Visit them and see great boats.

• Do not break.
  Structural failure often causes injuries.
  Structural failure causes down-time and repair costs.

• Do not corrode.
  Corrosion limits lifetime.
  Corrosion causes functional failure.
  Corrosion looks unprofessional and indicates a poor choice of materials.
  
  
• Do not need any maintenance.
  Maintenance is expensive and causes down-time.
  
  
• The lightest weight.
  Less weight means more payload or higher speed.
  
  
• The smallest footprint.
  Frees deck space for cargo or more crew.

• Watertight stowage volumes
  Up to 50 dm3 of stowage space in seat base

• Outperform any other jockey seats in terms of comfort.
  They are the result of 20 years of scientific research and engineering development.
  
  
• Reduce risk of injuries.
  Solid scientific unbiased proof is available on request.
  
  
• Reduce physical fatigue.
  Solid scientific unbiased proof is available on request.
  
  
• Do not bottom-out.
  Bottoming-out is inherently dangerous, and can give up to 3 times amplification of impact as opposed to the required reduction.
  Injuries can lead to lifelong suffering.
  Injuries can lead to legal claims.
  Bottoming-out is a design fault and seat manufacturers and operating authorities could be held liable for injuries.
  
  
• 3 years worldwide warranty – extendable.
  “They just don’t break”
  
  
• Comply with the EU directive*.
  Non-compliant solutions expose the employer to legal claims.
  Compliance demands use of “the best available technologies” to reduce exposure to impact.
  Just claiming that a seat is shock mitigating is not compliant.
  For details on EU-Directive and compliance see: EU Directive Summary
  
  
• Height adjustment where it is useful – for the feet.
  Height adjustability is normally not required.
  If it is required, (when users differ more than 40cm in stature), it should be done by providing different heights to locate the feet.
  Short operators don’t want to be seated lower.
  Tall operators don’t want to be seated higher.
  Seated eye-height level is most important and differs very little between tall and short persons.
  (Height adjustment by reducing travel of suspension is counter-productive and can be dangerous, as it causes bottoming-out.)
  
  
• Have been in use by professional operators in demanding operations for many years in more than 50 countries – with zero failures.
  Several professional user organizations have thoroughly and scientifically evaluated different seats and adopted Ullman seats as standard. Certificates from such agencies are available on request.
  
  
• Lower life cycle costs.
  Large sums can be saved on seats that last the lifetime of the boat.

RUSS RIBS 750 in full action

SeaRib’s Black Aggressor 888

Capsize tests and christening

http://www.redrib.nl

making of red rib

Revolver R42 – Muscles and cuddles. There is an aggressive soul in this boat

12.5M Cabin RIB for Patrol purposes. 2 x Volvo D6-370 top speed of 47+ knots.

The EU directive makes the employer or operating authority responsible for minimizing employees’ and passengers’ exposure to dangerous impacts on high-speed vessels, by providing the best available technical solutions, such as seats.

From a legal point of view only the best available solutions are acceptable.

Ullman Jockey seats are scientifically proven to be the most efficient means of reducing impact exposure on board high-speed boats.

Fitting a so-called suspension seat or shock mitigation seat will not make you compliant with the EU-directive.  Some “shock mitigation seats” on the market have the tendency to bottom-out and significantly amplify major impacts. 

Below you can see the vital parts of the EU Vibration Directive, and its implications for boat operators, explained:

EU Vibration Directive – Summary for Boat Operations

Article 3:2 – Exposure limit values and action values

For whole-body vibration:(a) the daily exposure limit value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 1,15 m/s2 or, at the choice of the Member State concerned, a vibration dose value of 21 m/ s1,75;(b) the daily exposure action value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 0,5 m/s2 or, at the choice of the Member State concerned, a vibration dose value of 9,1 m/s1,75.

Explanation: The allowed daily dose of vibration is consumed within 5-15 minutes in a 30 knot boat run in 2-4 foot waves. Using suspension seating you can increase the allowed operation time to about 30 minutes, which is still not sufficient for most operations. This means that no professional high-speed boat operations can practically be compliant with the EU directive.

However,

Article 10:1 – Derogations

1. In compliance with the general principles of health and safety protection for workers, Member States may, in the case of sea and air transport, derogate from Article 5(3) in duly justified circumstances with respect to whole-body vibration where, given the state of the art and the specific characteristics of workplaces, it is not possible to comply with the exposure limit value despite the technical and/or organisation measures taken.

Explanation: If you cannot comply with the vibration exposure limits – which no boat operations can, you can derogate from the whole body vibration directive, provided that you have done everything in your power to provide the best technical solutions available.

Article 5:2 - Provisions aimed at avoiding or reducing exposure

On the basis of the risk assessment referred to in Article 4, once the exposure action values laid down in Article 3(1)(b) and (2)(b) are exceeded, the employer shall establish and implement a programme of technical and/or organisational measures intended to reduce to a minimum exposure to mechanical vibration and the attendant risks, taking into account in particular:(…)(c)  the provision of auxiliary equipment that reduces the risk of injuries caused by vibration, such as seats that effectively reduce whole-body vibration and handles which reduce the vibration transmitted to the hand-arm system;

Download the full EU Vibration Directive here: eu_directive_2002_44CE_EN

Conclusions:

No High-Speed boat operations can be guaranteed or even claimed to be compliant with the EU directive.

The EU directive puts the responsibility on the employer or operating authority to reduce crew exposure to a minimum by providing the best available means to minimize the exposure.

The technical solutions you provide need to be validated and proven state-of-the art and the most effective in reducing impact. Above all else, they must be proven to be safe and not bottom-out.

Fitting a so-called “suspension seat” or “shock mitigation seat” to your boat will not make you compliant with the EU Vibration Directive.

Ullman Jockey Seats are the only suspension seats on the market that are scientifically validated by independent bodies – (http://www.str.eu.com/) and shown to effectively protect the crews and to reduce the impact and vibration exposure to medically acceptable levels. Ullman seats are the most effective solution available.

Ullman Jockey seats are thus the only seats on the market that will allow employers to meet the criteria in the EU-directive.

Here you can see some of the organizations that have been using Ullman Seats for many years.