Profile

I was born and raised on the island of Jersey, surrounded by sea and a pleasantly slow pace of life. I really enjoyed my sciences at school, so combine my love of being on and in the water with my favourite subjects to imagine what courses might suit me. The first I found was Marine Biology, with a little inspiration from Sir David Attenborough. However, it was on a university open day I found the perfect course for me. A course called Marine and Composites Technology. The marine side focused on how boats are designed, whether it was keeping them afloat, balanced or structural. Composites are a special group of materials that are simply composed of two things, a fibre like carbon or glass and a matrix, a glue-like resin that sticks the fibres together and cures to make a super light and strong material.

Brining the two together looks at all sorts of interesting engineering issues like making things lighter, faster and more efficient (not just on the water!). This could be planes, trains, cars or anything that moves.

This course set me up perfectly to further my career researching new and exciting methods of making these materials and parts producing a super lightweight tram using material that is a lot easier to manufacture and recycle than the existing solution. I also made a wheel out of carbon fibre looking at mass-producing wheels for electric vehicles, reducing weight in a really key area of the car to increase their range.

Now I have moved away from research to manufacturing for clients who want a specific product. I work with the customers to establish what they want to achieve, and work to their budget to achieve a cost-effective solution for them. This could be to go on a superyacht and be sprayed in the exact colour and finish the customer wants, or to go onto a prototype flying taxi!

I am really into my music, and think my music technology A-Level was a fantastic way of expressing my love of technology, and processing complex inputs like digital and analogue audio, into something that sounded good!

A typical project will start with me working with a customer to figure out exactly what they want. I then decide what will be the best manufacturing method will be to produce that component whether its wetting the fibre by hand with resin with a bucket and brush or using one of the more technically advanced methods.

I provide a quote to the customer, and if they are happy with the price I work with them to produce a tool to make the part from, and order all the materials required to produce the finished component. I work with our manufacturing team to build the component, making sure it is up to the high-quality standards our customers demand.

The component is then sent of to the customer, usually for them to add some engines and fuel and test it out, whether its a boat, plane or simply the bench for them to sit on!

A lot of my time is spent looking at technical drawings and 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) models made to represent what the customer wants to make. I look at every single detail of the drawing and ensure the customer is getting exactly what they need. This is not always what they draw! So it takes a keen eye, and a good amount of spatial awareness to think “what are they trying to achieve?” A lot of the time I can make innovative solutions the customer didnt even think was possible, and that’s always very rewarding knowing I have left my own mark on a project. One of which I have added below.

“duck feet” water intake tools

The customer had drawn a hole in the bottom of the boat, that would be cut out by hand, and had to be accurately positioned so that the engines could take water from under the boat to cool it. This would then have to be repaired with the engine attachment. This took a long time to do, and left an untidy surface in a critical part of the boat, which would have made it slow, and could cause the material to break if it hit something. My solution was to add the white “duck feet” shaped piece of machined plastic, that would use the material we would already be using to make the perfect connection for the engines to mount. This stopped the timely cutting and repairing process, reduced the drag on the boat, and saved the customer some money to! Win win!