“€1 million per micron” – Assessing the quality of superyacht finishes

Alan is a chemist with a background in industrial and polymer chemistry and has been involved in the paint industry for over 30 years. Whilst working for one of the world’s largest paint companies, he developed the phenalkamine technology currently used in the majority of winter workable paints. This work led to him being presented with the MT Harvey Award for his contribution to the development of cashew nutshell liquid technology.

After some years in product development for the Marine business he become Technology Development Manager working with the internal research teams and setting up joint development projects with key external suppliers. Moving into the Yacht business, he became Global Technical manager, responsible for all technical aspects.

Alan has considerable in-depth knowledge of marine and yacht formulations in addition to an excellent understanding of their practical application in a working environment. Particular areas of expertise are antifoulings and foul release coatings, yacht topcoats and fillers, chemical tank linings and epoxy technology in general.

He has also been involved in cutting edge research having been Industrial Supervisor for 35 degree projects and 3 PhDs. In 2005 he was awarded the title of Visiting Fellow at Northumbria University.

With his breadth of experience, Alan works across all sectors within Safinah in a variety of roles such as coating project management on yachts, failure investigation, technology assessment, formulation training and provision of technical advice and Expert Witness.

Jakov joined the industry as a Coating Inspector and has worked in the protective coating industry for over 37 years. He has a wealth of experience from technical leadership positions held in Europe, Middle East, Asia/Pacific and Americas.

His speciality is in surface treatment, corrosion and fouling protection by protective coatings; from coating system & specification design to field testing and implementation, practical application, risk management and failure analysis.

Prior to joining Safinah, Jakov was working as a Technical Service Director and Chief Consultant for Global Key Accounts in renewable energy, with one of the major, global suppliers of coating solutions to Marine, Energy, Infrastructure, Industrial and Decorative sectors.