From a bold idea first launched at a Hamburg trade fair to systems working in more than 40 countries - and through it all, many of the same people who built it from day one.
Twenty years ago this month, a small New Zealand team walked onto the show floor at SMM in Hamburg with something no one else in the room had: an affordable, wide-swath multibeam sonar system built for commercial fishing vessels, not just research ships and survey fleets. It was a bold bet that has paid off not only for the company but also for the thousands of customers that rely on it for their operations where it is the leading Multibeam Sonar for commercial fishing globally.
Today, WASSP marks that anniversary with thousands of systems working on vessels in over 40 countries, across commercial fishing, expedition and superyacht, hydrographic survey, defence, offshore energy and research. But ask anyone at WASSP what they're proudest of on this milestone, and the number they reach for first usually isn't sales figures or the global footprint - it's the people.
A team that stayed the course
Multibeam sonar is a young, specialist craft, and few technology companies get to keep the people who built it from the first prototype through two decades of growth. WASSP is proud to be one of them. Several members of today's team - across engineering, production and customer support - have been with the company since its earliest years, carrying the same hands-on understanding of the technology from the first units shipped to the systems going out the door today. That continuity shows up in every system WASSP builds: two decades of lessons learned on real vessels, in real conditions, are built into the platform.
"Twenty years is a long time in technology, but the real story isn't the years, it's the people. A remarkable number of the team who launched our first system are still with us today, They've helped shape every generation of the product, supported customers around the world, and passed that knowledge on to the next generation. That's a rare thing in any industry, and it's something we're incredibly proud of."
— Gareth Hodson, Managing Director
Twenty years of firsts
From that first launch at SMM in 2006, WASSP has grown to three product lines, multiple feature licenses, and a global dealer network that puts local support behind every system, wherever in the world it's working. The technology has found its way onto vessels doing everything from single-boat inshore fishing to wreck hunting and undersea volcano surveying - proof that a good idea, built well, travels a long way from where it started.
A division of ENL Group, who this year also celebrated 80 years of business, and now majority-owned by Furuno; one of the most established names in marine electronics, WASSP continues to invest in the platform for a widening range of applications, from commercial fishing to survey, superyacht, defence and energy.
Here's to the next chapter
WASSP isn't slowing down to celebrate - the team is already looking ahead to some exciting new product announcements in the coming months which would represent the next step in a mission that hasn't changed since 2006: putting real-time, user-focused data and visibility of the seabed and water column into the hands of the people who need it.
To the team who built it, the dealers who back it, and the customers who trust it on the water every day - thank you for twenty remarkable years. Here's to the next twenty.
