While Martin & Ottaway has always worked very closely with the United States Coast Guard, we have never had a Martin & Ottaway consultant with a United States Coast Guard background.
There was never a specific reason for that, except to note that possibly the right mutual opportunity never presented itself.
However, today, it gives us great pleasure to announce that Jim Kline, USCG (Ret), has joined Martin & Ottaway.
We have worked with Jim on a number of projects and, unusual for USCG personnel, Jim has spent a large part of his later career in the greater New York area as a marine inspector, where he is highly regarded by the entire industry, whether related to blue water, smaller craft, ferries, or small passenger vessels. Our cooperation ranged from the largest to the smallest vessels down to the USCG certification of classic wooden boats.
He was the USCG inspector who witnessed Tomer Chen’s first stability test (on the Navesink Queen)
And worked with Alan Colletti on the construction of the Betsy Ross and the Molly Pitcher.
Quite possibly the most complex projects we encounter are related to USCG certification of classic wooden boats as passenger vessels. In this regard we especially enjoyed his strict but inspiring guidance in the Coast Guard certification of the historic Naval War College. There are no simple solutions when dealing with archaic systems, designs and materials, but Jim’s focus and experience on solving those issues strictly within USCG requirements, while also taking great pride in his position as a public servant, made him a standout in our industry.
Jim’s extremely extensive USCG experience, including aid to navigations, fleet operations, base operations, damage control, personnel training, engineering duty, certification and inspection is unusually deep and also truly hands-on, and will be a vital resource to many in the coming years.
We are delighted to now be able to take advantage of Jim’s experience to advance our own knowledge base and to better serve our clients. If it relates to USCG issues (and too many other maritime issues to mention here) chances are that Jim has an ethical, elegant, economical and expeditious solution.
