Bio

A member of the Institute since 2007, Des Kearns MIIMS, will reach a milestone when he turns 80 in 2024. Not only is he a highly experienced marine surveyor, but he is also a published author. These days he lives in Thailand, but over his career, he has been located all over the world. Des is a member of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and also of the Singapore Institute of Marine Arbitrators. In this interview, Mike Schwarz poses the questions for Des to answer.

Q1 & Q2. Let’s start by going back in time. What was the appeal of the surveying profession and how did you make your mark as a marine surveyor when you arrived on the stage? What training did you need to help you develop your skills as you moved from your career at sea into a new role and did you have a mentor?

(Mike, I took the liberty of combining Q1 and Q2 because they were interlinked)

I was still a teenager when I sailed around the world in a thirty-foot sloop. Then I spent two years chasing large schooners and square-rigged ships working for no wages with the sole purpose of learning seamanship. This background sparked my interest in pleasure craft surveying. In the early years as a surveyor I learnt by jumping in the deep end, mainly because no training was available.

Small craft surveying and my commercial career ran parallel. In 1982 I was running an icebreaking, anchor handling tug in the Arctic Beaufort Sea. Eight tugs were involved mating a 270,000-ton super tanker with a 200,000-ton ‘steel island’ to form a hybrid mobile oil exploration drilling unit capable of withstanding the global forces exerted by winter ice.

Capt. Mike Jacobs from the prestigious survey firm of Noble Denton was the warranty surveyor. I mention this because that event, that day, was my career turning point. I developed a burning desire to become a marine warranty surveyor like Mike Jacobs. Fear also crept in. I did not know whether I could fill his shoes. Regardless, I wanted in.

Later when I became an Arctic drillship captain, Mike Jacobs representing Underwriters attended with me during rig moves. He became my mentor and window of opportunity to become a Noble Denton surveyor.

During my 1988 job interview in Singapore Capt. John Killick with a pair of half glasses perched on the end of his nose said to me…. “If you want to be a Noble Denton surveyor you will meet challenges requiring you to draw on inner strength. We want men who make shit happen, even the seemingly impossible. You must possess a knack for breaking down overwhelming projects into chewable pieces, find solutions and appreciate lessons learned, even in failed attempts. You must be able to hold your ground. Never bend to commercial pressure. If you believe you are right, you must stand on the platform of right. I am of course talking about moving the world’s largest oil structures on the oceans which is what we do here.”

Those words inspired me for the next 16 years.

Q3. During your career you will have seen many changes in the maritime sector and the marine surveying profession. Going forward what do you think, in your opinion, the surveying profession needs to do to enhance its image?

The biggest change I’ve witnessed comes from mergers and acquisitions. Proud professional companies of engineers and master mariners who once provided high-end technical services to clients lost their identity when taken over by larger companies. Corporate platitudes aside, our opinion was the new mega-companies were nothing more than a giant melting pots of mediocrity where surveyor’s technical expertise/recommendations were frequently squashed in favour of commercial interests.

Underwriter’s attitude is the second point. Underwriters have become profit driven while making it difficult for the Insured to get Cover. The current marine insurance market can be described as ‘risk averse’. This especially applies to the traditional western insurance companies and syndicates whose Underwriters are under considerable pressure from their capital providers to show good profits year after year.

Their financiers seem to forget insurance is a risk business.

This has resulted in reduced capacity being offered and Underwriters only accepting risks that ‘fit the box’ relating to a narrow range of parameters provided by their actuaries who only look at the numbers and the past records. Stepping outside these parameters becomes a serious personal risk for the underwriter. As the yacht insurance market has many parameters influencing ‘risk’, the number of underwriters now willing to insure in this area has dropped substantially which has reduced competition and given them more ability to be selective and charge higher premiums.

The surveyor must now work his way through this quagmire.

Q4. When you look back over your business life of many decades, what two achievements give you the most pleasure and satisfaction?

The 30-foot yacht on which I sailed around Cape Horn had no roller furling, no anchor winch, no self-steering, no fridge, no toilet, no radio, no electronics. We had a sturdy watertight hull. Stout rig. Good sails. A place to cook, a place to navigate and a place to lie down. Good anchor gear when we got close to land. That experience opened up the world for me.

My second achievement was becoming a master mariner which opened career doors – and is still opening doors.

