Thomas Flamank
"Speak the truth and only then can you be free of your chains"
John Wilkes
'The liberty of the press is the birthright of every Briton’
BACK TO WRECKIN’!
by Alan Williams
An award-winning Cornish small businessman is dipping his toe into uncharted online waters with a unique shipwreck-finding phone-app.
Sean Nuzum, from Croft Parc on the Lizard, developed the £3.99 Wreckfinder to guide anglers to shipwrecks to increase their catch.
Sean’s a former pupil of Landewednack primary school, and went to Mullion comprehensive school and Helston College.
He now runs a phone-app business from Tremough campus in Penryn.
The 26 year old entrepeneur, who’s himself a keen sea angler, explained: “Fish like wrecks, and so do anglers because they tend to catch more fish over them.
“The problem has always been locating the wrecks, as their position have often been a closely guarded secret.
“Our app gives the location of every wreck in British and Irish coastal waters.
“This will provide many people with their first opportunities to fish in some highly productive areas.”
Wreckfinder uses GPS technology to map the user’s current location and the position of their nearest wreck.
This means a mobile phone signal out at sea is not essential.
It then provides full details of the wreck, including its length and the depth at which it is sitting on the seabed.
Sean came up with the idea after he became frustrated with ‘clunky’ and poorly detailed off-the-shelf GPS devices.
He said: “I thought: wouldn’t it be easier to just have an app that would allow me, and others, to quickly and easily obtain wreck information to do what we love – which is catch great fish?!
“I used the application in a fishing competition at Cadgwith this month and it helped me locate the Bellucia, a World War I wreck that lies just off The Lizard – and I caught a large conger eel as a result!”
Jim Taylor from the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers, said the new app could prove ‘invaluable’.
He said: “Its ease of use for locating wrecks will open up so many new areas for anglers to explore.”
AppFuture is one of 31 business currently based at the Tremough Innovation Centre.
The £13m centre was launched in February and is operated by Plymouth University on behalf of Cornwall Council.
You can download Wreckfinder from the Apple App Store, priced £3.99.
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