World - GAC

GAC FACESPrecision MagicianContinuing our occasional series on GAC people who have contributed significantly to the past,present and future of the Group, Greg Newbold profiles GAC Marine’s Technical Manager,Bengt Olsson.Marine engineers measure their work andperhaps their whole lives in millimetres.They work with the tiny tolerances thatseparate the thing that works from the onethat doesn’t; the thing that lasts from theone that fails.Bengt Olsson has that millimetregaze. He also has another quality found insuccessful engineers. Some call it creativity,others improvisation. To non-engineers, ithas a touch of magician about it.“My first voyages to the Gulf in the1960s were in an old rust bucket,” saysOlsson. “We had a Norwegian First Engineerwho taught me how to improvise, how tosolve problems when you don’t have theexact tools or materials on hand. I havebeen practicing his lessons ever since.”By the time Olsson joined GAC in1974 as Marine Technical Manager, hehad a solid store of experience and a fewscars too – including a permanent limp,courtesy of a youthful encounter with aSwedish gravel road after parting companywith his motorbike. However, he has allhis fingers, and in Olsson’s world of metaland machines, that’s the sign of a carefulworker.Boat peopleOlsson comes from a family of boat peoplein Western Sweden. His uncles had ashipyard, mainly building and working onfishing boats.“If a fisherman wanted to build a newboat, my uncle would create a woodenmodel so the man could hold it and see itslines, rather than just looking at marks andnumbers on paper. My uncle would cut themodel lengthwise along the centerline andmount one half of it so the owner couldput it on his wall. The other half he keptto measure and check the lines and shapeduring construction. ”On the BeachOlsson started his GAC career in AbuDhabi, where he has stayed ever since.Back in 1974, the place was small andunder-developed. Olsson loved it.“We set up on the beach, and thelocal fishermen based there welcomed us,”16 GAC WORLD | JULY 2010