Seventh European International Submarine Races concludes with new record
What a joyous and quirky story this is. An event dedicated to human-powered submarines. This should be an Olympic sport!
The 2026 European International Submarine Races took place at QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin in Gosport, UK, with five days of competition between university teams from around the world. Defending champions Team OMER, from École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) in Montréal, retained their title, winning the Hill Trophy and recording the fastest run of the competition at 6.36 knots. Continue reading “What caught my eye: September 2026”
I have picked up this story to share simply because it is heartwarming. These days, we bash our kids for spending too much time in front of their gaming machines or whiling away endless hours on social media. But clearly this is not for 15-year-old Archie Law, who rescued two men who fell from an inflatable toy boat off the Isle of Skye in Scotland, after spotting them drifting in Broadford Bay. He took his own boat out to help and rescue them.
Oh, the ingenuity of it all. Whatever next? On-water golf, it seems!
Recently, I attended the annual Certifying Authority BCC meeting at the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) in Southampton, which drew about 40 attendees. All the UK Certifying Authorities and the Recognised Organisations were represented and present. We were joined by senior and key MCA personnel and others from the Jersey and Cayman Islands registries. For the large part, it was business as usual as the regulator announced new initiatives, interpretations and to give a general news update on a series of policies and ongoing work behind the scenes. 
This is not the first time that floating sauna stories have come to my attention, so clearly, you can see I am fascinated by this concept. It is just, well, so whacky!
It troubles me once again that I feel the need to start this month’s column by raising the topic of lithium-ion battery fires, especially as the story I want to share with you is a land-based one that happened recently, and not a maritime disaster. You may know of my keen interest in this technology and the challenges surrounding it. The incident I want to speak about, and share with you, is a massive fire in the Scottish city of Glasgow. A major fire broke out in a vape shop adjacent to the city’s main railway station. Over the coming hours, the fire 
This month, I want to address the matter of recurring safety issues in our industry, and I pose the simple question, to which there is no easy answer: “What are the barriers to progress?” Of course, I don’t have the answers, but as a joined up, interconnected industry, perhaps we could do as we seek to make incisive inroads into ship, crew and vessel safety. Over the years, the realisation for enhanced safety training and mechanisms has grown and is now accepted as the norm, as has their implementation, but still, we see the same old type of incidents and accidents recurring.