I wrote a few weeks ago about the importance of protecting your boat and marine equipment.
Since then I have been talking to a man who has developed a unique system to prevent thieves stealing outboard engines, of which thefts there has been a huge increase in the past 18 months, according to Gardai.
Kevin Hennessy describes his company as “a small Irish tech operation.” He is based in Youghal on the East Cork coastline, not far from the studios of Community Radio Youghal where my radio programme, THIS ISLAND NATION, is produced and which you can hear below.
Kevin’s company may be a “small tech operation” but it is setting international headlines with the development of a digital padlock to protect outboards and foil thieves, who seem to have been operating in organised gangs to steal engines.
Kevin, a boating enthusiast, began with BOATWARDEN and has now created OUTBOARDWARDEN. In his premises I saw an impressive system monitoring boat security in several parts of the world. His new system has been adopted by one of the biggest engine distributors in Britain and is this week being introduced at the world’s largest marine equipment trade show in Amsterdam. This is METSTRADE, where over 20,000 professionals from 112 countries gather.
Kevin Hennessy describes what his company has achieved.
A padlock on an outboard is not easy to develop I said to him when I began interviewing him.
You can hear how he overcame that difficult developmental challenge by listening to THIS ISLAND NATION Podcast below.
Kevin Hennessy with Ben Aken, General Manager of Barrus, the UK’s largest engine distributor which is distributing the Outboardwaren protective system with their engines
Published in Island Nation
Published in
Island Nation
Tagged under
We've got a favour to ask
More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.
Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.
So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.
