Simrad Inc News

The marine electronics world lost a pioneer with the passing of Willy Simonsen on December 4, 2003. Simonsen, who was 90 years old, was the co-founder and driving force behind Simrad, a company that is today part of the Kongsberg Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of marine electronics. It was in 1947 in postwar Norway that Simonsen joined with John Mustad (of Mustad fishhook fame) to form Simonsen Radio AS in Oslo, Norway. In the beginning, the partners focused on manufacturing high quality radio telephones.

The marine electronics world lost a pioneer with the passing of Willy Simonsen on December 4, 2003. Simonsen, who was 90 years old, was the co-founder and driving force behind Simrad, a company that is today part of the Kongsberg Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of marine electronics. It was in 1947 in postwar Norway that Simonsen joined with John Mustad (of Mustad fishhook fame) to form Simonsen Radio AS in Oslo, Norway. In the beginning, the partners focused on manufacturing high quality radio telephones.

The marine electronics world lost a pioneer with the passing of Willy Simonsen on December 4, 2003. Simonsen, who was 90 years old, was the co-founder and driving force behind Simrad, a company that is today part of the Kongsberg Group, the world's largest manufacturer of marine electronics. It was in 1947 in postwar Norway that Simonsen joined with John Mustad (of Mustad fishhook fame) to form Simonsen Radio AS in Oslo, Norway. In the beginning, the partners focused on manufacturing high quality radio telephones. Within a few years, the company expanded into development and production of echo sounders and sonars for commercial and military use, gaining a worldwide reputation for quality and superior technology.

The marine electronics world lost a pioneer with the passing of Willy Simonsen on December 4, 2003. Simonsen, who was 90 years old, was the co-founder and driving force behind Simrad, a company that is today part of the Kongsberg Group, the world's largest manufacturer of marine electronics. It was in 1947 in postwar Norway that Simonsen joined with John Mustad (of Mustad fishhook fame) to form Simonsen Radio AS in Oslo, Norway. In the beginning, the partners focused on manufacturing high quality radio telephones. Within a few years, the company expanded into development and production of echo sounders and sonars for commercial and military use, gaining a worldwide reputation for quality and superior technology.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the largest independent institution of its kind in the world, recently began developing a new piston corer for retrieving sediments from the ocean floor. Once complete in 2006, the deep-water coring system will be the largest in the U.S. and among the biggest in the world. The corer’s enormous weight — 25,000 pounds — coupled with the environmental demands associated with working in water up to 20,000 ft. deep presented major technical challenges to the system required to lower the corer to the sea floor then recover it, along with its ancient sediment samples. Located in Cape Cod, Mass.…

SIMRAD has expanded its sales team with the addition of Michael Lynn as its Commercial Sales Manager USA West Coast. Lynn will concentrate on working with SIMRAD dealers to facilitate sales to commercial fishing, tug boat, workboat, and coastal transportation customers. “Michael’s considerable experience in marine electronics as well as his superlative communications skills made him the obvious choice for this position,” said Brian Staton, president of SIMRAD Inc. Lynn, 53, brings more than 20 years of experience in the marine electronics industry including positions at Radio Holland, USA (Houston, TX), Raytheon Marine Co. (Nashua, NH) and Sea Mar Electronics Inc. (Seattle, WA). In addition, Lynn has five years of retail store management experience.

Simrad, Inc., a subsidiary of the Kongsberg Group and U.S./Canadian distributor for Simrad marine electronics, announced that Kongsberg has sold the company to Altor, a Nordic investment fund. The sale involved all four European Simrad factories, the holding company Simrad AS and distribution companies in addition to Simrad, Inc. including Simrad AB (Sweden), Simrad GmbH (Germany), Simrad SA (France), Simrad BV (the Netherlands) Simrad Srl (Italy), and Simrad Canada Ltd. “We view this as a very positive development for Simrad, Inc. and the marine electronics industry in North America,” said Brian Staton, President of Simrad, Inc. “This will result in a fresh wave of investment in our important recreational yachting and commercial markets.