Robert Allan is a third-generation naval architect (all of the same name), whose family originally moved to Vancouver from Scotland in 1919. The original Robert Allan founded the company in 1928 designing workboats, fishboats, small ferries and yachts.
The second, Robert F. Allan, carried on with innovative designs all of which have helped define workboats on the West Coast of Canada and United States and subsequently around the Globe.
Photo courtesy of Robert G. Allan.
Our Honorary Commodore Robert G Allan graduated with honours from the University of Glasgow in 1971 with a B.Sc. in Naval Architecture, Rob Allan designed commercial workboats of all types, most notably high-performance tugboats for tanker escort and offshore terminal operations. In 1981, he succeeded his father, Robert F. Allan, as President of Robert Allan Ltd. and led the growing company to a position of international prominence in the field. He is internationally recognized as a leading authority on the subject of tug and specialized workboat design and has received major peer awards for this work, including:
- Royal Institution of Naval Architects (UK), Small Craft Group Medal for Significant Lifetime Achievements in Naval Architecture;
- Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) David W. Taylor Medal for Notable Achievement in Naval Architecture
- “SS Beaver” Medal from Maritime Museum of British Columbia for Significant Contributions to the Maritime Industry of BC
- Meritorious Achievement Award from the Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia in recognition of significant technical achievements within the engineering and geoscience professions.
- The BC Export Award for Leadership from the BC Ministry of International Trade in recognition of an individual who actively champions the cause of exporting in BC within their field of expertise.
- CMC West Coast Towboat Legacy Award “…In recognition of …many years of outstanding contributions to the tugboat industry and service to the marine community”
- Awarded “Honorary Member” Status by SNAME, reserved for only 50 living persons
- Lifetime Achievement Award from International Tug & Salvage Conference
Photo courtesy of Robert G. Allan.
He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of BC, and a Fellow of both SNAME and RINA. Mr. Allan has authored numerous papers and several text book chapters on the subject of tug and workboat design. He has twice earned the ABS Joseph H. Linnard Prize for Best Paper presented to the SNAME Annual Meeting (2000 and 2010).
He was a co-Chairman of the International “SafeTug” Joint Industry Project, (2005-2010) and the Chairman of the Bollard Pull JIP, (2016-2018) both conducted under the auspices of the MARIN research institute in the Netherlands.
He was a long-term Trustee of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and is an active member of the SS Master Society in their efforts to preserve and restore that century-old historic steam-powered tugboat.
Since selling the company to senior employees in 2008, and fully retiring from active daily duty in June 2017, Mr. Allan continues to serve as Executive Chairman of the Board at Robert Allan Ltd, and helps to mentor the next generation of talented designers and engineers within the Company.
His most recent work was the writing of the corporate history of Robert Allan Ltd. Published late in 2022, “Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story” has received two major non-fiction book awards and has been lauded as a valuable history of the workboats of the BC Coast (and beyond).
Although his professional life has been associated with vessels of steel and aluminium, he has endured the joys of maintaining a few small wooden rowing and sailboats over the years. Nothing speaks more to our coastal legacy on the water in both working and pleasure craft than an Allan designed boat.
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