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Engineer required


andyb116

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Tony brooks, I find your reply quite offensive, as someone who has a HND in engineering, a degree in vehicle engineering, is a fully qualified British marine electrical technician (BMET). Qualified welder (mig,tig and mma), qualified machinist and blacksmith, MCA Boatmaster, assessor and trainer and has worked on historic boat engines for over 20 years within my own successful company before retiring (and yes I do have the bits of paper to prove it). And the end of the day I was just hoping to offer someone a job (not a yard hand) as wood is an alien substance to me and that as a manager that's the trade we need help with. Well at least I tried. May be, judging by your post I shouldn't have bothered 

Andy B

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Andy, don't get disheartened, hopefully someone suitable will see the advert and come along. 

I have no doubt given your skills and your marinas reputation, you will find someone suitable.

Pedant should be listed under the Avatars of some of the posters on here along with gender and pints drunk at banters.

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1 hour ago, andyb116 said:

Well at least I tried. May be, judging by your post I shouldn't have bothered 

Yes, you should have bothered and you should only judge by the quality of your applicants. I hope you find at least one really good candidate.

We should give Tony B a break though, as he's pretty well versed in the exploits of cowboy "engineers" so he is probably, and understandably, a bit sensitive on the subject. He's also very free with sound advice here when folks are having issues. We all know there are good and less good people plying their trade on the cut and it is desirable that the balance tips towards the good ones.

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2 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Yes, you should have bothered and you should only judge by the quality of your applicants. I hope you find at least one really good candidate.

We should give Tony B a break though, as he's pretty well versed in the exploits of cowboy "engineers" so he is probably, and understandably, a bit sensitive on the subject. He's also very free with sound advice here when folks are having issues. We all know there are good and less good people plying their trade on the cut and it is desirable that the balance tips towards the good ones.

 

Seconded. Tony is one of the few here who repeatedly goes the extra mile to help out posters here. And as a professional with decades of experience fixing boats I suspect he gets a bit jaded with the poor standard of workmanship found in most narrow boats.

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4 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

I gave a tow to a boat for an hour on Sunday, whose electrical system appeared to have died completely.

When I noticed his jacket read "University of Cambridge Engineering Department" I did have a bit of a tease....

that's precisely the point  -  most engineers have little or no practical knowledge of diagnosing and fixing problems in real life.

I am a chartered engineer but I was fortunate to have a father who was a self-taught skilled fitter (rebuilding sports cars pre-WW2) before he joined the RAF doing Merlin engine rebuilds in the field, who also built his own house and made spectacular furniture - he taught me the practical skills that university and site experience would never have taught me.

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Some of us have a big "plus" in our make-up, we have a strong skill or ability that we make available to others. Some of us have a big "minus" that is hard for other people to cope with. And a small number of us have both. Tony is an absolute gem when it comes to technical matters and his generosity with this ability is amazing - but he also has a very  short fuse in certain types of situation and this is a pain. I am not sure if he understands that this is a character fault on his part. It is NOT that circumstances are testing his patience, it is a straight character fault. If Tony was a machine then Tony would diagnose & fix himself with ease :D but he is not!

If I had my way Tony would be nominated for an MBE or similar for his unstinting services to boaters.

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52 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

that's precisely the point  -  most engineers have little or no practical knowledge of diagnosing and fixing problems in real life.

I get your point, but it's not a very precise one I'd offer.  I expect a survey of Chartered Engineers would reveal a very high percentage indeed who had worked their way there after starting off with entirely practically-based roots. Engineering is a profession with a very good ladder leading upwards.

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1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

I get your point, but it's not a very precise one I'd offer.  I expect a survey of Chartered Engineers would reveal a very high percentage indeed who had worked their way there after starting off with entirely practically-based roots. Engineering is a profession with a very good ladder leading upwards.

AFAIK that is not quite true in my discipline (civil).  There has always been a route where civil engineering technicians could become chartered engineers but I never met any during my career, but I worked mainly in the oil and gas sector so didn't meet many other civil engineers in the later years.  But even CE Techs were not generally men from the tools, they were in general simply civil engineers who had not gone to university. 

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6 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I get your point, but it's not a very precise one I'd offer.  I expect a survey of Chartered Engineers would reveal a very high percentage indeed who had worked their way there after starting off with entirely practically-based roots. Engineering is a profession with a very good ladder leading upwards.

 

Yes. My dear departed Dad was a Charted Mechanical and Electrical Engineer. He started off as a toolmaker.

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1 minute ago, Murflynn said:

AFAIK that is not quite true in my discipline (civil).  There has always been a route where civil engineering technicians could become chartered engineers but I never met any during my career, but I worked mainly in the oil and gas sector so didn't meet many other civil engineers in the later years.  But even CE Techs were not generally men from the tools, they were in general simply civil engineers who had not gone to university. 

Well ok, maybe not Civil Engineers, and doubtless a few other arms covered under the Engineer banner. Perhaps my brush was as narrow as the brush was broad in the post I responded to? Perhaps I should have said "Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic..." but then someone would have said I'd left them out! :D

So, apart from Civil Engineers, what have Engineers ever done for us? ;)

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Just now, WotEver said:

They've given us some REALLY badly written instructions... ;)

I once saw in a Jap car user manual back in the day:

"Using the horn.

If you see a pedestrian in the road, tootle him melodiously.

If he take no notice, parp him with vigour."

lol!

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

I once saw in a Jap car user manual back in the day:

"Using the horn.

If you see a pedestrian in the road, tootle him melodiously.

If he take no notice, parp him with vigour."

lol!

Love it. 

Supplied with a pair of Japanese headphones: 

Excessive turning of the knob can be damaging to the earholes. 

I always thought it was the eyesight...

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21 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

Mechanical Engineers make weapons, Civil Engineers make targets.  

Reminds me of a submariner's response to "Is it a boat or a ship?"

Submarines are boats, everything else is a target. 

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