Martin Jackson: An individual approach

So what has inspired that kind of commitment? “There’s always an element of personal pride, especially if someone tells me it’s not technically possible or can’t be done inside the deadline. For better or worse, my usual response is ‘just you watch me’.” The latest challenge was the design and installation of a combined engine and propulsion package inside a month: luckily his colleagues are forgiving enough to pull these acts of bravado through, although he says there’s the occasional comment about “doing another Jackson”.

Which brings us neatly to the subject of character. “I think it’s personalities that make the sector what it is,” says Mr Jackson. “It’s almost still in its own way a cottage industry, by which I mean the boats are very individual and, I’d say, 95% of the designs we get involved with need a bespoke solution. As everyone has had to work with everyone else it has generated a very fair business attitude.”

He admits this ‘individuality’ results in the occasional moment where something simply doesn’t work first time, “though to be honest it is almost to be expected in a sector that is full of one-off, tailor-made systems” he adds. However, while these experiences are indeed tough, Mr Jackson concludes that the sense of fair play has won more than his gratitude “because if you give everyone the flexibility to dig for an answer it allows the project itself to gain a better, more appropriate solution”.

Crossing over to the marine sector eighteen years ago from an automotive background has been an eye opener. “My first surprise was just how much very old technology was still in service, and not merely running but relied on…Even now I see transmissions that are over 20 years old coming into our workshops for repair.”

But though there is a lot of room for getting boats quite literally ‘up to speed’, Mr Jackson is keen to point out it needs more than the ability to simply sell a new solution: “Communication can’t take place in one direction,” he explains, adding that another surprise had been the dearth of channels for the end users to make manufacturers sit up and take note. “Take the issue of gear changes – it seemed acceptable for gear selection to be slow, usually taking place with a bang and everyone on-board lurching.” The industry had been crying out for a quicker and kinder system for some years, “but it needed MIT to actually ask and then assist the manufacturers in finding a solution”. Interestingly, the result came along pretty quickly and now soft gear changes are “an accepted norm”, says Mr Jackson.

So, as long as customers are willing to ask those “awkward questions” about what can be done better, Mr Jackson will be there, notepad on his bedside table.

By Stevie Knight