(With photo album) Last night, the five most important maritime awards were presented at the Maritime Awards Gala 2013. The gala was also the start of this year's Maritime Week.
The KVNR Shipping Award, the KNVTS Ship of the Year award, the Royal Netherlands Navy Van Hengel-Spengler award, the VNSI Timmersprijs and HME Maritime Innovation Award are all meant to reward the innovative efforts of shipping companies, shipyards, students, designers and suppliers.
Largest Ever
Just like last year, Anita Witzier presented the show. The different jury presidents presented the awards. This year's Maritime Awards Gala was again the largest ever with 900 maritime professionals attending. The event took place at "De Broodfabriek" in Rijswijk, the Netherlands.
With a little delay due to the almost traditional bottleneck of handing out the participants' name tags, tahe audience was welcomed by chairman of the Maritime Awards Foundation Pim van Gulpen and secretary general of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, Siebe Riedstra, who represented the Minister, who could not attend. The Minister will be present for the opening of trade fair Europort that takes place 5-8 November at Ahoy, Rotterdam.
Maritime Week
The Maritime Awards Gala is the start of the Maritime Week that takes place 31 October – 9 November. The theme of the week is "Together Prosperous" and will focus on the innovative character, trade spirit and sustainable focus of maritime industry.
During this week, another record attempt will be made to host as many maritime guest lectures as possible with a view to interest young people for a career in maritime industry. Although the number of maritime students steadily increases, more are needed to stay a competitive industry.
The other big events during this week is Europort that will also host many conferences and open days at different Damen yards.
Young Maritime Representatives
After Pim van Gulpen and Siebe Riedstra, Arie kraaijeveld, president of Nederland Maritiem Land, took the stage. He announced the first ever Young Maritime Representatives. In the coming year Michelle van der Wees, who had to take a crash course in mathematics and physics to be able to start a maritime study, and Coen Bouhuys, who will write a blog, will be the face of maritime industry and will try to inspire young people to choose a maritime career.
The Five Winners
- The KVNR Shipping Award: Heerema Marine Contractors – Deepwater Construction Vessel Aegir
- The KNVTS Ship of the Year award: Peters Shipyards – Inland LNG tanker Greenstream
- The Royal Netherlands Navy Van Hengel-Spengler award: Jordy van de Mheen – Submarine Power System Design Tool with Graphical User Interface
- The VNSI Timmersprijs: Jan van der Zee – Collaborative Design Tools
- HME Maritime Innovation Award: Kranendonk Production Systems – Edge Preparation Systems
Organisation
The Maritime Awards Gala is organised by the Maritime Awards Foundation, which consists of the Holland Shipbuilding Association, KVNR, KNVTS, NISS and the Royal Navy. Main sponsors were NNPC, IHC Merwede, Damen Shipyards, Wärtsilä Netherlands, Europort, Navingo and Nederland Maritiem Land.
The Maritime Awards Gala 2014 takes place 6 November 2014.
Below a photo album of the Gala. All pictures have been taken by SWZ Maritime editor Gerrit de Boer. Pleas click the pop-out linke (little squares at the bottom right) to view the pictures in their proper dimensions.
