Shipwright turned Lawyer at Newcastle TAFE

by Helen Hopcroft on 28 Sep 2007 It’s like the start of a bad joke: what do you call a lawyer who is also a qualified shipwright? The answer in this case is Lake Macquarie resident Marcel Vaarzon-Morel. After 20 years working as a shipwright he went back to university and graduated with a law degree. Nowadays he works for the Newcastle office of the prestigious Hunt & Hunt law firm, and this week volunteered his time to speak to students and apprentices at the Newcastle TAFE school of boat and ship building. He spoke about common legal problems that shipwrights and people working in the marine industry face.

In an industry where many deals are still done on a handshake there is always going to be a lot of work for lawyers when things go wrong. Marcel Vaarzon-Morel acknowledged that nowadays many of the larger builders and companies insist on written contracts and this narrows the scope of any legal dispute; but this hasn’t always been the case.

Problems arise when parties enter into an oral contract and nothing about their business agreement is committed to writing. If the business relationship breaks down, and both parties end up in court, it’s up to a judge to apply a test of reasonableness and determine what terms the parties intended to be part of their contract. The judge is expected to make a determination on which version of events to accept, and this can be a difficult and stressful process for all concerned.

It seems that very few people actually enjoy their day in court.

‘At the end of the day the judge has to sit on the bench, with both sides feeding them information, and they’ve got to decide who’s telling the truth and who’s not telling the truth.’

Prevention, he stressed to the assembled students and apprentices, is better than the cure. Always make sure you understand what you are signing and agree with it. And commit any key agreements to writing; regardless of how well you get on with your business partner, client or boss. As he put it, people sometimes fall on hard times and start looking for any financial edge they can get. Without clear agreements on intellectual property, copyrights, employment conditions and contracts there is nothing but heartache and expense for all concerned.

Vaarzon-Morel spoke at length about protecting original ideas or designs via copyright, industrial design legislation and/or patent law. As many shipwrights are bright, practical people with a strong engineering bent it sometimes happens that they come up with novel ideas or inventions which have a high potential commercial value. He discussed what happens when a person has an original idea, particularly if they share this idea with their employer, employees or use it in their workplace.

He was particularly keen to impart how information could have significant commercial value; whether this is a design, invention, idea or work practice and the necessity of protecting information just like it was valuable physical property. He told the young students that in the long term a commercially useful idea, properly protected, can generate more income than hands on labour.

Although Vaarzon-Morel spoke with authority from his unique perspective as a shipwright and a lawyer, it seemed a little hard to get the message across to some of the assembled students, many of whom were in their late teens and early twenties.

At this age people tend to focus more on their rights than their responsibilities and their sole exposure to the legal system may be a speeding ticket or two. Like many young shipwrights, the overall clad students looked like they were primarily interested in boats, cars, payday, girls, beer and sport: though not necessarily in that order.

TAFE head teacher Ross Mitchell joked that many of the students aren’t looking much further ahead than the weekend. Mitchell was previously self employed as a wooden boat builder and said that at this age some students assume that any legal issues are the ‘bosses problem’ and not something they have to worry about.

In an environment regulated by tough environmental protection laws the school emphasises individual responsibility when handling potentially dangerous materials. Mitchell said that students and apprentices are encouraged to take ownership of their own work practices, health and be cognisant of their environmental obligations.

Both men stressed that an employee can be held individually liable for certain breaches of environmental protection legislation. If an offence is found to have been committed a significant fine can result. The Environmental Operations Act 1997 has maximum fines of $1,000,000 for corporations with a further penalty of $120,000 each day an offence continues. And the maximum penalty for individuals is also severe: fines of up to $250,000 and a potential additional $60,000 per day for each day the offence continues.



‘So always read the MSDS label before you use a chemical’ intoned Mitchell.
‘What’s MSDS?’ cracked one of the final year apprentices, to widespread mirth.

(For the initiated MSDS means Material Safety Data Sheet, a common labelling system that includes information on toxicity, handling and safety precautions.)

As well as teaching correct handling of the often hazardous chemicals associated with boat building, the students cover a range of construction techniques from high tech exotic composites to traditional wooden boat building. The course exposes students to the latest boat building techniques, such as vacuum bagging, pre-pregs and resin infusion, while also recognizing the value of learning to build a wooden boat from scratch.

Lines plans are drawn up (lofted) on the floor of the workshop and the students learn the processes of wooden boat building the old fashioned way. The lines are lifted from a small 'half hull' model, measurements are transferred from paper plans to the floor and finally a full scale vessel is created.

Mitchell explained that the skills learned from building a wooden boat were transferable to other construction techniques and also helped students develop a critical eye when assessing computer generated designs. Although the courses were basically about ‘what people do in the work place’ they also tried to include useful skills that students were unlikely to acquire in a normal work environment.

For people who are considering a career in the marine industry, but are not sure if they want to commit to a four year shipwright apprenticeship, Newcastle TAFE offers a new course called Certificate 2 in Boating Services. The 12 month (one day per week) traineeship course is designed to be an entry level pathway into the marine industry and is particularly useful for young people who are interested in jobs in marinas, chandleries or other boating businesses.

Mitchell explained that the Certificate 2 was a ‘way for employers to give a young person a start’ and could be easily used as a foundation for future study, with many of the core course components recognized by the industry. TAFE also offers flexible learning so people with family or work commitments are able to enrol in the boat and shipbuilding courses with the knowledge that the timetable can be adapted to individual student and employer requirements. There is also the option of distance or on-line learning.

http://www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au

TAFE NSW Information Centre telephone: 131 601
Interstate enquiries should phone: (02) 8289 4777
Hunter Institute, Boat and Shipbuilding section
(02) 4923 7249
Email: john.r.mitchell@tafe.nsw.edu.au

http://www.hunthunt.com.au
Newcastle office telephone: (02) 4925 5500
Email: mvaarzon-morel@hunthunt.com.au