AWARDS 2021 | Best Davit Supplier – Vestdavit

Best Davit Supplier – Vestdavit

Bergen, Norway-based Vestdavit has been designing and manufacturing safe, easy, low-maintenance, and reliable davits for launching and recovering smaller vessels from their mother ships. These davits are globally renowned and fitted to fishing boats, offshore service vessels, warships, coastguard ships, cargo vessels, oceanographic ships and ferries.

Vestdavit’s nearly fifty years of experience shows clearly in every davit they fit.

“We believe our focus on advanced functionality and increased reliability has driven our success in recent years,” Vestdavit told Baird Maritime. “As regards functionality, this means our systems have a wider operational window than any equivalent systems on the market today. By this, we refer to our ability to seamlessly integrate shock-absorbing technology, tensioning technology, and even programmable logic control into our systems.”

The company said this combination provides the highest levels of safety and security for workboats, their crews, and even their motherships.

Meanwhile, the focus on developing systems with high-quality components and materials means Vestdavit has been able to supply the market with the world’s most reliable davit systems.

“On average, the lifetime cost of a Vestdavit is lower than any competing system as this focus on development and build quality translates into significantly lower through life costs.”

Vestdavit added that the focus on developing bespoke systems in cooperation with clients is what ultimately sets the company apart from its competitors. Bespoke systems will be better suited to the requirements of each client compared to “one size fits all” alternatives.

“Additionally, we react nimbly to challenges from our clients throughout the project lifestyle on account of that we are a relatively compact company.”

Vestdavit’s goal over the coming years from a commercial perspective will be to continue to develop workboat systems that support offshore energy companies after it became evident that vessels such as crewboats and windfarm support vessels for are having to work in increasingly challenging conditions.

“To this end, we will be placing a great deal of emphasis on our PLD series of workboat davits, which are produced in a modular fashion to allow for easier maintenance. The PLD series has developed in the last three years from a four-tonne maximum working load (MWL) prototype, to the versions that are capable of handling MWLs of up to 15 tonnes. We also have a 20-tonne version on the drawing board.”

Even as Covid-19 continued well into 2021, it was “a record year” for Vestdavit.

“Not only have we seen a 20 per cent increase in sales,” the company told Baird Maritime, “but we have consolidated our operations by bringing our production in-house and developing new sales and support hubs, through expanding our USA office and opening a new office in the Netherlands.”

Vestdavit has also renewed its focus on implementing company-wide digitisation initiatives and encouraging wider innovation.

“This innovation applies to everything that we do, be it new product development or rolling out remote servicing systems, for example. We are optimistic that with this focus, we will realise our strategic objectives and therefore be able to invest in growing over the next few years.”

With regards to the coming years, Vestdavit’s efforts will concentrate on producing systems that are not only larger, but also “smarter”.

“We will be focusing on implementing remote monitoring technology for our systems,” the company told Baird Maritime, “allowing us to take an even more proactive approach to preventative maintenance, thereby saving our clients both time and money by keeping their systems running optimally for as long as possible.”

Vestdavit will also continue to look at how it can help the maritime industry – both the commercial and defence and security sectors – in the integration of unmanned craft onto their vessels.

“Our systems provide the interface between these expensive craft and their mother vessels, and thus we will focus on making our systems robust and effective in this role,” the company said.

For a list of the 2021 “Best Of” award winners, please click here.