Thinking about Changing My Career

JSL
Thx for reply. There are 2 Universities in my place, one in Saint Petersburg, another one in Minsk (but Minsk is just a subdivision of first one), I will try to get some information from them as well. And of course I will try to find those books, which you recommend to me. As the Naval Architect did you have an experience of work with Russian specialists? How is their level of education. That's important for me, because a lot of russians graduated the University in Saint-Petersburg . I would like to know an professional opinion.

No Experience with Russian firms - it has mainly been with Canadian, U.S. and to a much lesser degree, British, New Zealand, Australian, & Taiwan firms. Many years of boating lead me into a shipyard (several ferries, barges, and an oil rig) and a couple of ship naval architects but I eventually got back into my real interest...small vessels (under 30m).
One item to note is that ships and boats are different and training & experience in each is essential.

Thx. Well noted. I've actually realized the difference during Fast Rescue Craft courses, when I was maneuvering one and two water jet engine. But I really enjoyed it, it was completely different from propeller boats maneuvering and, of course, deep draft vessels.

There is a international high speed boat operator's organization mainly out of Sweden and another group that has developed a human factors manual for hig speed craft design that you can find on the web. RINA and SNAME also have lots of resources and symposia which you can at least get the papers from. Also there is Professional BoatBuilder (www.proboat.com) and the IBEX show.

You can probably get a long ways on these resources before considering Westlawn or other programs. Alex Nazarov, on this forum, may have some other suggestions as well.