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You have 25 years’ experience as a naval architect, including positions at Babcock and the French superyacht division of Monaco Marine. Where did you start out?
I joined what was then Devonport Management Ltd, based in the Devonport Royal Dockyard in 1987. I started with an ONC and then an HNC in naval architecture at night school. I did my degree part-time at Plymouth University.
I was the first person at Devonport dockyard to go on day release to university. I did my degree at the same time as holding down my day job.
Were you always interested in marine engineering?
At Devonport they offered mechanical engineering courses, but I always wanted to be a naval architect. I went to university and I arranged the modules so that I could study part-time.
Being a chartered naval architect meant you could manage a team of surveyors. About 15 people from the dockyard have subsequently followed that path and done marine engineering on a part-time basis at university.
I’ve always been interested in engineering – I used to rebuild cars with my father when I was younger. I then looked to join an engineering establishment and that’s where I joined the dockyard as a surveyor. I was subsequently in the design department and the drawing office – where my love of naval architecture blossomed.
I then started to look at how ships were built rather than what I knew as a youth, which was how cars were constructed.
What have been some of your career highlights?
I won a Student Naval Architect Award from the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1999. The prizes are presented to students studying naval architecture or a related subject who achieve the best results in their final year.
I won best honours project for the redesign of an oceanographic ship into a luxury yacht. When I was a surveyor I worked on it and when I did my degree I had the engineering skills to assess the vessel, redesign the superstructure, and reclad it, so I did my honours project in the world of yachts.
Other highs include working in France on superyachts, which are defined as having a hull longer than 75m. I worked on a 100m-plus superyacht for Babcock. I helped run the programme to get the vessel to sea. And I also worked at Babcock Marine Appledore, where I was the design manager for the build of an offshore patrol vessel for the Irish Navy. That would probably be my career high. It was exciting, dynamic – every naval architect should be involved in a new build.
Were there any particular challenges with that project?
There was pressure to deliver a patrol vessel at a commercially competitive price, so we needed a very mature way of modelling it. I had a team which computer modelled all of the structure, all of the systems, the compartment structure – so we would have a 3D model of all the systems and all the information from the suppliers. We would sit down with the customer and fly through the compartment and see where the cabin was. We made a virtual interior and then we would release that model to build. Then we would start cutting the steel, cutting the pipework, making the ventilation – through a fully working 3D model.
Frazer-Nash has some experience in civil marine, but not loads. It’s done computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis projects for commercial shipping. Are you still getting the chance to do lots of hands-on engineering work there?
Working on high-end yachts and with other consultancies on the early stages of designs can only help Frazer-Nash. I will look to engage earlier on larger front-end design programmes, and to use Frazer-Nash’s background of solving complex engineering programmes at an early stage using 3D modelling.
We need to be looking to grow Frazer-Nash’s place as an engineering consultancy serving the frontline programmes emerging in Australia, New Zealand and Europe in the civil marine new-build and support areas.
What’s your view of the industry in the UK? Are you mainly going to be looking at the export market?
Frazer-Nash is already involved very heavily in projects around the world and we are proving that we can add value to customers in some far-flung corners: we’re working in Korea and Australia. And we do face challenges in the UK in getting on to the next front-end civil marine projects.