John Kecsmar studied at Solent University and later did his postgraduate studies at the University of Southampton, where his Masters and PhD focused upon the effects of fabrication on the fatigue design in aluminium structures.

Starting his journey as a naval architect at FBM Marine on the Isle of Wight in the late 1980s, and then several years at Austal Ships and WaveMaster International in Australia in the early to mid-90s, he returned to FBM Marine, later to become FBM Babcock Marine, in the mid-90s until the design department was closed down in 2005.

He formed his own design consultancy company with late Nigel Warren in 2005 and continues to this day.

He was previously the chairman of RINA’s High Speed Vehicle Committee and is a fellow member of RINA and a member of both SNAME and JASNAOE. He sat on the technical editorial board of RINA’s IJSCT publication and is a member of Lloyd’s Register’s Technical Committee, RINA’s High Speed Vessels and Safety committees, MCA’s High Speed Advisory Group, and SNAME’s SD-5 Advanced Ships and Craft Panel, to name a few.

He has been designing high-speed aluminum vessels such as patrol boats, fast ferries, SWATHs, and crew boats for over 30 years and has authored many papers in the field of high-speed hydrodynamics and the design, fabrication, and fatigue of aluminum structures.