Integrating Sailing and Construction Management
Mike Giles completed his final year in 1996. Mike successfully integrated construction management and construction project management into his love for sailing. He sent the department this update . Enjoy the videos and observe what one of our graduates does!
The year has been fantastic so far, it kick started with a sailing project called OMAN SAIL:www.omansail.com
The King of Oman has created an initiative to teach all in the country how to sail and revive the sailing heritage the country once proudly stood for. Our project was three fold:
- to promote Oman as a tourist destination, i.e. put it on the map.
- link the tourist markets of Oman, Maldives, Cape Town, Perth and Perth,
- map out a route for a new race in the giant A 105 catamarans.
The trip took us from Muscat to the Maldives, through a tropical cyclone to Cape Town through 70 knots to Perth. I got off in Perth to get back to a boat building project, however the route continued back to Muscat. We certainly had the best part of the trip until then!
Here is a small video clip of the southern ocean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43DikdhEaVg and me doing some coaching about 2 days before we got some serious breeze.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5D-hG5qcy4&feature=related (Mike is wearing the white sunglasses)
We did iron out some issues with the weather team along the way! We ended up with close on 70 knots in the southern ocean – the weather team predicted 35kts!
For the past 18 months, I have been part of a great team working on a custom design 61 foot catamaran called www.moxieyachts.com. My role is that of project manager. The owner is French American and hard to pin down between USA, Europe, Asia – in fact most of the time I have no damn idea where he is, but he has entrusted us to put a 6 million US$ project together. The yacht design team is based in France, the interior design consultant is in Cape Town, the yard is in Cape Town and as per normal, we source stuff from all around the world, so thank goodness for email, skype, etc.Its pretty cool.
That project will launch at the end of the year. The aim being is to raise the benchmark in terms of performance, interior, etc.So far, all good.The progress is coming along well and we on track to create a yacht beyond expectations.
Due to the above, I am not doing too much sailing in the European summer, and only have one client this year, that being Andrea Recordati. We will do the 100 foot Maxi boat world Championships in Sardinia, an event in St Tropez and another race around Malta called the middle sea race. He is a great owner, loves sailing and likes the path of development and improvements we have put together for his project to improve the racing aspects of his boat.He happens to own the small Italian pharmaceutical company.
On the construction side, finishing a renovation for a friend of Higgovale in Cape Town, and building a house in Port Elizabeth for my parents. It’s been an interesting few months going through red tape of NHBRC, etc. I used to think it was a good idea, but strongly believe it is now becoming another tax. There should be exemption for following due diligence of employing an architect, getting engineering approval for various stages, etc.
So, between racing, boat building, property renovations and new house builds, I am busy, enjoying the year.
Next exercise mission will be the 200km double century bike ride – we put together a team called cycle4leukaemia.org each year to raise money for cancer patients