It was good to see that with the PartnerSHIP symposium “From Tideman to Dutch Naval Design” held on 7 February at the Marine Etablissement in Amsterdam, the Golden Triangle of cooperation between Defence (government), knowledge institutes and industry is back in full force. For with his observation that the Golden Triangle is not a luxury, but a necessity, former De Schelde director and former KNVTS chairman Willem Laros is absolutely right.
Without the Golden Triangle, we in the Netherlands cannot build the naval vessels we need to safeguard Europe from Putin tyranny. And I think the editors of SWZ|Maritime can be proud that we were able to contribute to this with the Tideman special in our January edition.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s January 2025 issue: Tideman special and optimistic 2025
Special on maritime education
But who will supply all those young people who will have to shape the Golden Triangle, do all the research to develop a completely new fleet for the Royal Netherlands Navy and start building those ships? The development and construction of the new fleet is going to take something like thirty years.
Many of today’s young people in their thirties and forties will have to do that work, but eventually also young people who are now of school-going age and have yet to make their career choices. In this respect, education is crucial to train the people we will need later and in fact already now.
Hence our annual focus on education in this February issue. Our fellow editor Annelinde Gerritsen has once again managed to gather a number of interesting articles on maritime education for, in this case, superyacht construction in particular, the training of officers for our merchant navy and the cooperation between industry and TU Delft. Get inspired and pass this issue on to young people to show how exciting a job in the maritime industry can be.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s December 2024 issue: Finland and the quest for clean fuels
Technology in focus
And SWZ|Maritime would not be what it is without extensive coverage of technology. This time in the form of an article by SNSPOOL Manager Reinier Dick on the role of digitalisation in vessel routing. And an article on a revolutionary new electricity transmission system for powering, in this case, inland waterway vessels.
Our contributor Rui Costa delivered the first article of a three-part series on the meteoric development of drones in the navies. And don’t forget to read Willem de Jong’s article on how China has seized the global shipbuilding industry.
This is editor-in-chief Antoon Oosting’s editorial accompanying the February 2025 issue.
SWZ app and archive
Our digital archive is available to subscribers both online and in our new app (available for Android and Iphone) and they can read the digitial version of our February issue there. Not yet a subscriber? Visit our subscription page.
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s November 2024 issue: Digitalisation and offshore energy
The articles in SWZ|Maritime’s February issue
In addition to the regular sections such as Dutch news, Markets, Global news, news from the KNVTS and Mars Report, the articles in the February issue are:
- TU Delft versterkt innovatie bij Alewijnse
- Werkervaringsproject Mira bij Feadship
- De Super Yacht Builders Academy
- Wijziging Rijnpatent voor binnenvaartschippers
- Hoe de KVNR jongeren de zee op wil krijgen
- How China became the shipbuilder of the world
- The race for the hybrid fleet
- A new electric current transfer system
- Optimising SNSPOOL voyage scheduling with ALNS
- Expositie Amsterdamse rederijen van start
- CEDA – Innovating for the future, an interview with Royal IHC’s CEO Derk te Bokkel
Picture: Holland Shipyards Group completed a special project this month: the one-off cable recovery vessel Maasvliet. Read more about this special vessel in our news item (photo Holland Shipyards Group, cover picture of SWZ|Maritime’s February 2025 issue).
Also read: SWZ|Maritime’s October 2024 issue: If you can’t appreciate the small…
