The 12th annual Seawork International exhibition and conference was up all round. • UP! 479 exhibitors – 10% up on last year • UP! 7049 visitors – 8% up on last year • UP! 789 overseas visitors – 11.2% up on last year
Overseas visitors showed a strong increase and were enhanced by naval attachés from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Chile. Captain Oscar Vargas, Head of the Chilean Naval mission was so impressed with his first visit to Seawork that he intends to return next year with members of his London team.
Most luxury hotels are open to anyone who wishes to stay. So will The Nautica, set in the cusp of a natural bay, in Novigrad, Istria (north west Croatia). However, this hotel was built specifically with sailors and their boats in mind.
Parking is at the back of the building. I must admit that, at first, I was not that keen (because I thought I was looking at the front). It was when I went to the actual front, facing the marina, that my view changed! Keeping the car park to the back of the building means that the views to the sea are unimpaired. The idea of putting parking somewhere that does not spoil views, is part of the new Istrian Ten Year Tourism Plan. From the car park, you enter through a tall space like an atrium, that goes all the way from front to back. Off to one side of the atrium, half-way down, is the entrance to the hotel. The concierge is lavishly adorned with leather, brass and luxury fittings.
Seawork International returns to its familiar quayside location in the working Port of Southampton for a 2009 edition which promises to surpass all the successful Seaworks which have gone before.
World Marine Market Worth £2 Trillion A research report by Marine South East valued the total marine market at £2 trillion in February this year. Now in its 12th successive year, Seawork is once again set to be the scene of successful deals between exhibitors and visitors converging on Southampton from all over the world for three days in June. With over 450 exhibitors and 35+ vessels, attracting 6,500 visitors all professionally involved in the commercial market, this is the one event you really can’t afford to miss.
At 40m (130ft) long, Banque Populaire V is the biggest trimaran ever built, and she was built with one purpose in mind - to wrest the coveted Jules Verne trophy for the fastest non-stop passage around the world from Orange II, Bruno Peyron's 110ft catamaran.
Here we see skipper Pascal Bidégorry putting his crew through their paces, making sure that both boat and crew are as ready as is possible when they set out to break the current record of 50 days and 16 hours.