Sea Sure named joint winners of innovation awards in offshore wind sector
by Jake Young 10 Sep 2020 08:17 PDT
Inside the Sea Sure factory © Sea Sure
Sea Sure, the innovative Warsash based company which designs, manufactures and supplies a vast array of boating essentials to the marine industry (from shock mitigation seats to classic Blakes marine toilets), is delighted to announce that its design for transportation seat hoods has won an innovation contest.
The contest was set-up in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic to find ways in which people can be kept as safe as possible, specifically in the offshore wind sector. Sea Sure rose to the challenge as it's well known for designing products to deal with real world problems.
With social distancing severely reducing the number of offshore wind turbine technicians permitted to undertake wind farm inspections, maintenance and repairs, the cross-sector crew transfer vessel (CTV) innovation challenge was set up by G+ Global Offshore Wind Health & Safety Organisation (in partnership with ORE Catapult, KTN and the Workboat Association).
Graham Brown, MD, worked with the Sea Sure team to create a seat hood which can be retro-fitted to transfer vessels.
"We approached the contest with the idea of prevention of transmission of Covid-19," he says. "How do we keep people safe who are travelling on long trips, while wearing other PPE required at sea, like life jackets and immersion suits?
"We wanted to keep our answer simple, to work with different seat designs, and different configurations. We've made a pull-down hood to attach to armrests. This means that people aren't constrained in any way.
"We've used existing air purification technology - a couple actually - including a UV light and a filtration system pumped straight to it.
"It's a practical solution for operators to keep people safe on long journeys. And we've used off the shelf components to make it a financially viable, universal solution."
Graham Brown is no stranger to innovation. His successful designs, which are sold globally by Sea Sure, are often borne from solving problems in a practical, efficient manner. The company's premises in Warsash is testament to that spirit of innovation and Graham is proud that, through lockdown, Sea Sure has been designing and manufacturing solutions to help companies reopen in a covid-secure manner.
Kerrie Forster, Chief Executive of the Workboat Association, states: "The winners have different offers which, if implemented in combination, would provide some coordinated versatile controls to prevent the spread of virus's whilst travelling on board workboats."
For more information on Sea Sure and its innovative designs and manufacturing capabilities contact 01489 885 401 or sales@sea-sure.co.uk.