ABOUT US

Mike began his career at sea, just as the first ever container ship came on the scene.  Since he went to sea because he loved ships and wanted to see the world, something told him the writing was on the wall! So, giving up the excitement of getting his steering ticket up the Congo, and being on one of the last ships to trade with Chairman Mao’s China, he subsequently took Ship Science at Southampton University. After graduation, he went to Lloyds Register for six years as a surveyor.

When promises of overseas placements with Lloyds Register didn’t materialise, and despite having the honour of being the very first commodore of Lloyds Register’s embryonic Yacht Club, an invitation to move into boatyard management came at the right time. He resolved to eventually become a yacht surveyor, joined the YBDSA, and freelanced at about the time of ‘The Big Storm’ (every cloud has a silver lining!), working for himself, insurance companies and for John Winterbotham, who himself had not long been independent, after years as a highly respected member of the MG Duff yacht surveying team. A year or so later Mike and John made their relationship more formal, and Mike joined John and his wife as the third partner in John Winterbotham and Partners (later Winterbothams Ltd).

The rest is history, as they say! Mike has surveyed or been involved with boats from 4 metres to over 130 m in some capacity or other, and he has been responsible for the technical supervision during build of some extremely significant vessels of the last decade or so on behalf of owners. That remains his forte today, though he also relishes consultancy in any form, along with legal work, including work as an expert witness. He is on the Large Yacht committee of the YDSA.

When not on a boat, in a shipyard or in an aeroplane seat, Mike enjoys his caravan (his boat on wheels!), and in the winter loves skiing in Austria.

Andrew started his career as a graduate trainee at Brooke Marine involved in refit and new construction of yachts, patrol boats, customs vessels and a variety of steel craft in excess of 100 ft. He became project manager at Brooke Yachts International in 1987.

In 1993 Andrew joined Southampton Yacht Services as project manager overseeing the restoration of a 105ft wooden classic sailing yacht and the new construction of a 80ft wood/epoxy yawl.

Andrew came to Winterbothams in 1995 as a yacht surveyor and consultant, dealing in all aspects in the field of pre-purchase surveys, damage surveys, supervision of repairs, supervision of new construction, valuations, and preparation of specifications for repair. He became a partner in John Winterbotham and Partners in May 1997, then a Director of Winterbothams in April 2012.

Andrew has provided technical expert evidence in various jurisdictions, including the USA.

Andrew has been sailing since the age of 12, including racing to National and World Qualifier level. He maintains an interest in small craft by offering MCA coding surveys through the YDSA.

Peter joined Winterbothams in 2004, having previously gained invaluable marine experience whilst working as a chief engineer on superyachts and serving on nuclear powered submarines in the Royal Navy as a Marine Engineering Artificer.

Since being at Winterbothams Peter has surveyed in excess of 200 yachts of varying size from 10 metres to 150 metres. Never shy of a challenge, Peter will pretty much take on anything whether it is a new construction project, expert witness work, valuation surveys, condition surveys or pre purchase surveys, and as such Peter’s all-round knowledge of the superyacht industry is second to none. Presently Peter is acting as the Owners Representative for the construction of a 70 metre, Italian built yacht.

A keen golfer, Peter plays off 17, although he likes to think it is nearer 7, and most weekends you can find him ‘hacking’ his way round his local course.

Having graduated from the University of Southampton Ship Science course, Simon started working at Lloyds Register of Shipping as a surveyor primarily engaged in structural engineering and plan approval, container loading, chemical tankers, and IACS unified requirements application. After leaving he joined the MCA Code Vessel Safety department engaged in policy development and technical advice on all the MCA Codes of Practice, including the Large Yacht Code. After taking the lead and finalising the second edition of the Code as a senior Surveyor, he lead the generation of a number of Codes for smaller vessels, and finally moved to Ensign, the MCA’s dedicated Large Yacht Survey branch engaged in surveys of both new construction and existing vessels.

After moving to Winterbothams in 2006 as a surveyor becoming a Partner in 2008, and subsequently Director. Since working for Winterbothams, Simon has represented owners on numerous new build projects ranging from 24 metres to 134 metres, provided new build consultancy and surveying, and conducted numerous pre-purchase and valuations on all sizes of yacht. Simon also engages in legal and expert witness work, shipyard consultancy, refit supervision and specification writing, amongst all other aspects of yacht surveying.

Simon is a keen sailor when time and children allow, regularly plays tennis (and office table tennis tournaments!), and spends summers waiting to get back to snowboarding.

Educated at Dauntsey’s School through GCSEs and A levels, Bryn then travelled the world working on yachts before studying at Southampton Institute. Upon completion, he underwent further training and became a yacht charter skipper operating on the south coast and further afield.

Bryn joined Freeman & Partners in 2003, specialising in engineering and yacht surveying. He operated as an independent marine surveyor covering pre-purchase, insurance, damage and PDI surveys together with build and refit management, until 2008 when he joined Winterbothams.

In 2012 Bryn became a Director at Winterbothams. Specialising in all technical aspects of superyacht construction, from writing new build specifications, owner’s technical representative for new build and refits, pre-purchase surveys, damage surveys, valuations, and technical expert investigations. Bryn works all over the world – with recent projects throughout Europe, America and Malaysia.

Coupled to this, Bryn has maintained his exposure to the under 24m yacht market and continues to survey yachts of all sizes and also offers commercial coding surveys through the YDSA.

Having grown up on the south coast, Bryn has been involved in yachting from a very young age and continues to do so. He also enjoys all sports and is a keen rugby player, cricketer, golfer and tennis player –although at ever decreasing regularity as age and family commitments overtake his sporting career for now!

