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METS 2006 Wrap-up
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 20-NOV-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - HydroComp Technical Director
I'm writing this on the 7+ hour flight back to the
US from METS 2006 in Amsterdam. (Why are all of the marine trade
shows compressed into a few weeks in the autumn? At least it seems that
way...)
The weather in Amsterdam was pretty mediocre this trip (is the weather
in Amsterdam really ever sunny?), the pizza is not like we find at home
(only so-so, for me), but the steak was great and the accompanying
bottle of Argentine Malbec wine was first rate. A hint to attendees of
conventions at the RAI Convention Centre - the Pakistani restaurant on
Scheldestraat is quite nice. Go for the Chicken Saag or the Rogen Josh.
This morning I was out finishing up some errands before heading off to
the airport, and I strolled upon something wonderful - a schoolyard full
of young students outside dancing to blaring tunes from the musical
"Fame". Their obvious joy just radiated through the small
crowd of passersby that grew around them. After the frenetic pace of a
trade show, it was a nice reminder of what is really important.
So, what's the news from METS? Stephanie McArdle, who runs our EU
operations from Ireland, and I were at a stand with Nick Danese from
Design Systems. Nick is our agent for NavCad, SwiftCraft and SwiftTrial
in Europe, and has been part of the HydroComp family for fifteen years.
The stand was both HydroComp and RhinoMarine, a marine design plug-in
for Rhino. (HydroComp is the developer of the performance module for
RhinoMarine.) It was great to also spend time with Bruce Hays (Proteus
Engineering) and Carlos Pérez (McNeel Europe). Lots of plans were
discussed regarding the HydroComp products that interface with Rhino,
including some new Rhino tricks for PropCad that we'll be sharing with
you shortly in the Tips
section of the blog.
It seemed to me that there were more electric propulsion options
displayed this year than in years past. Perhaps this is a growing trend.
We saw some of our more recent work in this field displayed at METS,
including the Weedless Wedge 2 trolling motor propeller, which we
redesigned for Minn Kota a couple of years ago. There were also the
usual authors of fabulous new ideas to shake up the world of marine
propulsion. Some were students, and you can appreciate their interest
and passion. When tempered with knowledge and experience, these students
will surely be successful in the field. Then there were those espousing
ideas of pure fantasy, some of whom should really know better...
In "family" news, SPW Sail Propeller - user of both PropExpert
and PropCad - announced a new approval for their sailing propellers from
a major engine builder and also type approval from a major
classification society. Congratulations, Jorg. I particularly enjoyed
meeting long-standing customers for the first time, such as Enrique
Solé (Solé
Diesel), Sener Eris (Eris Propeller), Ton Aarts (ADT Dieseltechniek),
Kyriakos Tzompanakis (Tzompanakis Propeller), as well as new customers
including Glenndle Sim (Mencast Marine), Massimo Stori (Ecomet) - to
name a few.
To close this entry from 34000 feet, let me just remark on how much I
find in common amongst propulsion people regardless of their country of
origin. Business models, problems with customers, multi-generational
family run businesses, and many other characteristics are surprisingly
similar. We had a virtual United Nations at our PropExpert training
seminar (more on the seminar later), with representatives from Croatia,
France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, UK, and of
course, "yours truly" from the USA.
It's not world peace, but perhaps a very small step none-the-less.
Links:
ADT Dieseltechniek - www.adtbv.nl
Ecomet - www.ecometsas.it
Eris Propellers - www.erispropellers.com
McNeel Europe - www.en.emea.mcneel.com
Mencast Marine - www.mencast.com.sg
Proteus Engineering - www.rhinomarine3d.com
Sole' Diesel - www.solediesel.com
SPW Sail Propeller - www.spw-gmbh.de
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