Category three – Best solution to an identified electrical safety issue
SET Maritime & Electrical was established in 2011 by Mark Smith, an Electrical Contractor, Accredited Marine Surveyor and a Chartered Marine Engineer with over 40 years’ experience. While surveying hundreds of vessels and backed by extensive research and reading standards and legislation, Mark discovered that shore connections were not compliant with the Australian Standards. Non-compliant shore connections are a serious electrical hazard with a risk of electrocution.
Concerned that boat owners were unknowingly non-compliant and at risk of serious injury, Mark designed a compact ‘plug and play’ shore connection system called ESHORE. In 2018, Mark began designing a circuit arrangement that met the requirements to check polarity by undertaking a momentary test, which by design would stop current normally running through the protective earth. Additionally, the circuit design included an interlocked system. This allowed for the functionality of preventing power to be connected to the boat if polarity was incorrect. The design process took over three years of extensive research and development of circuit arrangements and prototypes prior to the actual manufacturing of the device.
ESHORE officially launched to the Australian market in May 2022. It is the only product on the market that has a momentary polarity test, and this unique patented design makes it the safest shore connection available.
