Beyond the call of duty?It’s what we doJust as a ship was docking in the calm summer waters of a port in South America, a container ship carrying new Optimar equipment destined to update the vessel encountered the brutal winter conditions of the North Sea. The ship and crew survived the turbulence further north but many containers were lost or damaged, including those holding Optimar’s automated onboard-processing systems built specifically t modernize the ship in the south.“We assumed the vessel would be out of commission for a full season,”recalls Hitoshi Aita, president of Emdepes s/a Chile, that owns the ship.“this would have meant a tremendous loss of time and income.” “Fortunately, Optimar disagreed.” says Mr. Aita. They promised to have the vessel up and ready, just weeks after the original schedule, “a mission impossible given the time and distance we thought” remembers Aita. However Optimar came through, the ship in South America left the harbor with a fully operational state-of-the-art onboard fsh processing plant only fourteen days after the originally scheduled launch date. “I was very impressed that a company close to the Artic Circle could re-deliver the equipment to a ship at a shipyard in Chile within the time frame given . The result confrmed that our early decision to go with Optimar was correct,” concludes Hitoshi Aita. “There is no doubt in our minds about the future of this partnership. What Optimar achieved still seems incredible.”Optimar customers know our machines work in extreme conditions ? they know we do too!A long-liner fshing vessel enroute from New Zealand needed critical parts for its onboard loading and unloading elevators in order to continue its extended working voyage. Optimar’s frst challenge was to machine the parts as quickly as possible. The second and greater challenge was to get the parts to the vessel. The ship’s captain determined that the parts should rendezvous with the ship at the port closest to the point where the ship encountered the mechanical problems. It was vital that the parts be in port and ready for installation the moment the ship docked. The port of destination was St. Helena, a remote island in the southern Atlantic midway between Africa and South America. The island, a British colony until 1981, is most famous for the fact that Napoleon was detained there from 1815 until his death. For Optimar, an even more important fact was that the island had no airport and was itself accessible only by the Royal Mail Ship, sailing at intervals from Cape Town, Walvis or Ascension Island. The parts took the most direct air and sea routes possible and arrived in St. Helena well ahead of the vessel. Half a world and ocean away, Optimar delivered the order with the same precision it made the parts. Prompt delivery to remotest spotscoordinates: 15o57”S, 5o42”Wpopulation (2008): 4255area: 420 sq. kmShipping address: The Island of St. Helena, South Atlantic OceanIn November 2007, at the peak of the fshing season, a fre in an electrical cable-trace at the Norway Pelagic factory in Bodø, Norway, stopped the whole factory, and with considerable damage on the processing equipment.Before the ashes were cold ? and that doesn’t take long above the Artic Circle ? it was clear that the process of putting out the fre had caused a strange chemical reaction that left all the stainless steel equipment covered with acid spots.Fortunately, there were no injuries, but with the holiday season approaching the loss of time and income for the employees as well as the company was as damaging as the loss of the machines.When Optimar was called for advice, technicians were on site immediately, assessing the damage and determining what to replace and rebuilt to get the company up and running as quickly as possible.With round-the-clock, well-coordinated efforts by Optimar production and service teams, as well as other building and electrician supliers, Norway Pelagic celebrated the new year in a fresh, clean, rebuilt facility ? less than a month after Optimar received the emergency call for help.“Few companies would have had the resources or expertise to get us going again in such a short time,” says Helge Blålid, technical director at Norway Pelagic, “especially when you consider the extent of all the work required, and Optimar`s own busy schedule.”Optimar can’t help you avoid a catastrophe but we can help you recover in record time.