Nautical Structures has been leading the charge on tackling an industry-wide problem, and it’s a subject matter that should no longer be avoided, as it can be incredibly unsafe. “This specific subject has been the elephant in the room for years… If you talk to any captain or deckhand who’s been in the business for a number of years, they will tell you that, almost always, you’re putting a crewmember, or two, in a tender when you’re launching it – just because of logistics,” began Rick Thomas, Vice President of Sales.

"There’s been very little effort done by our industry to protect the crew with properly engineered and certified equipment..." - Rick Thomas, Vice President of Sales - Nautical Structures

“Understandably, the insurance companies that underwrite these boats don’t want to hear about that, and the class and flag states only want to know about it if it is being legitimately done; however, there’s been very little effort done by our industry to protect the crew with properly engineered and certified equipment to do so,” he continued.

Nautical Structures has, therefore, been developing specifications in tandem with flag and class working groups to put an end to this recurring problem. “We’re going to be revealing, later this year not only a white paper that talks about these problems, but also pointing to equipment that we’ve been building that is compliant and provides solutions. It’s a very unsafe practice unless done properly,” Thomas added in early 2020.

Nautical's current projects incorporate this issue, and the team has recently delivered several specialised and unique pieces of tender-handling equipment, and in production of another unique and specialised submarine-handling system. All of these are integrated into the structure of the yacht and certified for man-riding purposes.

We now ask you, the superyacht industry whether you differentiate between this value-added company and others within the same sector? Or perhaps you believe that all lifting/deployment equipment is the same? 

If you have a view on this matter of safety, now is your opportunity to share it in total confidence. All responses to the below survey will be kept 100 per cent anonymous and, as a gesture of thanks, all participants who complete the survey will be rewarded with a 12-month complimentary subscription to The Superyacht Report.

Click here to take part in the survey.

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