Celebrating Lankhorst Academy’s 1st Year

In early 2024 Lankhorst launched Lankhorst Academy , a dedicated rope training resource for the maritime and offshore industries. To mark the first anniversary, we spoke to Lankhorst Ropes senior application engineer and academy instructor, Pedro de Jager.

Congratulations on Lankhorst Academy's first year. What difference have the new facilities made?

Having a dedicated training space with custom-built equipment has had a big impact. Lankhorst Academy was designed to better share our knowledge of ropes and how they should be used, enabling crews to understand rope behavior, handling and inspection as well as how to meet the unique challenges their maritime or offshore applications face.

The room also gets used a lot for technical meetings; we've even had the pleasure of welcoming local students studying a Technical and Maritime program at Het Loket Zwijndrecht, helping them to begin developing essential seamanship skills, including tying knots and splicing ropes.

Do you have any highlights?

So much. Every course has been great but for me I think the session with the Avient team was the most fun one. We did a deep dive into ropes and rope manufacturing before letting them get to grips with Eurofloat Premium and putting their spicing skills to the test.

It was also fantastic to be able to take Lankhorst Academy on tour from Dordrecht to Malaysia and Singapore for our customers in Southeast Asia. We want to empower all our customers around the world with the latest rope knowledge and skills so they can work safely and efficiently.

Will the Academy's offering evolve in its second year?

Of course. We have learned a lot from running the sessions and continually adapt the course's content to the latest industry guidelines and best practice as well as to any changes in Lankhorst's range of ropes. Also, they'll be more flexibility as courses won't have fixed dates anymore; instead, sessions will be directly planned and agreed with clients.

What can attendees expect from Lankhorst Academy?

Every course has a good mix of theory and practice, whether you want to learn the basics or hone your skills. We have a great team with Renzo Romano, who brings over 30 years' experience to our practical training, Jelle van der Ven, whose engineering & testing background makes him ideal to teach the theory, and myself.

Together we designed each training session around the knowledge and abilities that crews need to be able to safely and efficiently use their ropes, whether they're mooring, towing or lifting. But the highlight for most people is testing ropes to their breaking point on our testbed. It's an exciting experience and a great way to learn about how and why ropes behave the way they do under excessive loads. 

Get in touch to secure your date at Lankhorst Academy or find out more at www.lankhorst-academy.com