Earlier this week, a Cape Town-built JetRIB Sea Ranger received an Innovation Award at the International Maritime Rescue Federation’s annual celebration.
According to Eminetra, in a statement released on Friday, September 17, a member of the mayor’s committee responsible for economic opportunities and asset management, Alderman James Vos, welcomed the news.
“This week I had the opportunity to inspect this revolutionary boat at the Bellville shipyard of Droomers Yahama, who partnered with Admiral Powercats to design and produce the JetRIB”, says Vos.
“It was specially designed for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), which has decades of experience in conducting rescues along South Africa’s notoriously dangerous 3,000 km coastline,” Vos adds.
He called Cape Town’s boat builders industry leaders when it came to innovation, design and quality. It is the main aim in helping the Western Cape become the largest marine manufacturing centre in the country, reports IOL.
Vos confirmed that the industry generated more than R2.3 billion in 2018 in export earnings, and the province is home to 45% of South Africa’s boat builders.
Cape Town’s boat exports have grown by 20.5% year-on-year since 1014, with a trade balance of around R1.042 billion annually.
The industry has also provided over 11 000 jobs in Cape Town.
“One of my proudest moments as a member of mayco was launching the city-funded BlueCape, which works closely with businesses to expand the benefits of Cape Town’s ocean economy and create jobs and social improvement”, says Vos.
“BlueCape and its partners will focus on three areas of growth: marine manufacturing (boat building, surfboards, kites, sailing clothing, wetsuits, etc.); production and maintenance of superyachts; and ocean sports (recreation, events and adventure tourism),” Vos concluded.
Picture: Facebook / NSRI
