The
oil spill industry lost a true pioneer this week, Michael Guthrie Webb
crossed the bar quietly today on the Isle of Wight. Michael was born
in 1928 in London. He worked with Gordon Low Plastics making air
buildings and pond liners, but wanted to get more involved in the marine
industry. The Isle of Wight was offering incentives to light industry
and so he set up a factory in Cowes. Once on the island he went from
strength to strength, he started working in the oil pollution control
business in 1973, initially with his own company (Wotton Bridge
Industries) and then, in collaboration with BP, he founded Vikoma. In
the late 70's he invented and held patents on a range of devices that
are still used in the industry today - including disc skimmer technology
(US Patent 4,021,344), boom deployment systems (US Patent 4,112,689).
He developed the concept of Sea Packs, Fast Boom Layers, Ocean packs,
and Sea Skimmers and sold and personally implemented them all over the
world.
His prolific inventions included;
Anti-pollution equipment Patent number: 4392957
Method and apparatus for dispersing oil slicks Patent number: 4342655
Anti-pollution barrier Patent number: 4330223
Fairlead Patent number: 4311109
Anti-pollution equipment Patent number: 4310415
Anti-pollution boom Patent number: 4207191
Barrier for oil spilt on water Patent number: 4140424
Oil control system Patent number: 4123911
After he left Vikoma he cast around for things to do and settled on building traditional wooden boats. Under the business name of Wootton Bridge Boat Builders he built dozens of traditional boats including an Itchen Ferry, a reproduction of a lateen racer from Spain (that ended up in a museum much to his disgust), sailing and rowing dinghies from 10 to 18 feet long, motor launches, and on and on.
Eventually he tired of boat building and retired. Spending a lot of time at his house in Ibiza while his health lasted. He spent his last days in Wootton. Up until close to the end he stayed in his home and was looked after by his family. He will be missed by all.
Michael Guthrie Webb was the uncle of Stewart Ellis, founder of cleanupoil.com, the “Little Black Book” and is a SCAA member via Elastec.
Comments
Post a Comment