(With extra pictures) Last night, 6 November, the five most important maritime awards were presented at the Maritime Awards Gala 2014. The gala was also the start of this year's Maritime Week.

The Wim Timmers Designers Award, Van Hengel-Spengler Award, Maritime Innovation Award, KVNR Shipping Award and the KNVTS Ship of the Year Award were presented to their respective winners by the evening’s hostess and TV-personality Anita Witzier and Ineke Dezentjé Hamming, president/general manager of FME-CWM.

Words of Welcome

This year the gala took place at Taets in Zaandam, the Netherlands and welcomed some 860 maritime professionals, politicians and press. The guests were first welcomed by chairman of the Maritime Awards Foundation Willem Laros. His speech was followed by a word of welcome from Arie kraaijeveld, president of Nederland Maritiem Land. Lastly, it was Ineke Dezentjé Hamming who took the stage.
All three praised the Dutch maritime industry for its innovative strength, its focus on being better than the rest, and its co-operation in the cluster.

Though there was a word of warning in the need for new engineers. Although the number of maritime students increases, there is still great need of new employees. And with the competition on our heels, there is no time to sit back and relax

Welcome to the Movies

This year’s gala theme was “Welcome to the Movies”, with the maritime awards being the Oscars and music and dance acts inspired by different movies, such as Men in Black and James Bond.

Of course, guests were treated to a luxurious dinner and walking dessert and afterparty.

The Five Winners

  • The Wim Timmers Designers Award: Emiel Mobron of the Delft University of Technology/Dykstra Naval Architects – method for wind propulsion of cargo ships.
  • The Royal Netherlands Navy Van Hengel-Spengler award: Guus van Fulpen – The More Electric Submarine
  • Maritime Innovation Award: Dynamic Marine Systems – AntiRoll, a roll damping system for superyachts.
  • The KVNR Shipping Award: Van Oord – Aeolus
  • The KNVTS Ship of the Year Award: Damen Shipyards/KNRM – Nh1816

Maritime Week

Just like last year, the Maritime Awards Gala was also the kick-off for the Maritime Week. The theme of the week is “High Tech, Hands On” 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.

Organisation

The Maritime Awards Gala is organised by the Maritime Awards Foundation, which consists of Netherlands Maritime Technology, KVNR, KNVTS, NISS and the Royal Netherlands Navy. Main sponsors were Damen, Europort, Wärtsila, NNPC, Huisman and Nederland Maritiem Land.

The Maritime Awards Gala will celebrate its tenth edition in 2015. A date and venue were not yet announced, but chairman of the Maritime Awards Foundation Willem Laros hopes to be able to realise his dream of finding a venue ‘between ships, docks, welding installations and such’.

Picture: The Maritime Awards winners 2014 with jury presidents and presenters Anita Witzier and Ineke Dezentjé Hamming (by SWZM/G.J. de Boer).

Below a photo album of the Gala. All pictures have been taken by SWZ Maritime editor Gerrit de Boer. Pleas click the pop-out link (little squares at the bottom right) to view the pictures in their proper dimensions.