Tom Whyte
Owner and General Manager

Tom Whyte's marine career started when he first stepped aboard a halibut boat in Prince Rupert at age 13. After a year in the Middle East, Tom returned to Canada's West Coast to sail on trollers and gillnetters, and trap for black cod off the top end of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Tom honed his skills on government ships, the weather ship CCGS Quadra and the Icebreaker/Buoytender CCGS Wolfe. He worked in fisheries patrol and coastal search and rescue (SAR) aboard the FPV Laurier and FPV Tanu. He then sailed as coxswain on the Canadian hydrographic research ship Parizeu, running survey launches on BC's West Coast. Typical of North Pacific waters, the work always seemed to involve search and rescue, small launches and helicopters.

In the private sector, Tom continued to skipper survey launches, re charting the ever-shifting bottom of the Mackenzie River and the uncharted inlets at the top end of Baffin Island. While surveying off the East Coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1982, he learned about the vast oil and gas deposits there, so he decided to work in the Canadian Arctic where oil and gas exploration was active. He signed on with Volker Stevin aboard the Dutch dredging ship Geopotes X, the largest trailing suction hopper dredge in the world (at the time). He was soon training as a dredge master/operator.

In 1992, Tom sailed from the Arctic to the Far East to take part in the Chek Lap Kok Airport project in Hong Kong. While there, between dredge master duties, Tom was involved in Volker Stevin ship refits in both Keppel Shipyards in Singapore and HUD shipyard in Hong Kong. Throughout Tom's career, when home from sea, he always found work in the local shipyards, including Yarrows shipyard/Versatile Pacific, Point Hope Shipyard and the Canadian naval base in Victoria BC, where he worked as a shipyard rigger.

Other ships Tom worked on include:

Canmar Explorer 3 (drill ship)
Biothic Endeavor (NFLD East coast, Marine survey)
MV Edward Oveter (US Coastal, Seismic)
Pandora 2 (Pisces IV, submersible crew)
Pender (Pisces IV, submersible crew)
MV Sunbeam (offshore Tuna)

After starting a family, Tom gave up going to sea to work full time in the BC ship repair industry. After working on dispatch as a shipyard rigger to local yards, Tom landed the job as rigging foreman/superintendent at Point Hope Shipyard, a mid-management position. During its heyday, Point Hope's dry-docking and in-water projects were plentiful and varied. They included the Naval refit of the HMCS Protecteur, conversions, drill ships, foreign cargo and fishing vessels, barges, tugs, passenger/car ferries and much more.

In the spring of 1994, Tom left Point Hope Shipyard to start his own business — Intercon Marine Inc. — which today is a recognized leader in rigging and ship repair services.

Tom is a member of the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering (CIMarE).