“When opportunity NOXX”

June 20, 2017

The story behind EMCS industries game changing LFP antifouling system.

EMCS Industries Ltd. has a unique antifouling system that’s quite clever and incredibly environmentally-friendly. The system uses a low-frequency pulse emitted into the water to discourage harmful marine life from attaching to the underside of boats. http://emcsindustries.com/marelco-noxx-antifouling/

Tenniel Villebrun, EMCS Brand Manager shared an interesting story of how this Sidney British Columbia company found the Hydrosonic Hull-tender, now known as the NOXX™ LFP antifouling system. Here is what she had to say: “Everything has a story, but our story is particularly interesting because the NOXX™ LFP as you know it now, was not always so. A very long time ago, it was once called the Hydrosonic Hull-tender. Wow, what a mouthful! Aren’t you glad, we shortened it down for you?

“The discovery took place January 29, 2016 to be exact. I was on my way to a meeting at Foss Shipyards to discuss our MARELCO™ anti fouling system. However, the yard was under construction at the time and things had moved; as I tried to navigate my way to the temporary admin offices, I walked into a portable nearby to ask for directions.

Head office and manufacturing plant in Sidney BC for Marelco-EMCS, where the NOXX System is made.

“Me, being the person that I am (I like to call this ambition on the weekdays), entered the portable confidently only to find a man with his spaghetti fork in mid-air, and a look of pure confusion smeared across his face. Ok, so it was lunch time and it was sort of my fault but anyways back to the point! To my relief, the stranger with the spaghetti infested had chief engineer written on his shirt and worked for the Alaska Highway System Ferries.

“I saw the opportunity to quickly show him our product brochures from EMCS industries, he very quickly halted my spontaneous intervention. Although he was aware and impressed with our MGPS system, he had one specific priority in mind… he wanted to know whether it’s life span was at least that of a decade – yes, a decade! Well, who wouldn’t? No need to refit and scrape off the mussels and barnacles that clog the sea-chests, bow thrusters, crossovers, strainers etc, for an entire 11 years in his case! And so, he decided to stick with what he had – the HydrosonicHulltender.

“But there was one problem, the owner of the business was thinking of selling the Hulltender because he was more an inventor and not interested in the business of selling the system – most of the sales in the commercial shipping world were because of word of mouth! Retirement was on the horizon for the inventor of the Hulltender – Derek Knox!

“At this point, my hopes began to dwindle to get the chief to switch to MARELCO. That was until he mentioned that the owner was based in Vancouver, and as you know we are a BC Ferry ride away on Vancouver Island! There was no time to waste, I took down his details and took it back to EMCS headquarters where our director, Trevor Tasker, was just as impressed as I was. And boy did we act fast! Within a week, EMCS industries had bought the Hydrosonic Hull tender from – yep, you guessed it, the one and only Derek Knox!

“We felt the system could be better improved and thus, we reconfigured the design of the control panel and extended the reach of the emitters protection radius. We also thought that if this was working so well commercially, we should definitely bring this to the pleasure craft market. And it was that moment that we decided to re-name the new design after Derek Knox himself and that’s when the NOXX™ LFP was born.”