Daniel (Dan) McKindsey
Daniel is a passionate life-long sailor, and a graduate (1984) of McGill University in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in aeronautics. Daniel also undertook a M. Eng. Level project examining the generalized six degree of freedom dynamics of a sailing yacht, also at McGill.
Passionate about boats and sailing since a very young age, Daniel built his first boat at eight years of age and has been sailing since that time, including racing a wide variety of sailboats since 1980. He has built, re-built and modified several vessels. He currently owns and campaigns a C&C 115 racing sailboat which has been extensively optimized for distance racing, and has enjoyed success in this area. Through this experience, he has acquired a knowledge of the ORC Special Regulations for Offshore Sailing, offshore weather routing and sailboat performance measurement and analysis. Daniel enjoys the technical challenge of sailing and sailboat racing and has always been active in technical side of the sport including the preparation, modification and upgrading of several vessels (rigging systems, structures, electrical, mechanical). He also uses the boat extensively for family outings and lives on board for most of the summer. He has sailed on Lake Ontario, the St-Lawrence and Gulf, the Atlantic Coast, and Southern California, including deliveries of an IMOCA 60 from Quebec City to Halifax and a Tayana 47 from Connecticut to the Bahamas.
Daniel a marine surveyor and consultant, specializing in yachts and small craft. He is a professional engineer (province of Quebec), an ABYC certified Electrical Advisor and a NAMS Associate. He has acquired my RYA Yachtmaster (offshore) certification and his commercial endorsement is pending. He is trained in marine first aid training offshore safety at sea training. Daniel is also a wood-worker, and also works in a wooden boat shop restoring and re-building antique vessels. He is currently planning, with his daughter, the construction of a Herreshoff designed Coquina sailing dinghy employing traditional techniques. I also lecture on boating related issues such as design and surveying. He has presented at the NAMS annual conference and attends both the NAMS and ABYC conferences to stay abreast of pertinent technical issues. Daniel is also planning to acquire his RYA instructor certification.
In addition to his yacht-related work, Daniel also has 30+ as a research engineer, design engineer, engineering manager, engineering executive and professional advisor in companies both small and large, and has served clients in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. He has led complex design & development projects as well as teams of more than 100 highly qualified engineering specialists. Daniel spent 15 years as an engineer and researcher in the aerospace and defence sectors, working in diverse aerospace and marine-related projects including unmanned aerial vehicle development (subsonic and transonic), external ballistics, underwater and air shock and blast, explosive physics, naval air defence training systems and simulation. Clients have included the Canadian, US and Norwegian defence departments. He was involved in the testing of early SCRIMP (Seeman Composite Resin Injection Molding Process) panels produced by Seeman Composites in the 1980’s, blast testing of various naval structures for the UK and US departments of defence, and the development of in-situ recording systems for the first-of-class underwater blast testing of the Canadian Patrol Frigates. During this period, he also set-up an underwater blast research facility, undertook studies on underwater shock bubble-hull interactions and air blast – ship superstructure interactions, undertaken development work associated with ship simulation, and spent numerous years in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for defence surveillance, target and technology development purposes, including as lead designer of the winner of a DND-sponsored design competition for a medium weight UAV.Daniel subsequently spent nearly 20 years as a senior consultant and Partner with a major professional services organization, primarily in regards to research and development projects in industrial and manufacturing processes, including: mining, metallurgy and materials science, aerospace, chemical and petrochemical processes, paper and forest products, and others. In this role, Daniel also held both quality assurance and compliance leadership roles.
Specialties
While fully qualified for all your survey needs, Daniel brings particular expertise to the following areas
- Sailing yachts
- Racing vessels
- Hull structures and construction
- Rigging systems
- Wooden vessels
- FRP structures
- Stability and performance
- Design, commissioning and outfitting for specific applications
- Surveying power & sail, pleasure & commercial (small vessels)
- Design & analysis
- Engineering
- Performance optimization (sailing yachts)
- Vessel commissioning support and consultation (owner’s agent)
- Vessel preparation support and consultation for special use (offshore, extended cruising, racing)
He is an ABYC certified Electrical Advisor and a NAMS Associate.
For a full CV and current details on Danny's education and experience, see his LinkedIn profile or contact us directly with any questions you may have.