Seawork is Europe’s leading tradeshow for the commercial marine sector. Located in Southampton Docks, there’s a pontoon’s-worth of boats in the water and marquees stacked full of gear on land.
Seawork gives us a chance to catch up with friends (some cold Guinness may have been consumed in the sun). We even had to enjoy the exhibitors attempt to avoid sinking in the cardboard boat regatta. The professional boat builders looked particularly pained by this event!
But more importantly we get to see how the commercial side of Marine is doing. So what did we find?
Overall – surprising optimism
Given what’s been going on in the world, we weren’t expecting to find such an upbeat atmosphere at Seawork.
There are still challenges facing the industry, but judging by what people were saying at the show, good things are happening in the solid industries like shipping, offshore energy and increasingly defence.
This is good, as there really is still so much to do, to decarbonise, clean things up and defend ourselves.
Sustainable Propulsion – Progress!
Talking of decarbonising, the shift toward lower emissions was evident across the show. Electric and hybrid propulsion systems are no longer niche concepts, but commercial systems rapidly expanding in real-world applications.
We caught up with a few pioneers of electric and hybrid marine propulsion, such as Ecomar (inboard and large outboard units) and RAD Propulsion (range of outboards). Rather than slapping an electric motor on an existing outboard leg, these are ground-up (or “prop-up”?) full-system re-designs to suit electric drive. This creates interesting new benefits and robust systems, well-suited for water taxis, harbour use, and inland vessels.
The design and engineering of these complete systems is impressive – with custom optimised marine battery packs, control systems, drive mechanisms, even bespoke propellers and throttles. That’s no small task, particularly when they operate in this highly corrosive, often unpredictable marine environment.
We also noticed a maturing of the conversation from “electric is! / isn’t! the solution”, to a better understanding of how different systems can fit together.
Until there’s a radical 10x improvement in battery power to weight and cost, then for longer-range, it’s hard to beat the power density and efficient infrastructure of liquid fuel.
So for the foreseeable future, sustainable propulsion is now a more nuanced choice combining full electric, hybrid, sustainable fuels (with more efficient diesel engines), with ammonia or hydrogen rapidly entering the fray.
Of course as a sailors, we love to see new modern sailing-ship concepts. Like wind turbine generation for electricity, the interesting question is not can we do this, but how could these fit in commercially?
Autonomous Vehicles & Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring, real-time diagnostics, and autonomous vessels are becoming more common, especially for offshore infrastructure.
In 2025 it’s now easy to envisage a world where the use of drones for wind turbines inspection, ROVs for repairing subsea cables, automatic surveying and aerial fishing vessel monitoring becomes the norm.
These kinds of systems have the potential to improve safety, reduce downtime, and often remove the need to put crews in dangerous or remote locations. For critical subsea infrastructure, we’ve seen first hand with Viper Innovations what a difference real time data monitoring can make, and it’s encouraging to see how widely this approach is now being adopted.
What Next?
There’s real energy in the commercial marine space right now, with lots of smaller, highly specialised companies driving innovation in highly specialised areas. As Andrew mentioned in his recent marine innovation article: it’s a fragmented sector, which is both a blessing and a curse.
At Seawork we’ve seen incredible innovation with a rich diversity of products and solutions on offer; but this fragmentation also means longer product cycles and a relatively high R&D cost.
If there’s a consistent theme it’s the need for better collaboration. Designers, manufacturers, operators, and end users all need to be part of the conversation to make a real dent in the challenges this industry faces. From fuel use to crew safety, design has a key role to play; and it works best when everyone’s involved early.
Conclusion
We left Seawork energised. The appetite for innovation is clear, and the marine sector is actively looking for smart, sustainable solutions. At Realise, we bring experience across industries from industrial machinery to consumer electronics and we’re excited to keep applying that thinking to help shape the future of marine.
Thanks to the organisers and everyone we spoke to!
See you at Seawork 2026.
