Jim

My name is Jim Carstairs; I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and moved to Fife when I was three.
Whilst attending the local Primary School I passed the entrance examination to the district’s secondary school, Waid Academy, and whilst there I played football for the school and represented Waid at football and athletics in the East Fife District. In athletics I was Intermediate Champion and broke both 100yards and 220yards track records which had stood for 25years.
On leaving school I entered an indentured apprenticeship as an Electrical Engineer with South of Scotland Electricity Board where I gained my qualifications through evening school and day release. On completion of my apprentice ship I joined the Merchant Navy as a Ship’s Electrical Engineer Officer serving on Super Tankers, with Stavros Niarchos, the Greek billionaire.
Overall I spent some six years in the Merchant Navy where I served on Super Tankers, Passenger and Cargo ships. Before exiting the MN I served onboard Troopships involved in the Aden, Cyprus and Malaysian military conflicts. I was involved in the withdrawal of troops from: - Aqaba, Jordan (end of Glubb Pasha agreement) and the insertion of the Blues and Royals (Household Cavalry) in Cameroon at the finalisation of the Nigerian administration. I narrowly missed being detained on the Super Tanker I was serving on during the Suez Canal invasion.
I left the mercantile marine to return to Scotland to get married and to take up a shore appointment as an Electrical Engineer with the South of Scotland Electricity Board. I simultaneously returned to higher education to enable me to qualify for membership of the Institute of Incorporated Electrical and Electronic Engineers, where I was eventually accepted as a member and have been so for over 30 years. I was offered a place in a four year honours degree course in Electrical/Electronic Engineering  at Heriott Watt University, Edinburgh, but declined due to family reasons.
Whilst with the South of Scotland Electricity Board I was involved in research and development, industrial consultancy and was tasked to research, write and present a technical paper to the Electricity Council on the extent of private electrical generation in the South of Scotland area.
In 1970 as a kick-start to my career I successfully applied for a Marine Design Electrical/Electronic Engineer’s position within the Technical Services Division of a multi national shipping group in the City of London. From this Technical Services Division we were re-organised into a Marine Design Consultancy.
On my retirement I was the Manager of the Electrical Design Section of this major London based marine consultancy.

• Budget considerations
• Design team member engaged on initial Electrical systems design of British liner m.v. Oriana.
• Design team member on Electrical systems design of the British Australian bi-centenary Schooner “Young Endeavour”. (UK citizens’ gift to Australia on their 200 years anniversary).
• Designer of Diesel Electric propulsion system onboard Sultan of Oman’s private yacht (dhow).This vessel doubled as the State’s Cadet training ship.
• Liasing with Clients and attending Contract negotiations on Ships’ Electrical Specifications with prospective Shipbuilders worldwide (e.g. Mitsui, Mitsubishi, IHI, Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, Thyssen, HDW, Kvaerner).
• In charge of in house design, and overseas on site Electrical Staff.
• Testing and signing acceptance of Clients’ Electrical equipment from manufacturers.
• Overseeing Makers’ equipment for acceptance within Clients’ parameters.
• Writing specifications

Overseeing refits on:

• “Kingdom V”-Large motor Yacht - Owners - Saudia Arabian Royal Family.
• “Talathan G” -Large motor Yacht - Owner  -  Sir Paul Getty.Oil billionaire
• “ Nabilia “     -Large motor Yacht - Owner -  Donald Trump.US-Real Estate.

After taking early retirement, in 1995, from my aforementioned “day job” I started my own consultancy company and had consultancy contracts with German and Japanese multi national Electrical companies.
On the cessation of my company,in 2002, I was employed, for a short time, by the TB group lecturing on electronics and mathematics to mature “New Deal” pupils!!!
Thereafter I did a spell of two and a half years working as an unpaid volunteer for  “Bridges to Work” within the Charity, “Interact”. This Organisation, ESF funded, ran daily IT courses for persons who were overcoming mental illness or were recovering from mental breakdowns and it was thought that by teaching the attendees IT/Computing that their confidence would recover and that they would be able to return to everyday work.
My interests are sport, computers, motoring and worldwide holidays by sea and air.

My most memorable travelling experiences were:

• Flying to Canada and the USA on Concorde.
• Over flying the Niagara Falls and the Great Barrier Reef by helicopter.
• Cruising the majestic Norwegian fjords.
• Traversing the Panama and Suez Canals.
• Visiting Rio de Janeiro, being a spectator at the Rio Carnival and staying in a hotel on the Co cabaña Beach front.
• Visiting Macchu  Pichau, Peru. (Lost valley of the Incas, altitude 4,000 metres).
• Being in a party living on and photographing wild animals in an African game reserve.
• Travelling on the “bullet trains” on the Japanese Shinkansen Railway System from Tokyo to Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Okayama and Hiroshima.
• The scenic splendour of Mount Fuji.
• Visiting the Hiroshima peace Park.
• Visiting Korean Temples.
• The comparisons between life in the free market of Hong Kong (pre hand over to China) and life in Shanghai in the Republic of China.

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