Patrick Synge

I grew up in a small fishing village in the north of Scotland and have spent my entire life around boats. As children we built rafts from drift wood and oil drums, then graduated to plywood sailing dinghies and clinker built fishing boats.

I have had extensive ‘hands on’ experience working with a wide variety of materials and construction techniques including traditional timber, timber composite, FRP and FRP sandwich, steel, ferro-cement and aluminium. Having worked for more than 30 years repairing, maintaining, designing, building, inspecting boats and training boat builders I have gained a broad based experience that I bring to my work as a Marine Surveyor.

I've sailed the oceans on a wide variety of boats. Cruising aboard my own yachts and delivering a variety of boats: both under motor and sail. More recently I've enjoyed extensive cruisng in the S.Pacific and Australian waters with my wife and children aboard our 12m aluminium yacht.

For the last 20 years I have been inspecting boats and during this time have surveyed hundreds of vessels of widely differing types, materials and condition. These range from small timber fishing craft to large GRP cruising yachts, from 'hi-tech' composite construction lightweight racing yachts to luxuriously appointed motor cruisers and everything in between. Steel, Ferro, Aluminium - “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

I feel very fortunate to now live overlooking Copper Alley Bay at Kettering where my yacht lies quietly on her mooring. Most of my boat inspection work is around Hobart and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel area but from time to time I travel interstate and overseas.

I also work in marine environmental management helping develop equipment and techniques that reduce the importation and spread of invasive marine species. My home workshop is well equipped with timber working tools and I enjoy creating beautiful objects with the fine Tasmanian timbers I've been collecting since living here.

More Information

  • Osmosis in relation to fibreglass boats describes how water penetrates into what is usually a semi-permeable glass reinforced plastic.
  • The more one reads about Galvanic Corrosion, the more it becomes obvious that it's a complex and sometimes confusing topic and even 'experts' sometimes offer conflicting advice.
  • Stainless steel corrosion and failure is far more common than one would imagine.
  • Timber is still the material of choice for the traditionalist and has many advantages that more modern materials have difficulty matching.