Page 21: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2023)

he story of Covelya Group is a familiar one in sub- to a connection that, years later, would put the Partridge fam- sea circles, the story of a man with a dream and ily on the acquisition path.

the gumption to start his own company operating Fast track to 2006, when Sonardyne’s cooperation with Wave-

T from his home. front Systems resulted in the development of a sonar system

The man was John Partridge and the company he started was called Sentinel, an intruder detection system that is “kind of

Sonardyne in 1971, a company which began as an underwater like an underwater radar,” said Partridge. “We had really good acoustics consultancy in a small town in southern England. complimentary skills; Sonardyne was great at hardware design

Partridge’s vision was to make operations beneath the waves and manufacturing, with a good sales network. Wavefront was safer and more ef? cient, and in the ensuing 50+ years that brilliant at the sonar software and signal processing.” vision has become reality, as Sonardyne has made numerous The partnership worked out so well that Sonardyne acquired technological innovations in the offshore, scienti? c and ma- Wavefront, but it wasn’t until much later – 2018 – that Cove- rine industries. lya was born.

From humble beginnings, the organization has grown organ- “We went out into the marketplace actively looking for com- ically and via acquisition, and today Covelya Group is still panies in the underwater domain, companies that had good headquartered in the UK with six trading companies, boasting heritage and a good technology base,” said Partridge.

520 staff and total annual sales of about $120 million. The next acquisition was Chelsea Technologies, which pro- vides a host of environmental measurement and monitoring

The Family Table systems for the defense, ocean science and maritime markets. “[Sonardyne] really started off in the family home,” said Simon “They also do acoustics for underwater tracking ranges and

Partridge. “We had a test tank in the garden and lathes and mills echo repeaters,” said Partridge.

in the garage. It was a small house and so the spare room was an Following that Covelya acquired EIVA, a Danish company electronics lab. And my uncle came and lived with us and he was that is very well known in the subsea industry. “[EIVA has a] one of the early technologists, working with my father.” great heritage,” said Partridge. “They make navigation soft-

Only four years later, Sonardyne had its own premises, man- ware – NaviPac – that acquires sensor data, GPS and side- ufacturing transponders in Fleet, a town 40 miles southwest scan, multi-beam data, and processes that and allows you to of London, where the company would call home for the next visualize it, report it.” 20 years. EIVA also makes towed underwater vehicles, a system called

According to Partridge, the company built up a solid reputa- ScanFish, and today it’s doing a lot of work around autonomy tion for underwater positioning systems on ships and ROVs. It for underwater vehicles and vessels.

developed through-water communications capability, eventu- During COVID Covelya acquired 2G Robotics, a small com- ally branching out into Doppler inertial systems. “So we have pany in Canada that subsequently changed its name to Voyis. a system called SPRINT now, which has been very success- “They’re all about visual imaging sensors, so using cameras and ful,” said Partridge. “Despite the name, ‘Sonardyne’ didn’t re- lasers to provide imaging systems, predominantly for ROVs ally get into imaging sonar. We had a couple of attempts, but and AUVs; they’re like the eyes of the vehicles,” said Partridge.

it didn’t work particularly well.” The newest company is Forcys, a company not acquired rather

That failure to self-produce an imaging sonar eventually led grown organically out of the other companies. “Forcys brings

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