Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2020)

INTERVIEW John Waterhouse, elliott Bay Design group @ EBDG “Be Bold in Thinking but

Cautious in Application”

John Waterhouse is a ubiquitous character in the U.S. maritime industry, a deep-thinker, a signature bow tie and more than three decades of naval architecture and marine engineering experience and success as co-owner of the Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG).

By Greg Trauthwein hile growing up, John Waterhouse spent some ‘there’s too much good stuff here’ to simply walk away.” So, time in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and it was as Waterhouse and two partners, Ken Lane who is a principal now a young boy standing on the shores of English with The Glosten Associates and Annette Grimm, who has

WBay, watching ships come in from around the since moved on to other interests, bought most of the assets of world to load and unload their cargos, when he realized that Nickum and Spaulding, and in January 1988 the firm re-opened a maritime career could be his future. “It was in high school its doors as Elliott Bay Design Group. when the light bulb went off when I realized that people get paid to design ships. That was it for me,” he said. EBDG: A Fresh Start

Following his undergrad studies at UC Berkeley, Waterhouse “It was a challenging time to start my career, and a challeng- took a year off on a sailboat journey around the Pacific before ing time to start a new engineering firm,” Waterhouse said. returning home and taking a position with Nickum and Spauld- When the firm re-opened it had the support of the former own- ing Associates, a Seattle-based naval architecture and marine ers to help retain some of its legacy clients, including Black Ball engineering firm. He eventually went on for his Master’s De- Ferry Line and its M.V. Coho, a ferry designed by Phil Spauld- gree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at MIT, re- ing which still runs today between Victoria and Port Angeles.

turning to Nickum and Spaulding in 1984. Today EBDG is 51 employees – including 27 professional “There were about 100 people in the firm at the time, doing engineers and seven project managers – up from six employees work for the U.S. Navy on the LSD 41 class,” he said. But in the when the firm restarted in 1988. With four offices in Seattle, mid-1980s the bottom literally fell out of offshore energy, com- WA; Ketchikan, AK; Covington, LA; and Port Chester, NY, mercial shipbuilding and eventually naval shipbuilding in the EBDG handles approximately 130 projects annually. “At the

U.S., and in a matter of three years Nickum & Spaulding went end of the day, our customers are looking for us to help them from a vibrant firm to closing its doors in 1987. “These were solve problems,” is how Waterhouse simply defines the pur- some very tough times when I started my career,” Waterhouse pose of his firm. “Ferry boats have been a part of our heritage remembers. “I was just an employee at the time, but I thought from the start, and it’s been a really good run through a renewal www.marinelink.com 35