Geoff Williams

Past Memberships: The Society of Consulting Marine Engineers & Ship Surveyors (London / UK).

The Federation of European Marine Associations of Surveyors and Consultants (European Union)

Captain / Merchant Navy Deck Officer Class 1 (unlimited tonnage) / Master (Foreign Going).

Geoffrey Williams was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He became a member of the Royal Cape Yacht Club in 1972 and was a keen offshore yachtsman, cruising and racing along the South African coast. In 1976 he joined the Merchant Marine as a Navigating Officer with Safmarine and travelled worldwide. He later specialised in Ocean Towing and Salvage and sailed as Chief Officer on the world's most powerful, fastest and largest salvage tugs, Wolraad Woltemade and the John Ross. After qualifying as a Master Mariner (Foreign Going) / Deck Officer Class 1 (unlimited tonnage) he became Captain of a number of Oceanographic research ships operating in the Southern Ocean. Yacht surveying started in 1983 in Cape Town and continued through to the Caribbean. After completing the construction of his yacht and sailing across the Atlantic in early 1991, Geoff was to work as Technical Manager and Operations Manager in the Yacht Charter Industry in St Martin, French West Indies (with a fleet of Wauquiez / Centurion Yachts) and later in the British Virgin Islands. After becoming a business owner in 1998, full time yacht surveying services have taken Geoff through the Caribbean chain, to Central America, the USA, France, Spain and South Africa during the past 25 years.

Geoff spent 2008 furthering his marine education working as Project Manager at Compositeworks www.compositeworks.com, a large Superyacht refitting shipyard and yacht building facility based in La Ciotat, in the South of France. He returned to his Caribbean business at the end of January 2009.

Geoff has now retired (January 2024)

MY EARLY CAREER AS A MERCHANT NAVY OFFICER

As a young navigator, in the days before GPS, I loved the challenge to find the ship's position using my sextant, a wind up chronometer, a compass, a paper Admiralty chart, the Nautical Almanac, some tables.....and with the help of the sun, the stars, the planets and the moon.

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." — Mark Twain