Today is the first day of the Radio Gdańsk Maritime Forum. During the evening gala two awards will be presented

This year's award will go to Shipbuilding SA Shipbuilding Shipyard, in which the ORP Kormoran flying the flag of the Polish Navy was built. The winner was selected by the media from the Pomeranian and West Pomeranian voivodships dealing with maritime topics.

ORP Kormoran is the first of the three design vessels 258 Kormoran II, intended to search for, identify and combat seamines and other explosives in water tone and at the bottom. A magnetic steel hull provides a very low physical field signature. Integrated systems: command, passive defense, underwater observation, hydrolocation stations, remote-controlled vehicles and charges to destroy mines.

More about ORP Kormoran in a memo on nominated ships.

– Widely understood maritime theme is one of the most important elements of the economy and social life in Pomerania, as well as one of the main themes of many broadcasts of Radio Gdańsk. One of the most important problems in the maritime industry is the situation of the shipbuilding industry. The idea to award the ship of the year was that we want to clearly support Polish shipyards, we want to show what is good in them – says Adam Chmielecki, president and editor-in-chief of Radio Gdańsk. "I am very glad that both industry organisations and other media have joined our initiative. The Ship of the Year award is presented during the Radio Gdańsk Maritime Forum, but it is a prize from the media environment.

– The procedure for selecting the Ship of the Year is two steps – explains Artur Kiełbasiński, secretary of the editorial board of Radio Gdańsk. "In the first stage, industry organizations nominated ships that deserved a prize in their opinion. In the second stage, the editorial board voted. By creating such a model of choice, we were guided by the belief that there was a double verification. Firstly, we have a guarantee that non-random units have been nominated, with specific technical values. And by putting the decision in the hands of the cooperating media, we wanted to assess these ships in terms of their impact on society and their impact on the entire industry.

We invited three industry organizations to nominate ships.

– Polish Maritime Technology Forum

– Ship Forum

The Marine and Space Cluster.

The notification criteria were clearly defined. The term "ship" was extended. The organizers also allowed the nomination of yachts, ships and e.g. floating technical units. However, the condition was that the unit be handed over to the shipowner, i.e. it was not possible to nominate fragments of ships made, for example, on behalf of other shipyards. The unit was also to be characterised by technical innovation. However, it did not matter in which Polish shipyard the ship was built. As a result, there were nominations of ships built in shipyards and rivers. The rules also allowed the nomination for the award of particularly complex, innovative repair work and ship conversion.

The award was awarded for the first time, so the organizers also flexibly treated the time of building the ship and giving it to the shipowner.

– 2020 was specific due to the covid pandemic19, so we allowed the ships built before 2020 to compete," explains Kiełbasinski.

Of the proposals submitted, the invited editors indicated 2 units, the first receiving 2 points and the second receiving 1 point.

The selection of the Ship of the Year was attended by:

– Regional broadcast: Radio Gdańsk, Radio Koszalin, Radio Szczecin.

– TVP centres (TVP Gdańsk, TVP Szczecin).

– regional newspapers Polish Press based in Gdańsk and Szczecin (Baltic Journal, Szczeciński Voice).

– Gdansk Newspaper

Media branżowe:

– wydawca dwutygodnika Namiary na Morze i Handel

– wydawca BTJ

– portalmorski.pl

– gospodarkamorska.pl

– portalstoczniowy.pl

Source: Radio Gdansk