Roy Thompson

Course Leader at Lloyd's Maritime Academy

Roy has been involved with the design of commercial ships, both large and small for more than forty years. He trained as a naval architect at University of Newcastle (1964-67). His first employment was in the hull design office with a major shipbuilder, designing various ship types, up to 250,000 tonnes deadweight at a time before electronic calculators and computer programs were available.His next appointment was in the design office of a much smaller shipyard, building tugs, fishing vessels and patrol boats.In mid-career, Roy spent fifteen years in the technical office of a prominent British ship-owner, whose fleet consisted of refrigerated cargo ships and container ships This office was also responsible for a subsidiary company, owning a fleet of offshore vessels and heavy lift vessels. Thus, during the first half of his career, Roy was directly and constantly involved with the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic aspects of various ship types.Roy’s career then continued for almost twenty years at American Bureau of Shipping, retiring as Managing Principal Engineer. Over these years he was responsible for hull plan approval and statutory approvals for a variety of ship types, both new construction and alterations to existing ships.Roy is now retired but remains active in the support of the RINA, and is a member of their IMO Committee. He is a RINA representative at the IMO meetings of the Marine Safety Committee and the Sub Committee on Ship Design and Construction.