Boat building experience

Following completion of high school in Fremantle, Western Australia I returned to my home town of Cobh, a beautiful harbour island in Cork on the south coast of Ireland.

At the same time as my return the American production boat builder, Sea Ray Boats opened its purpose built factory in Cork to start production of the Monaco and Seville range of sports boats to cater to the European market.  I secured a position on the production line building 18’ to 21’ Sea Ray Sports Boats. At the height of production we were producing 7 boats a day. The Sea Ray plant was an impressive temperature controlled, self sufficient operation from moulding and lamination, joinery and upholstery to final assembly. At the end of the production line every completed boat was hoisted into an internal testing tank where the motors, steering and running gear were inspected in a controlled environment before the boat entered the final stage for sign off, cleaning and shrink wrapping for export.  

After 2 years at Sea Ray Boats I returned to Fremantle, Western Australia and started working for custom boat builders Precision Marine building luxury fibreglass motor yachts ranging from 40’ to 55’.  Over the course of the following 12 months I was involved in the building and fit‑out of a number of locally designed, fully customised motor yachts.

From Precision Marine I joined the team at Oceanfast Motor Yachts for the fit out of the Jon Bannenburg designed 40.0m Motor Yacht Opal C and 55.0m Motor Yacht Oceana.   At the time Oceanfast were one of few yards worldwide producing large luxury yachts capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots.  In order to achieve these speeds an almost fanatical approach to weight saving was adopted without compromising strength or performance.

These two beautiful luxury yachts were my introduction to the luxury motor yachting industry and ignited my desire to be involved in luxury yacht design.

Shortly after my time at Oceanfast I moved to Sydney, New South Wales and started studying my Associate Diploma, Naval Architecture at the Sydney Institute of Technology. At the same time I was offered a traineeship in a Ship Design Office where I spent the following 4 years producing ship design drawings and documentation for modifications and additions for ships and support craft. The design experience and training gained from this office proved invaluable when I moved to the luxury yacht design industry.

Yacht design experience

After completing 4 years of study I joined Warren Yachts as their on‑site design draftsman  during the construction of the 43.4m Ed Dubois designed Motor Yacht Slipstream. The following twelve months on‑site gave me extensive practical experience, combining post study and build experience in the design office with the benefit of working on‑site during construction.

When Motor Yacht Slipstream was launched in 2001 I joined Peter Lowe Design preparing construction drawings for the 35.m Motor Yacht Crystal Lady being built at Warren Yachts.  The following 10 years at Peter Lowe Design gave me exposure to all aspects of yacht design including hull design, stability, exterior styling, interior design, structures and engineering. We worked on numerous projects ranging in size from 46’ production boat designs to a 184’ luxury displacement motor yacht designing in GRP, steel and aluminium whilst ensuring compliance for all relevant local and international rules and regulations. The designs for many of these projects were completed entirely in-house by the team at Peter Lowe Design – from concept to launch.   In addition, a number of projects were a collaboration with renowned designers, including Sam Sorgiovanni, Ed Dubois and Jonathon Quinn Barnett.

Summary

Based in Manly, New South Wales and offering clients a full design service with the benefit of extensive boat building and design experience.

 

 

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