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the world to find a ship and achieve a satisfactory job as a result. But when this happens once or twice a week it starts to wear a bit thin. Couple that with standing inert on deck or dockside in the freezing rain throughout the night just to be told that the job has been cancelled, or postponed until later that day. There are probably some correct words to describe the requirements such as resilient, pragmatic, honest, adaptable and flexible, or perhaps more commonly tough, hardnosed, stubborn, be able to think on your feet and above all be good at personnel management.


Q6. I understand for some while you were responsible for surveying the historic fleet based at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. What key challenges as a surveyor did that job present you?


Historic vessels are by nature normally managed by Charitable Trusts and previously as a Ship Repair Manager that term would strike fear in your heart. As a surveyor we would consider that It is not the fault of the vessel operators as they are restrained by the very organisation of which they are a part. But to be polite they will expect something for nothing, or to be fair, “the best they can get for the least capital outlay” - (sounds like surveyor speak to me). From a technical point of view Historic Craft pose challenges of a different kind because the rules of today are not the rules of yesterday. Let us take an extreme example. Old life boats had inboard petrol engines contained within a metal lined


Algarve sea trial


engine compartment. Try and make that fit today’s rules. I have had flush decked, fast craft with no guardrails, non deployable anchors without windlass, open bilges, non-draining cockpits. How many surveyors remember kitchener gear? Driving a naval pinnace with kitchener gear was an art in itself.


Q7. You are one of a rare breed in some respects, a surveyor who has worked surveying small pleasure boats right up to some of the largest container ships that sail the world. But which aspect of marine surveying gives you the most pleasure and why?


I’m not sure that pleasure is the best word to use. The job has had its moments, including the joy of standing on one of the world’s biggest superyachts in Monaco or Antibes, sea trialling a new version of the classic Riva on Lake Maggiore in midsummer, surreal, or being craned in a cage into the hold of one of the world’s biggest container ships and, scarily, dropping through a manhole onto a ladder 60 feet down into the black cavernous cargo tank of a huge oil tanker. But one particular moment of personal pleasure does stick in my mind. I was as a ship repair manager asked to attend a vehicle carrier, which had run aground and split her outer bottom. The damage was within a double bottom ballast tank and the pumps were holding it, but the attending class surveyor was out of his depth, (so to speak). To effect a repair internally, we needed to stop the water from coming in, obviously. I requested a sack full of soft wood wedges and despite the


lack of confidence of the spectators, (you have to picture a fifteen to twenty foot long curtain of water spraying up and bouncing off the deckhead), I started at one end of the split hammering them in until the final wedge was beaten into place and all was quiet. There was no rushing water - nothing - apart from I am sure someone said “I don’t f**ing believe that.


Q8. You are very much in favour of the accreditation scheme that IIMS is starting to develop in more detail. Why do you think this is so important?


Now, you have touched a raw nerve! I am not just in favour, I believe that this is the only way forward for our industry.


It has


long been a concern of mine that the marine surveying fraternity is not regulated in the same way that the building surveying fraternity is. Our jobs are often of greater value than bricks and mortar. Houses, as a rule don’t sink! Anyway, as has been proved over and over again across the years the lives of the general public are at stake when at sea. During my time as a surveyor, as an instructor and later as Chairman of the Education Committee I have seen people from all walks of life consider themselves as suitable marine surveyors, predominantly in the small pleasure craft sector. I have both successfully and unsuccessfully trained young surveyors. Trained is the operative word here. I was a marine engineer for ten years before I considered myself experienced enough to operate commercially in the public sector. A technical background in a related discipline and/or significant technical training and work experience is the best route to becoming a marine surveyor. Taking a lead in this and hopefully at some stage having a white paper produced and legislation passed in Parliament should be the Institute’s eventual aim. Then and only then will this largely un-regulated profession receive the recognition that it deserves. OK I will get off my soap box now.


The Report • September 2018 • Issue 85 | 77


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