Seawork 2024: European Commercial Marine Award winners announced

The 2024 European Commercial Marine Awards (ECMAs) winners were announced during a ceremony at the Waterfront Restaurant on site on the first day of Seawork. That’s said to be Europe’s largest commercial marine and workboat exhibition.

Seawork 2024 kicked off on Tuesday (11 June) and concluded yesterday (13 June), In Southampton.

The annual ECMAs celebrate the outstanding individuals and innovative companies in the commercial marine industry. The awards evening, hosted by Maritime Journal editor Debbie Mason, began with announcing the Innovations Showcase Category Award winners.

The Innovations Showcase allows exhibitors to demonstrate the latest equipment, services, projects, and vessels introduced in the last 12 months across nine categories.

The Innovations Category Awards went to:

• Vessel Design & Construction – Artemis Technologies for its EF-12 electric foiling pilot boat.
• Marine Power & Propulsion – ePropulsion for its X12 electric outboard.
• Electronic & Electrical Systems – Sea-Flux, for its vessel management software.
• Safety & Training – Wescom Group, for its sMRT Alert.
• Navigation & Communication – Actisense for its Type-approved NMEA 0183 and 2000 multiplexer (pictured above)
• Environmental / Renewable Energy – Hefring Marine for its EcoSpeed solution.
• Marine Equipment & Materials – Lifting Gear and Safety for its Powertex r-PET Textile slings.
• Deck Equipment – Atlantis Marine Power for its AnchorGuardian.

Actisense head of commercial, Justin Cohen, was at the event and collected the award on the company’s behalf. “We are delighted to receive this award for our latest product, the PRO-NDC-1E2K,” he says. “Innovation is one of our company’s five core values, so this is a particularly special award to receive. Like all our NMEA solutions, this product has been specifically designed to solve as many key inter-connectivity challenges as possible.”

The Spirit of Innovation trophy was presented to Lifting Gear and Safety for its Powertex r-PET Textile. This trophy celebrates the most original, pioneering, and inventive entry in the Innovations Showcase. Judges said the Powertex r-PET Textile offers a solution that makes a “real difference to the industry with its design and ingenuity.”

The Maritime Sustainability Award went to Purus for its project Purus. The judges noted that Purus seemed to be going out of its way to set a precedent in this field with transitional technologies towards cleaner fuels.

TMS’s project, Nuneham Viaduct Emergency Works, received the Maritime Civils Best Project Award. The judges all agreed that this project offered a “remarkable range of equipment and engineering.”

The Maritime Professional of the Year Award went to Keith Longman from Berthon. Judges praised Longman’s hands-on work throughout his career and now moving on to mentoring other businesses and assisting in an apprenticeship training scheme is to be admired.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Robert Glen from Barrus. Judges heralded Glen’s 65 years of service in the industry, calling it a “lifetime of living and breathing maritime, ultimately building a very successful marine engineering company.”

The Young Person’s Development Award was issued to Lily Oakley from Brockenhurst College. Oakley has already demonstrated her passion for a career in maritime engineering and has secured a cadetship.

This year, Seawork launched Future Seawork for 2025.

Displaying three entries this year were:

• Kaja Gorska from the University of Strathclyde, with her project Data Fusion for State Estimation of Autonomous Surface Vehicles.
• Rohan Jha from the University of Southampton with his project Propeller Optimisation Using a Combined Ml-Rom Approach.
• Silvia Calvo Benthem from the University of Southampton with her project Decarbonising Tugboats In Southampton Harbour.

The judging panel for this year’s ECMAs comprised Andrew Webster (CEO of Mercator Media), Debbie Mason (editor of Maritime Journal), Tom Chant (CEO of the Society of Maritime Industries), Kerrie Forster (CEO of The Workboat Association), Taira Caton (CEO of the Association of Diving Contractors), Irene Rosberg (programme director of Copenhagen Business School), Jake Frith (freelance marine journalist) and Molly McMaster (CECA NextGen).

“Seawork is always an excellent industry event that really brings the sector together to learn, to celebrate each other’s latest innovations and to reconnect,” says Actisense’s Justin Cohen. “It is always heartening to walk the show and see so many of our customers who have pieces of our tech on their own stands, as part of their own impressive solutions.”