BMEA

Sunseeker International has announced that Raymarine products will be fitted as standard on Sunseeker’s range – from the Superhawk 43 Portofino 47 through the Portofino, Manhattan, Predator, and Superhawk Yacht models – up to the 30 Metre Yacht.

Two McMurdo EPIRBs and two McMurdo Fast Find PLBs were recently used to save the crew of Tony Bullimore’s 102ft racing catamaran Spirit of Antigua when she capsized some 120 miles SSW of Brest last night. Bullimore was not on board.

Derek Gilbert, Customer Support Manager at Raymarine UK Ltd, has been appointed as the Chairman of the British Marine Electronics Association. The BMEA is a group association of the British Marine Federation, and organises industry-relevant training and qualifications, standards, codes of conduct, annual conferences and events, and industry newsletters and communications.

The British Marine Electronics Association (BMEA) Conference 2010, sponsored by Victron Energy, took place on 20th October at the Portsmouth Marriott Hotel. The event sponsored by Victron Energy had over 80 delegates from all over the marine electronic and electrical sectors of the marine industry. This year’s conference included a number of presentations by distinguished speakers and members of the BMEA committee.

Tony Johns, BMEA Secretary won the new “BMEA Lifetime Achievement Award” for his contribution for almost half a century to the leisure marine electrics/electronics industry. Tony said on being given this award,’ I am absolutely gob smacked. I was totally surprised…didn’t have a clue that this was coming. I am extremely honoured and touched to have received this award.’

The “BMEA Newly Certificated Technician of the Year” award was made to Andrew Fogg of Piper Boats Ltd. Based in Biddulph, North Staffordshire, Piper Boats Ltd has over 40 years of experience in narrow boat building. Andrew himself has spent 5 years in the marine industry having previously spent 14 years as an auto electrician. Andrew recently completed the BMET (British Marine Electrical Technician) training and received his certification this year, making him eligible to enter the award.

The winner of the “BMEA Dealer of the Year Award”, sponsored by Garmin was Landau UK Ltd. Chris Doran of Landau UK Ltd said, ‘Landau UK Ltd is very honoured to win this award for the second year running. Landau actively seeks feedback from our customers and winning this award means, as a team we are getting it right. This said, we still feel there are improvements to make and new ways to continue to strive to meet or exceed our goals coupled with customer expectations.’

The winner of the “BMEA Product of the Year”, sponsored by Boating Business was Actisense for the second year running for their NGT-1 NMEA 2000 to NMEA 0183 Gateway. Commendations were awarded to Garmin for its GPSMAP 750 and Mastervolt for its 24V Lithium Ion Battery

There are two new dates for the popular ‘Marine Electronics Installer’ course:

The organizers of the METS show in Amsterdam have highlighted the NMEA 2000 Connect Fest as one of the major events of the 2010 Show. The NMEA 2000 Connect Fest will be an ALL DAY EVENT beginning at 10:00AM Wednesday November 17. The organizers are providing a premier location for the NMEA 2000 Connect Fest. We can only accept NMEA 2000 Certified Products in order for your participation