REGENT Selects Bureau Veritas for Initial Seaglider Classification

REGENT Craft Inc. has selected Bureau Veritas Marine and Offshore to evaluate REGENT’s initial wing-in-ground effect vehicle, the 12-passenger seaglider named Viceroy, with the objective of obtaining a certificate of classification for the vessel type.

Bureau Veritas is one of the world’s leading classification societies with over 190 years of reviewing and approving novel seagoing vessels. Obtaining classification notation is a necessary milestone before commencing serial production of a new vessel and is a significant step forward in enabling seaglider operations in countries around the world.

“Bureau Veritas is looking forward to working with REGENT on classifying this novel wing-in-ground effect craft,” says Laurent Leblanc, Senior Vice-President, Technical & Operations, Bureau Veritas, Marine and Offshore. “Seagliders present an opportunity for Bureau Veritas to assess the safety and suitability of cutting-edge systems including electric propulsion systems, high-speed hydrofoils, and digital fly-by-wire control systems.”

REGENT has completed the first stage of the Risk Based Qualification of New Technology process as documented in Bureau Veritas Guidance Note NI 525. This process will lead to an Approval in Principle (AIP) of the Viceroy seaglider design in 2022. REGENT and Bureau Veritas have been working together for several months and have established certification acceptance criteria and the technology maturity scale that will apply to the vessel, incorporating technology readiness level, integration difficulty, and operational conditions, that will be used to determine the qualification processes that each system and subsystem will undergo and conform to before the vessel receives its classification certification.