Key Personnel
Left to Right: Aaron Haigh, Mal Hart & Glenn Pritchard
Mal Hart – Managing Director
Mal carries on a maritime family tradition that boasts 6 generations of sea faring and boat building. Growing up within the Port of Hastings Mal was introduced to boats at a very early age.
Mal has always been a keen and notable sailor and has competed in many yachting events around the world. Mal represented Australia in the 1984 and 1986 Kenwood Cup, the 1985 Southern Cross Cup and the 1986 World One Ton Cup. Mal has also competed in 9 Sydney-Hobart races and twice in the notable salt water 2 handed Melbourne-Osaka race. Mal frequently participates in local and ocean races, often on boats that Hart Marine has built.
Mal started Hart Marine 28 years ago and with the help of the key personnel below has developed the company into the internationally renowned first class boat yard it is today.
Aaron Haigh – Factory Manager
Aaron completed his boat building training with Hart Marine and has been with the company for 18 years. He has over 23 years experience as a boat builder and has been the Factory Manager at Hart Marine for 13 years. Aaron has sailed over 50,000 nautical miles including the notable salt water race, the Melbourne-Osaka yacht race, in a Hart Marine built 12m race boat in 2003. Aaron has competed in and won the Brisbane-Gladstone race numerous times. He has also raced in the Adelaide-Port Lincoln and Sydney-Hobart races as well as sailing around Australia. Aaron played a key role building power boats in Malaysia with Hong Leong and has been involved with America's Cup and Volvo builds. He has extensive knowledge and experience in composite construction that is not limited to boat building - he has also worked with composites in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Glenn Pritchard – Operations Manager
Glenn started his career by completing his boat building apprenticeship with Hart Marine. He spent 14 years with Hart Marine building high-performance yachts, motor boats and commercial workboats. Glenn gained extensive experience in marine composite construction but has also worked on projects for the automotive industry. He enjoys sailing and has participated in a number of races as well as multiple project delivery trips. Glenn moved to SE Queensland and spent 9 years working as the Production Manager at a large boat building facility that builds luxury cruisers and game fishing boats. He recently returned to Hart and is now the Operations Manager. Glenn has over 24 years boat building experience.
Naomi Murphy - Principal Financial Controller
Naomi has 30 years experience in business finance and administration. Her business experience is diverse and ranges from logistics to merchant banking. The largest proportion of her career was spent working for a large horticulture mail order company of which 4 years she was Operations Manager. Naomi has worked at Hart Marine for 3 years and is an integral part of our team.
Sasha Harrison - Naval Architect
Sasha completed her BEng Naval Architecture (Hons) degree at the Australian Maritime College (UTAS) in 2008. She has over 3 years experience in the Maritime Engineering field, including experience working in defence and overseas. Since starting with Hart Marine in 2011, Sasha has played a key role producing shop production drawings, designs and design calculations as well as tendering for new projects and assisting in business administration.
Stuart Bloomfield - Senior Naval Architect
Stuart has been associated with Hart Marine for 15 years and is a regular member of our engineering design team. He has 22 years of experience as an engineer and has extensive experience in all aspects of multihull design. Stuart has developed numerous innovations throughout his career including many renown catamaran hull designs used in fast ferries and sailing yachts all over the world. He has personally managed over 100 design projects ranging from award winning carbon fibre record breaking sailing yachts to 100' composite power catamaran yachts and aluminium passenger ferries. Stuart is one of the only designers actively racing in top level competition - he regularly crews on the fastest sailing multihulls in the country, formerly on XL2, Windswept and Surreal and currently on Trilogy, Raw to the Core and Raw Nerve.
Our Team
Our ever-growing team includes around 35 employees and 8 contract staff. Our workforce includes engineering tradesmen, engineering technicians, trades assistants and apprentices.
