Keith W Hutchinson

Senior Consultant

  • Expertise: Whole Ship Design and Naval Architecture
  • Languages spoken: English
  • Qualifications: BEng(Hons), CEng, CMarEng, FRINA, FIMarEST, FSNAME
  • Email: keith.hutchinson@safinah-group.com

Over a 30 year career as a ship designer and naval architect, Keith has been constantly at the forefront of the technical development of robust but flexible solutions for a multitude of design problems, ranging from sub 20 metre / 20 tonne high speed passenger catamarans and landing craft to FPSOs and FLNGs in excess of 500 metres long and over 700,000 tonnes displacement for the harshest of environments. He has constantly strived with clients globally to explore unknown and commonly conflicting multiple dimensional design spaces for novel, complex and bespoke merchant and offshore ship types, both new-build and conversions, such as: Offshore Production vessels (FPSOs, FSOs, FLNGs, FRSUs); Transport Ships and Barges; FloTels; Mining Ships; Gas Carriers (LNG, LPG, LH2); Shuttle Tankers and Bunker Ships (Oil and Gas); Cargo Ships; Passenger Ships etc.

Keith began his career as a Naval Architect with a major shipbuilder and also worked in ship repair. Prior to joining Safinah he was engaged in consultancy as Chief Engineer for Commercial Marine responsible for the development of ship designs, undertaking technical investigations and identifying solutions, technical governance and was Technical Authority. He was also responsible for the technical management of a large multidisciplinary merchant ship and offshore design office including Naval Architecture, Marine Structures, Marine Engineering, Electrical and Controls, and Cost Estimating functions. In addition, he was also Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Naval Architecture domain pan-site throughout the company.

Keith has authored over 40 technical papers and articles and been invited to give numerous public and conference presentations on naval architecture and ship design. He is active in several professional learned institutions and sits on a variety of professional technical committees etc. developing standards and guidance for the maritime industry globally.

  • Member of Lloyd’s Register’s main ship Technical Committee (TC)
  • Member of Lloyd’s Register’s Offshore Technical Committee (OTC)
  • Member of Lloyd’s Register’s Naval Ship Technical Committee (NSTC)
    – Member of the Ship Design and Applications (SD&A) Inter-Sessional Working Group (ISWG)
  • Member of SNAME’s Technical and Research (T&R) Ship Design Committee (SDC)
    – Co-Chair of Panel SD-4 ‘Ship Arrangements’
    – Member of Panels SD-9 ‘Commercial Ship Design’ and SD-12 ‘Total Ship Energy Efficiency’
  • Member of SNAME’s T&R Offshore Committee (OC)
    – Member of Panel OC-9 ‘Floating Systems Robustness Checks’
  • Visiting lecturer on Ship Design at Newcastle University