Yachting, Dredging, education, lifting solutions, and Defence in the spotlights

 The Dutch national awards for maritime innovations were presented. The winners were honoured for their innovative, and striking contributions to the sector.

Out of 15 nominees, a professional jury selected five winners over the past few weeks, who received their awards in front of hundreds of people, incl. political and media representatives.

Maritime Ship of the Year Award
Royal van Lent/Feadship, MY Breakthrough

Royal van Lent/Feadship received this award for the nearly 119-meter superyacht Breakthrough. This is the first Twin Azipod hybrid diesel/hydrogen-electric superyacht with more than 3 MWh of fuel cell power and internal storage. Not only did the jury praise the innovation (and the regulations developed alongside the project), they also appreciated the fact that Royal van Lent/Feadship shares this technology with others.

Maritime Talent Award
Edwin de Hoog

Edwin de Hoog’s experimental research and newly developed computer simulations have provided new insights and methods for optimizing the transport process of sand-water mixtures in dredging pipelines. The jury is impressed by his ability to make a complex subject accessible to a wide audience and to the sector.

Maritime Innovation Award
Breman Innovation, Eye Catcher

Breman Innovation developed a remote-controlled lifting aid for connecting and disconnecting loads without human hands. According to the jury, Breman Innovation is a worthy winner, because Eye Catcher offers a simple technical solution for remotely placing and removing loads in hard-to-reach places without the need for human intervention. This is highly practical on locations such as wind farms.

Maritime Achievement Award
Silvan Floor

The Lecturer of nautical subjects (Rotterdam Mainport Institute) was honoured for his dedication and innovative teaching methods, among other things. Silvan himself says that, in addition to knowledge development, he considers “developing the ability to continue learning independently in changing cirtcumstances” to be very important for students. According to the jury, Silvan Floor is the teacher students will remember forever.

Maritime Security Award
Teun van Schriek

The Netherlands and Europe are increasingly facing threats on and under the sea. Teun van Schriek from the Royal Netherlands Navy has conducted research into modernizing existing tactics to optimize the search for submarines using AI.

The jury praises the immediate applicability of the research, which could directly lead to improvements in the tactics of the Royal Netherlands Navy and NATO units, and can be implemented immediately in helicopters to search for submarines.