50 years a boatbuilder

With a family background in engineering, it was almost inevitable that Alastair would follow in his father’s footsteps to become an engineer, starting his working life as an apprentice draughtsman with Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilding and Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in Newcastle. He further consolidated his shipbuilding credentials at Swan Hunter. In 1974 he moved to the offshore industry, moving to Scotland in 1976 and then to try his hand at the civil engineering sector in London until 1981 when he returned to shipbuilding and engineering where he stayed until the demise of the shipbuilding industry on Tyneside.

Throughout his career he was lucky enough to travel widely, spending time in Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In 2003, hearing of an opportunity at the fledgling aluminium-hull boat builders, Alnmaritec, he jumped at the chance to return to his roots and to an industry he knew so well, using his extensive project experience and well-known tenacity to help the company expand into the thriving business it is today.

When he joined Alnmaritec, they were on project number 7. The company is now completing projects 169 and 170 – and Alastair has been involved in every one of these, from diving boats and small cargo tenders to offshore line-handling and hose-handling vessels and aquaculture boats. He says he never had any favourites among them. No two boats were ever the same, even if they were sisters. Each one had its own unique identity.

In his typically self-deprecating way, when asked what he would like to read in a profile of himself, he said he hoped it would say how passionate he has always been about the industry, before going on to thank all the brilliant people he has worked with over the years; clients, suppliers and colleagues. He described it as a “very small industry in its own community, where you strike up a better-than-working relationship with those around you and treat them all as friends. That’s what this industry is about; passion, care and feeling.” He continued by saying how great it’s been working with people who know what they’re doing, describing colleagues and clients as, “refreshingly honest, basically nice people. That’s who you want to be working with, not some fly-by-night.”

A few final words from Mark Gulesserian, Managing Director of Alnmaritec. “As Alastair retires, he takes with him a wealth of knowledge, experience and contacts which, over the last few months, in a structured and planned way, Alastair has passed on to Gavin Sharp, who is taking over the role of Commercial Manager.”

By Jake Frith