The team at Longitude shares the passion, vision and values for working in energy and the world’s oceans – delivering design and engineering solutions to de-risk and drive sustainability in oil & gas, maritime and renewable energy.

Our work is underpinned by our values of collaboration, safety, technical excellence, innovation, and seeking the truth in everything that we do. You know Longitude, but do you know our team?

• Name: Duncan Grigg
• Role: Product Lead – Maritime Design
• Location: Dundee, UK
• Favourites: Film – Chinatown, Book – The Thirty-Nine Steps, Song – Right now it is You Land by Old Sea Brigade

Can you give us a glimpse into your day-to-day at Longitude?

My day to day work is incredibly varied. While I’m still involved in project work, most of my activity revolves around supporting our bid development in response to enquiries and tenders, working on our business development, and developing new ship designs.

So, never a dull day, as they say.

What inspired you to join your profession?

It sounds a bit corny, but the truth is I wanted to be a naval architect from being a little boy. We used to travel back to see my cousins in Norfolk and would go past Sutton Bridge, where there is a big swing bridge for ships to travel down the river to Wisbech, I think. Sometimes the bridge would be open to let a ship through, and from the road you could see a coaster floating across the fens. In those pre-internet days there was something mysterious and unknowable about them. When I was 8 or 9 I was given an A3 drawing board and I spent all my time drawing profiles of ships on it. I’m fairly sure I’ve still got that drawing board somewhere, I’d love to find it!

Growing up in the North East of England was another big influence, and later working with some great engineers and draughtsmen who were nearing the ends of their careers and graciously taught me a huge amount. There are now very few of us left in the UK who can design a ship from a blank sheet of paper, and I’m very motivated to keep these skills alive.

Can you share with us something exciting you are currently working on?

There are a number of new designs which will be released in due course – I don’t want to say too much about them right now. But we have a couple of interesting studies underway.

One relates to propulsion options for mid-size anchor handlers as we think there are several feasible options for this type of vessel but we want to understand the optimum arrangement from a combined OPEX and CAPEX perspective. This is involving equipment vendors and will inform our future design efforts in this segment.

The second isn’t focused on offshore vessels, and is about Carbon Capture and Storage. This will be our first CCS project so we are looking forward to getting to grips with this question and understanding the challenges and solutions involved.  

Talking about PSVs – we hear about an aging and in-demand fleet – what should we be doing to overcome the challenges and what opportunities do you see ahead in the PSV market?

The trite answer is ‘build more ships’ – but at the moment the charter rates for PSVs are not what they need to be to give investors confidence in newbuild projects. We may see charterers relaxing age requirements, which in some respects is welcome (age isn’t always a good proxy for quality), but at some point the dam will burst and owners will need to start building again. As always, those quickest off the mark will reap the rewards in terms of yard, designer and equipment choice, pricing and delivery.

Besides work, what makes you tick outside of the office?

I’m married with two children (and a lurcher, who requires more attention than everyone else!). I’m also involved in our local church. I really enjoy playing music with friends, although sadly it doesn’t happen very often!