Over recent months South Shields based Solar Solve Marine has dispatched 13 shipsets of its SOLASAFE Type Approved roller sunscreens to Australia, to be installed at the wheelhouse windows of Sydney harbour ferries.
Sydney Ferries, brand name for a commuter ferry service operated by Harbour City Ferries across Sydney Harbour, Australia, operates 32 vessels, with the oldest continually-operating ships dating to the mid-1980s, and the youngest of the fleet dating to 2017.
Two of the ferries supplied are sister vessels FRIENDSHIP and SCARBOROUGH, both brought into service in 1986. They are each 25mt long with a displacement of 105 tons, have a speed of 12 knots and a maximum capacity of 403 passengers.
Their crew will now benefit from the protection given by the roller sunscreens, which have been manufactured using GOLD solar film, when they are pulled down and in use. The screens will reject 87% of the solar energy (heat), 93% of the glare and 99% of the UV light that would otherwise enter the wheelhouse if screens are not installed and in use.
Solar Solve chairman John Lightfoot MBE, commented, “A few weeks ago, in the part of her Commonwealth Day message that covered the Coronavirus situation, Her Majesty The Queen spoke of using innovative technology that offers an immediacy that transcends boundaries or division, to help any sense of distance to disappear.”
“In my website blog on the subject at that time, I referred to the fact that it is something those of us who trade and communicate globally, benefit from on an everyday basis and have done for decades. The Covid-19 situation has simply brought it to the attention of the wider public, especially the older generation.”
“There obviously was a time when international trade between the UK and Australia was quite a long-drawn-out process but that is not the case these days. With instant communication and response times, superfast manufacturing facilities and highly efficient express delivery services, orders from Sydney, received on a Wednesday, can be on the customers premises by the following Tuesday.”
“Shipowners don’t just need that sort of service; they now expect it. I am pleased to say that Solar Solve have all the people and systems in place to ensure that all of its customers get exactly what they want, exactly when and where they want it.”
“Our World Wide Distributor based in Australia did very well to win this contract.”
John H Lightfoot MBE
