Ask yourself this question: what are the chances of finding a marine VHF radio two weeks after losing it over side of the boat and it working straight away…. unlikely?

This actually happened to the team at Coastworks Operations Ltd.

Coastworks Operations Ltd is a marine plant hire business very much at the heart of the marine industry. They own and charter workboats, pontoons, flat-top cranes and excavator barges to the marine construction, harbour maintenance and renewable energy industries throughout the UK and Europe. Their need for reliable Marine VHF equipment is very important.

They lost an Icom IC-M33 VHF marine radio over the side with the expectation that they probably wouldn’t see it again. Two weeks later, the radio was retrieved….and still worked (as you can see by the picture.) Ross Hepburn of Coastworks workboats tugs & barges said: “We use VHF handportables primarily as a backup for communication to our inbuilt VHF’s but on this job they are used to communicate between the tug, excavator barge and excavator driver. Unfortunately, it was lost over the side in the middle of January.”

“It came as a great surprise to us when the radio was found on the 31st January 2012 on Balmedie Beach about 12 miles north of Aberdeen by a man called Ian Fraser,” he added. “The radio was covered in sand but still working perfectly.”

“We are amazed, even though it is waterproof, that it was still working; we definitely thought we had lost it for good. To have made its way out if the harbour and then 12 miles further north and still be working is real testament to the quality of the radio.”

Ross concluded: “We have a couple of different types of handheld VHF and we wanted to standardise, but weren’t sure which company to go with, however now on we will definitely be buying them from Icom.”

Ian Lockyer, Marketing Manager of Icom UK Ltd, said they hear this kind of story regularly. “I think that they [the stories] demonstrate the quality that you are getting when you purchase Icom products,” he added.

Click here to view Icom’s current range of Marine VHF two way handheld radios.

Icom Marketing: marketing@icomuk.co.uk