July 16, 2020

Taking to the open seas in small boats is an ‘exciting’ undertaking at the best of time. Doing so in the world’s most dangerous waters raises the bar higher still…

Core Signs and Graphics is based in Ludgershall, that’s between Andover and Salisbury and it’s a long way from Somalia and Yemen. Despite the distance though, some particularly hardwearing examples of Core Signs and Graphics’ work were recently seen there doing a very important job.

If you’re among the millions who’re fans of the Channel 4 reality series Hunted then the name Jordan Wylie will be familiar to you. He’s one of the hunters. His instinctive efficiency and ruthless pursuit of the needed outcome point to one thing alone - military experience. No stranger to sites of conflict and closer than most would hope to ever get to them, Jordan is also a man of great compassion and empathy with cause. That drove him to bring attention to the plight of displaced children beset by the consequences of conflict. To raise money to reduce the impact of conflict, Jordan decided to do something that would bring the spotlight on the situation.

Never one to do things in half measures, Jordan has decided to subject himself to a gruelling solo water crossing in a small open rowing boat. Just to make the event more interesting the water he’d be crossing is known as The Bab el Mendeb - it’s not likely to be in your Tom-Tom shortcuts - it’s between Somalia and Yemen and it’s acknowledged by mariners and those who’d rather stay ashore, as the most dangerous strait in the world. Pirates and sharks present their own problems as does navigating in a small rowing boat. Jordan though, who ran through three of the world’s most dangerous countries accepted the risk.

Grant Kemp runs Core Signs and Graphics and knows Jordan well - they were in the Army together. When Jordan and his team came looking for something to raise the profile of Jordan’s Rowing Dangerously mission and its sponsors, Grant was right there in support with a range of mega-durable stickers for the boat. With a somewhat reduced appetite for danger and not being quite the risk-seeking-missile his friend is, Grant and Core played safe and printed the required output on Metamark MD3 and laminated it with the matching MetaGuard laminate. Metamark has doubts about the products’ resistance to persistent shark-gnawing or its ability to ward off pirates, but no qualms about Core Signs and Graphics’ printing and application skills or the material’s ability to hang onto a GRP hull in a seaway.

Core Signs and Graphics’ work, and Jordan Wylie, will be put to the test in Autumn 2019. www.rowingdangerously.co.uk is where you’ll find Jordan. Unless he finds you first. Core Signs and Graphics - they’re still in Ludgershall and still making great signs and graphics with Metamark materials.