New Zealand maritime manufacturer Coppins Para Sea Anchors has secured a multimillion-dollar contract to supply anchors to a Norwegian salvage company. The family business firm based in Motueka on the South Island has sent the first of two one-tonne sea anchors to the Norwegian Coast Guard. Coppins Outdoor Centre owner and designer Bill Coppins has been devising ways of stopping and steering vessels using the underwater fabric parachute-style anchors, which work by displacing water, since the mid-1970s. Coppins' competitors failed when their sea anchors blew out in testing. Bill claimed that what it took the other companies seven years to do; his firm had to do in seven months.