Oh well, summer's over, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. In search of a bit of sunshine we'll be visiting many of our clients in warmer climes this next month or so. You never know, we might even do a bit of work while we're at it…

Belated congratulations to Spinnaker's former Chairman, Michael Grey, who was awarded the Silver Bell Award this summer by the US Seamen's Church Institute at their annual awards dinner. The Silver Bell recognizes outstanding commitment to merchant mariners and the issues facing the maritime industry.

WE'RE pleased to welcome on board Teresa Peacock as the new manager of our Technical Division. Teresa joined us in the summer. She has worked in recruitment since 1989.

The Maritime HR Forum goes from strength to strength. The Forum was founded in 2006 by tanker owners and operators whose Boards of Directors know that reliable shore-side salary and benefits data is business critical. Other industries take this data for granted. The lack of it in shipping makes recruitment, retention and salary reviews very difficult, especially in current market conditions…

The 10th Cadwallader Memorial Lecture “Lawmaking and Implementation in International Shipping: Which law do we obey?” will be held on Wednesday 1 October 2008 at the IMOs Headquarters…

A global talent shortage in accounting and finance continues to affect employers, according to a recent survey.

In some of the less, shall we say, salubrious parts of the world, people dispose of their old refrigerators by leaving them in their front gardens, or even in the street. I wonder, are we about to see the maritime equivalent of fly-tipping?

They're at it again, those Germans. High fuel costs have encouraged innovative vessel designers to take another look at wind power. Tradewinds reported last month that Reederei Wessels has ordered 160 sq metre towing kites for three newbuildings from Hamburg-based SkySails.

There's a whole lot of talk this last year about the sharp rise in P&I claims caused by the chronic shortage of skilled and experienced crews.