In 1996, the American Bureau of Shipping contracted Rob to develop Section 8 and the catamaran structures parts of the new Guide for Building and Classing High Speed Craft. Rob’s input concerned structural design rules for large high-speed multihull, SES, and hydrofoil vessels, published early 1997.

Rob was the U.S. representative on the International Standards Organization (ISO) TC188 WG18 committee, and co-developed the new international boat structures standard, ISO 12215, for marine craft under 24 meters (79 ft). The European Union Parliament mandated in 1994 that all craft manufactured and sold in Europe after July 1998 be designed, built, and certified EU-wide set of standards. The ISO committee was convened in response to that mandate. Rob’s participation was funded by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and by the American Boat & Yacht Council, under a U.S. Coast Guard grant for that work.

In 2000, the Chinese government’s Shanghai FRP Research Institute and the State Administration for Building Materials (SABMI) contracted Rob to assist in the development of the structural design for their new 33 meter (108 foot) fiberglass and wood fishing vessels, currently being series-built in Hwei Hai Shipyard. Rob worked with the engineers of the Shanghai FRP Research Institute to do the necessary drawings and pass the project through the PRC Fishing Boat Authority. He also consulted with the shipyard in tooling up for the construction phase.

Since 1983, he has taught intensive, 40-hour lectures in the U.S. and Europe on ship and boat structural design in fiberglass, wood, and other composite materials. These seminars have been attended by many well-known naval architects, ship and boatbuilders, composite suppliers’ technical staff, Navy and Coast Guard engineers. (sponsors: YDI Schools & Maine Maritime Academy, Wausaukee Inc., KRP Plastiques, Paris, and American Klegecell, Texas). Two of these were held at USCG Headquarters, Washington, DC., and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, under government contracts to train USCG and navy engineers in design of wood and composite structures.

Rob has done consulting and structural design for SeaRays’ 63 ft and 65 ft models, and similar work for Atlantic Yachts, Grady White, Marlin Yachts, Nautica, OMC Boat Companies, ProLine, Regal Boats (222, 202, and 182 Models), Tollycraft, and Zodiac Hurricane (16 to 66 ft) Four models of WorldCat catamarans are based on Rob’s design for their 29 foot hull. From the mid 1980’s for a time at each facility, Rob did the structural design and analysis for the entire product line for several well-known boat manufacturers, including WorldCats, Cobalt Boats, Grady White, Cruisers Yachts, Marlin Yachts, New Water Boats.

Rob has performed structural design and analysis for a number of military versions of rigid hull inflatable boats for Nautica International and Zodiac Hurricane, two of the best-known RIBs builders.

Rob developed the U.S. marine industry’s very commonly-used series of structural design computer program for powerboats: C-Shell and CLAM. These programs were the primary structural design tools of 47 of the best-known powerboat builders and designers in the U.S. The programs were developed through a decade’s worth of at-sea instrumented testing and research. Sea Ray Boats alone has documented (for the ISO 12215 Standards Committee) the fact that they built over one hundred twenty thousand boats, ranging in size from 17 to 65 feet, produced between January 1990 and January 1997 with laminates and framing developed with the aid of C-Shell and CLAM. Sea Ray and Boston Whaler still use Rob’s engineering system for structures.