Be my Guest… Todd Cooper
As part of LEEA’s YouTube channel, ‘Be my Guest…’ series, Jenny Eagle speaks to Todd Cooper, director, Cooper Rigging, Mallorca, who recently became a LEEA member and is about to prepare a race boat for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2023, in Sardinia, Italy, in September.
Todd Cooper of Cooper Rigging has over 25 years of experience working with a variety of vessels, specialising in running rigging and hardware on superyachts, grand prix racing yachts, classic yachts, and tall ships all around the world.
“We have worked on all sizes of yachts and motor yachts, from 40 metres to 130 metres. At the moment, we are doing everything from lifting equipment for vessels, that may use tenders like six to eight or 12metre motorboats that service a big vessel, and any lifting equipment for jet skis or lashing equipment, and holding down things on motorboats, crane cables from manmade fibres right through to running rigging on the sailing boats,” said Cooper.
Originally from New Zealand, Cooper sailed on tall ships for a long time before starting his own business. Wanting to learn more about superyachts and with his maritime qualifications he made his way to Mallorca, which is a hub for superyachting.
“I learnt a lot about rigging, so that just naturally moved me over into the business of rigging and now I specialise in manmade fibre textile rigging and hardware design as well,” he explained.
“Depending how big the projects are, we work with a close group of different subcontractors that come in and help, so we can be anywhere from just two people working day-to-day up to 10 during larger projects. if I'm working for larger companies there will be a team of up to 30 people, each on a specific project.”
Cooper Rigging recently became a LEEA member.
“In our industry there is no standard, or it's very difficult because a lot of these yachts are privately-owned and some of them do charter and given the people that we work for and work with and the possibility of injuries and accidents happening it’s really good to belong to something like LEEA because we can show that we're maintaining records, even if we did it before. It puts us on a more professional level to show that we follow certain criteria to make and manufacture and record things.
“And LEEA's got an amazing reputation. It’s the association that you should belong to if you do anything with lifting.
“The biggest changes we’ve seen in the industry is the size of the things we're lifting, which is nothing compared to industrial companies, but 10 years ago, yacht tenders might have been 8 metres. Now they're getting up to even 25 metres, which is quite a lot and a lot of the lifting equipment used on superyachts in the past were made from wire ropes and now we use Dyneema, which is a manmade fibre.
“Interestingly, some of the certification agencies are still slow on the uptake of learning to work with Dyneema. But it's made life easier for a lot of yacht crew with the weight and it causes less damage. So, the biggest change for me is going from wire, rope and metal to textile lifting equipment.”
Cooper has just finished commissioning a 125-metre sailing yacht, and is now moving on to the next one, which launches in August next year, which is a 68-metre sailing yacht. He is also going to Italy to work on a race boat and prepare it for the World Championships. (The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2023, in Sardinia, Italy, in September).
Click HERE to watch the full video interview on LEEA’s YouTube channel.
