The International Institute of Marine Surveying had a strong presence at the Seawork Exhibition, being held at Mayflower Park in Southampton for the first time. The show attracted over 7,000 visitors and continues to be one of the foremost commercial workboat shows and the largest such event in Europe.
It was an opportunity to meet many members from the UK and further afield as they popped by the stand, which was managed by John Kilhams with assistance from other members of the IIMS head office team.
The IIMS is a key member of the Small Craft Surveyors Forum and was heavily involved in organising this year’s seminar, which took place onboard the Ocean Scene that was moored up to the pontoon within the show. On Wednesday 14 June, four presentations took place covering a variety of topics. The seminar attracted a sizeable audience in excess of 60 surveyors and other interested parties.
IIMS CEO, Mike Schwarz, spoke passionately about the need for surveyors to enhance and to continue to develop their skills so that the overall standard increases. He then gave an overview of the IMCA CMID vessel inspector accreditation scheme which has been developed in the past year to assess the competency of those carrying out audits. He was followed to the podium by Chris Baldwin from IMCA itself, who explained in more detail about the need to drive up standards and to objectively assess the competency of auditors with particular reference to those involved in small commercial workboats. Chris Baker then spoke most knowledgeably about the stability issues associated with cranes on small workboats and even superyachts in a thought provoking presentation. The session was brought to a close by ‘paint expert’ Heather Morton, who works for Jeffrey Rodgers of the Contessa fame. As always, Heather delivered a first class presentation covering everything to what is paint to the different types there are, when and how to use them and how to inspect coatings.