The official kick-off event of the project was held on the 12.11.2019. Among the participants where the project partners Port of Naantali and Ports of Stockholm as well as Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and Swedish Transport Administration. INEA, the EU instrument providing CEF funding, participated by video connection from Brussels. Also participants from Wega, the company assisting Meritaito and the project with the EU project related reporting, was on place.

The kick-off event was organized onboard the Icebreaker Sisu and her saloon provided excellent facilities for meeting and enjoying lunch for the about 20 participants. During the day the participants also had the chance to make a tour around the 70s built Icebreaker legend.

In the Kick-off the planned project activities and their current progress was reviewed. The first Cairns for the project have already been installed in the Port of Norvik (one of the Ports of Stockholm) and the first smart buoys are under construction at Meritaitos’ Buoy factory in Joensuu at moment. The first actual pilot-periods will start early spring next year and most of the buoys that will be tested will be developed and installed for trial during 2020.

The Sniffer buoy that will measure the SOx:s (sulphur oxide) content of the exhaust of passing vessels was presented with pictures from the assembly of the actual top of the buoy and there will be more information about this buoy on these pages in the near future.

The CEO of the Arctia group, Mr Maunu Visuri, presented the guests with the project coordinators Arctia/Meritaitos’ organization and wide field of business areas. Head of Business unit of Meritaito, mr Thomas Erlund, told participants about the background of the projects and how the intelligent fairway is part of the larger digitalization movement of the Maritime cluster. The project manager for the Intelligent Sea project, Mrs Nina Savijoki shared more details about the project actions, progress and planned schedule.

After this the project manager from INEA, mr Evert Mink, congratulated the parties for an interesting and topical subject and said he looked forward towards the next meeting in an year from now to get more information of the first pilots and buoys on place.

Mrs Anna Ryrfeldt from the Swedish Transport Administration, at the same time representing the Swedish CEF secretariat, informed the parties of the Swedish authority angle on how to distribute and approve information in the project.

The meeting was filled with optimism as the Intelligent Sea project results, once proved to be successful, will increase the safety and efficiency of the fairways through the help of digitalization.