveline system.  Kort Propulsion and MacDuff will be announcing an exciting development, as will Mainprize Offshore.

Headquartered in The Netherlands, Ravestein BV, will be exhibiting the largest in-water vessel to have been exhibited at Seawork since its inception 20 years ago, namely the giant 60m x 28m semi-submersive jack-up platform, the Skylift 3000. The 1400 Skylift is a submersible jackup platform which has a payload of 3,000t.

Radus Lungu of engine and generator specialist provider, BETA Marine, which supports Seawork each year, comments, “Both national and global export opportunities are key to success and Seawork provides access to customers in both leisure and commercial markets.”

The Seawork Conference and a new onsite awards event, the European Commercial Marine Awards is also complementing the exhibition.

The Seawork Marina will also be home to over 70 vessels and craft suited to a host of operations, whose size ranges from 10m to 80m, will be available for visitors to sea trial, view and experience; being one of the unique features for which Seawork is renowned.

Andrew Webster, CEO of Mercator Media Ltd, cites this success upon the agile nature of the exhibition, “Seawork continually develops and evolves over the years, remaining true to its core, whilst developing additional focus on the emerging sub-sectors, such as the renewables market.”

Exhibiting at Seawork gives businesses the opportunity to both network and develop international relationships with these key decision makers, which is why many business choose to unveil their new offerings at Seawork.

Pictured above, the iXblue (VA51), headquartered in France, is returning to Seawork International for the fourth year, bringing its impressive 25m hydrographic survey vessel. Guillaume Eudeline, Business Development Manager comments, “I believe that Seawork is the epitome of commercial marine and workboat market on a global scale. IXblue both manufactures the vessels and also the navigation equipment that services over 1000 customers in 35 countries  all serviced by Seawork, including the French and Royal Navy. No other exhibition gives us such direct access to this market.”

Seawork is a carefully planned and executed exhibition that delivers unparalleled opportunities to its exhibitors to showcase their products and solutions at this one-stop-shop. 86% of Seawork visitors authorise or influence the purchasing decisions for the companies they represent, being high-calibre, high-spending professionals who recognise the wealth of innovation and expertise Seawork International provides.

“As marine products are subject to some of the most challenging of circumstances, I wanted to provide an event that provided the full solution; from launch to demo, to contract. You can’t trial these in a closed indoor environment.” said Andrew Webster.

Seawork International runs from 13-15 June. Visitor registration is free at seawork.com - download the new SeaworkApp.