Q5. I’d like to ask you about the onslaught of modern technology, including report writing software and remote surveys amongst them. What are your views on this matter – a boon or not?

I am an old school surveyor with no experience with report writing software or remote surveys but here are my thoughts.

Our profession does appear to be leaning in this direction. Will this new technology be a good servant or a bad master? Theoretically, it is feasible option. In worst case remote surveys could put us out of business. Whether we agree or not, this new technology is already with us and brings with it a set of circumstances we must deal with but are not prepared for. The process has not been thought through. Remote surveys could be subject to abuse. The biggest danger I see is that remote ‘attendance’ could lead to mistakenly determining the safety of a vessel, and that in turn involves people’s lives.

Q6. Where the next generation of marine surveyors as well as seafarers will come from is taxing everyone’s minds. What are your thoughts on this?

I honestly do not know.

Q7. Given your broad range of experience you are uniquely placed to offer advice to the new generation of surveyors. What advice might I persuade you to pass on?

The International Institute of Marine Surveyors clearly states in their Code of Ethics:

“A Surveyor member will discharge his professional responsibility with integrity and shall at all times advise or report in a fair and factual manner without prejudice or favour.”

Stick to that code and never waver even one millimetre off the line. Ever.

Q8. What are the main attractions of living in Thailand and how does it compare with other countries you have lived in?

Thailand is not hassle free but if you follow the law, it is freer than most western countries. It is certainly more flexible. Thailand runs on a platform of respect.

Thai people respect each other, particularly the elderly. Across the board politeness is expected. Finally, good sailing conditions, turquoise water and fabulous food rounds off the package.

Q9. I read about your involvement with the renovation of Cariad, which sounds like an extraordinary project. Indeed, you have written an article in this edition. But in brief what would you like to say about your involvement?

My involvement began 33 years ago when I carried out a routine survey on Cariad in Singapore. 16 years later in 2006 I was asked to carry out a follow-up survey while the vessel lay abandoned and derelict off the port of Bangkok. It took 30 seconds to sum up that she was uninsurable. The potential buyer, a British businessman, said he would purchase her anyway and accept the cost and challenge to restore this piece of British maritime history. I accepted his invitation to project manage the restoration.

In 2008, fifty-five people and 3 million dollars later, we launched a perfectly restored Cariad. Unfortunately, this coincided with the world financial crash and the owner was forced to sell.

The new owner treated her like a trophy on a shelf. He carried out almost no routine maintenance, inclusive of 13 years without drydocking the timber hull. Teredo worms chewed up her beautiful new planking. She also rotted from the inside because the caretaker never ventilated. She partially sank three times, completely submerging the engine room each time.

In 2021 Cariad was purchased by Tim Hartnoll, CEO of X-Press Feeders Shipping Line, a man with the passion and money to restore Cariad to former glory.

In January 2022 we again inherited a derelict. We rounded up the same team and started the heart-breaking process of restoring Cariad for the second time. Currently we are already 16 months into the project and hope to re-launch in August this year.

Q10. As a fellow wordsmith, I am interested to know what motivated and inspired you to write ‘World Wanderer – 100,000 miles under sail’ and the follow up ‘Beyond Boundaries’. Please tell me.

When I circumnavigated in our 30-foot sloop these were early ‘cruising’ days. When I arrived home, there was a book inside my head wanting to get out. I typed the manuscript on an old Olivetti typewriter – the one if you made a mistake, you had to redo the whole page.

In November 1969, typewritten manuscript under my arm entitled, World Wanderer –100,000 Miles Under Sail, I sheepishly entered the lobby of the Angus & Robertson publishing house on Sydney’s Castlereagh Street, an Australian flagship institution. I left the manuscript with a pleasant receptionist. Five days later I received an invitation to attend a meeting at the publishing house. My manuscript had been separated into sections along with photos, which now covered a polished table. I was in a state of shock because I was a 25-year-old youth off the streets but was treated with respect, politeness, courtesy and enthusiasm. The book quickly went into print.

In 2019, forty-eight years later, my second book Beyond Boundaries was published. The first half of Beyond Boundaries details becoming a surveyor; the second half as a Noble Denton surveyor; then latterly returning to my roots as a yacht surveyor.

Q.11 What hobbies do you most enjoy?

Sailing.

Q12. If you could change one aspect of your life if you were able to live it again, what would it be?

I would change nothing.