Staged by ICOMIA and IBI in collaboration, the Workshop on New Technologies and Manufacturing was aimed at boat builders operating internationally, and presented to a keen audience of industry specialists during Wednesday afternoon at METS.
The subjects were certainly varied and topical, ranging from glazing for yachts, through to production modularisation in leisure  boat building, and ISO standards and revisions.
Henning Von der Thusen from Tilse in Denmark kicked off the sessions with something that maybe few of us think too much about, but a highly critical component on any yacht….the windows!
During his presentation Henning pointed out that glass windows are ‘the eyes’ of the yacht, and of course the larger the vessel then the more performance critical the glazing becomes.
Steffen Mueller of Knierem Tooling then presented the facts behind mould construction using massive tooling machines up to 32 metres long, which offer high accuracy and lower production costs.
Nigel Calder a well known technical writer in the yachting industry, then gave some knowledgeable insights into the cost efficiency virtues of installing larger battery banks on yachts, and some key points about the significant differences between lead acid and lithium type batteries.
From the not-for-profit SINTEF Institute in Norway, Bjornar Henriksen delivered an interesting viewpoint on how modularisation on the boat builder’s shop floor can drive productivity, lower costs and engage workers in processes that enable positive changes in the final delivered product.
To top off this array of subjects the vision of the ‘Future of Yacht Design’, as seen by Augusto Villalon, together with the ISO revisions and Recreational Craft Directive talks by Nigel Saw and Udo Kleinitz respectively, gave a good look ahead for the delegates to chew over after the afternoon’s presentations.

From Peter Franklin