Michael joined Winterbothams in 2012, having spent most of his post school life at sea. After finishing school, he spent 14 years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the South African Navy. In 1994, he embarked on a career in yachting. Qualified as a MCA Master Class 4 (Yachts), Michael has served as both Captain and engineer on a number of large sailing yachts in various locations around the world, ending up as a commissioning captain for a 34m new build sailing yacht and 42m motor yacht before stepping ashore. After obtaining a B.Eng (Hons) in Yacht Design, Michael spent a period in the Design Office at Sunseeker International where he assisted in the development of several new models before moving on to his current position as a surveyor at Winterbothams. Since being at Winterbothams, Michael has conducted numerous pre-purchase surveys and valuations on vessels up to 136m and been involved in arbitrations, together with technical consultancy in refits, new builds and conversion projects.

When not looking at yachts, Michael can be found bashing his way around golf courses or at his local yacht club, where he sails on the family Mirror dinghy with his son.

Ian originally trained as a boatbuilder which provided a foundation stone for his career in the marine industry before completing a BSc in Yacht Manufacturing and Surveying and then sailing a circumnavigation with the Clipper Race. Ian joined the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in 2004 and worked on developing the small craft and large yacht Codes of Practice.

After appointment as a Surveyor of Ships on behalf of the UK Secretary of State and achieving Membership of RINA, Ian managed the technical oversight of survey and certification work completed by Certifying Authorities, Classification Societies and the Red Ensign Group which involved monitoring visits to vessels, shipyards and approval offices.

In 2012 Ian graduated with Distinction from a MSc degree in Marine Technology and took up the post of Head of Marine Technology Branch at the MCA, leading the development and implementation of UK technical policy on the design, construction and equipment for yachts and ships.

Ian became a Chartered Engineer in 2016 and joined Winterbothams as a surveyor in 2019, bringing a wealth of experience in maritime survey and certification regulation plus small craft sailing experience. Ian has been trained in expert witness work and has experience as technical expert witness for maritime crown court cases. He also has qualifications and experience in ISO,IMO,ISM & ISPS audits.

Growing up on the west coast of Scotland Mike has been around boats from a young age. This inevitably led him into a career within the marine industry. He began working for a sailing holiday company as a yacht skipper where he spent two years looking after and running a fleet of ten day boats based out of Turkey and Greece; Teaching sailing and day courses as a dinghy and yacht instructor.

Following his interest and passion for yacht’s, he found himself pursuing a career working on super yacht’s ranging from skippering a 72ft sailing yacht to bosun on a 100m+ private motor yacht sailing the world.

After 5 years working on yacht’s at sea the decision came to move shore based to start a family and he began working for a Yacht shipping and logistics company working day to day with the marine department shipping yacht’s and equipment to worldwide locations.

Getting back into the hands-on sailing side of the industry he joined a yacht brokerage and service company in Hamble as Yard Manager, representing 4 sailing yacht brands where he was taking clients for test and instruction sails, delivering, commissioning, and fitting out the new yachts.

Mike joined Winterbothams Ltd in May 2023 as marine surveyor bringing the Winterbothams team to ten surveyors.

Outside of work Mike enjoys spending time with his family and two young girls, getting out on the water whenever possible either yacht racing on the Solent or on the family motor launch

Speros comes to us as a former Chief Engineer and spent time at sea on a variety of motor and sail superyachts. His seagoing experience provides superb additional sea time to the team.

He started his career with a 4 year apprenticeship with Caterpillar and worked with large commercial craft overseas before working on the Thames refitting and building house boats including a lot of steel fabrication works. He also has previous experience of maintenance and repair of large agricultural machinery.

In the South of France Speros joined an old classic yacht and then spent a career in yachting. He was Chief Engineer on 5 yachts with a penchant for the old, oily and rusty.

Speros also worked in large district energy schemes and managed very large prime movers and associated equipment, putting his yachting skills to work in another field.

Outside of work, Speros enjoys tinkering in his garage with his ‘numerous’ personal hands-on projects and is a keen gardener with a particular interest in trees.

His sea-going career started in the Merchant Service successfully completing an engineering cadetship and then served aboard tankers for several years. Following his passion for engineering and seagoing, he studied Marine Engineering at Southampton University, and pursued a steady career onboard high profile, worldwide cruising superyachts, solidly building his path of experience.

During his long and varied sea going career as engineer aboard many high profile yachts, both sail and power, he has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge of marine systems.

Duncan has been involved with yachting from an early age, taking part in many offshore regattas and races such as the Round Britain and Ireland, and most notably the famous Fastnet in 1979.

As part of the Winterbothams team he contributes from an engineering perspective, in pre-purchase surveys, ship operations, new builds or shipyard refit projects.

In his spare time Duncan is involved with various engineering projects as well as restoring classic motorcycles.

Sarah has recently joined the team in 2023 and is to be working alongside Karen completing all the tasks it entails for the smooth running of the office.

With a background in credit management and business support management she is looking forward to bringing her previous experience to Winterbothams and taking on any projects thrown her way.

Sarah is in the office 3 days a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays but is kept just as busy the other days running after her 2 year old!

Karen joined Winterbothams in 2008 as part of the administration team. She has seen Winterbothams grow and expand since then and can still say that she enjoys working alongside everyone and is always happy to help anyone at any time with anything!
Karen works 4 days a week, Monday through to Thursday and enjoys her long weekends with her partner exploring the countryside and planning new adventures.