Areas of Expertise:
Thomas R. Dyer, P.E. is president of Headway Marine LLC, providing consultation to the marine industry and attorneys regarding Naval Architecture;  Maritime Standards/Practices;  Regulatory Compliance; Work Boat Engineering and Construction; Shipyard Management; Shipyard Estimating,  and Shipyard Construction, Conversion, and Repair Costs. Mr. Dyer has testified as an expert in state and federal courts in Washington,  Oregon, and Alaska.

Credentials:
Mr. Dyer is a Registered Professional Engineer in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering in the State of Washington.  He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, and his MS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from MIT.  He completed The Management Program, at the University of Washington, Graduate School of Business, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Naval Architecture at the Technical University at Delft, the Netherlands.

Summary of Experience:
During the past five years, Mr. Dyer has put his knowledge to work as an expert in more than forty disputes, representing shipyards, vessel owners, and seaman; both plaintiffs and defendants.  He has testified before judges and juries on in wrongful death; equipment failure; vessel sinkings, collisions, and capsizings; seamens injuries; shipyard negligence; trade dress; and contract disputes,  Representative industries include commercial fishing, tug and barge, shipbuilding, pleasure craft, cruise ships, ferries, and ocean shipping.

Before founding Headway Marine LLC, Mr. Dyer had a shipbuilding career spanning more than 30 years, He has developed a broad knowledge of the shipbuilding business, and of the technology and operation of workboats and pleasure craft.  He has managed heavy industrial contracts. 

After service as an Officer-Instructor at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Mr. Dyer worked his way through the shipbuilding ranks as a naval architect, estimator, superintendent, project manager, and new construction manager at Marco and Todd Shipyards; a shipyard general manager at Foss Shipyard; and finally as president and owner of Union Bay Shipbuilding, a small yard in Seattle.  He has also served briefly as a principal at The Glosten Associates, a leading naval architecture firm; and was engineering vice president for ETALCO, a heavy lift contractor.   

Mr. Dyer has overseen the construction of 28 steel and aluminum vessels, and supervised innumerable vessel repairs and major conversions.  He is familiar with all aspects of shipyard operations and business, as well as the engineering, construction, conversion and maintenance of fishing vessels, tugs, barges, ferries, pilot boats, sailing and powered pleasure craft, and of aluminum, wood, and steel hulls.   He has 50 years of experience operating and maintaining wooden pleasure boats, both sail and power; he has made voyages in sailboats, fishing vessels, tugs, pilot boats, and naval and merchant ships.

He is or has been: Chairman of the Pacific Northwest Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, a founder and president of the Seattle Marine Business Coalition,  a member of Naval Architects for Fishing Vessel Safety,  a Trustee of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, a member of Toastmasters International, a member of the American Boat and Yacht Council,  a member of the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners Association Vessel Safety Program , and a member of the Propeller Club.