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I’ve always walked a slightly different path. Turns out, a lot of that comes down to dyslexia. As a kid, I wasn’t diagnosed—just labelled. A bit dim, a bit slow. Couldn’t read aloud in class. Struggled with long words. A bit of a rebel. It wasn’t until deep into my military career that someone finally put a name to it. By then, I’d already built my own workarounds. I never asked for special treatment, I never asked for extra time in exams or special coloured paper. My thinkin

I didn’t set out to build a propulsion pod. I set out to challenge legacy thinking. For years, a familiar group of firms has consistently secured Ministry of Defence contracts often with the assurance that, regardless of cost or timeline, funding will follow. It’s a dynamic that, while rooted in trust and legacy, can sometimes slow progress. Projects extend over long cycles. Accountability becomes diffuse. And those who depend on these systems—operators, engineers, frontline

A few days after leaving the Royal Navy, I found myself in unfamiliar waters. The transition to civilian life was disorienting - no watch rotations, no real mission, just long nights and a browser full of tabs. I’d stay up late, falling into YouTube black holes, watching documentaries on vessels, engineering marvels, and tactical design breakthroughs. One night, I stumbled across a video that changed everything: Juliet Marine’s GHOST. A SWATH vessel with reversed props, gas

Marc Reffell or "Ref" as he was known to his shipmates, served in the Royal Navy from 1999 to 2025, rising to Chief Petty Officer across three distinct trades: Communications, Intelligence, and Engineering. His career spanned deployments in the Gulf, Mediterranean, Falklands, Afghanistan, and Libya, with operational roles aboard HMS Bulldog, Cornwall, Roebuck, Ocean, Bulwark, Northumberland, and St Albans. Camp Leatherneck 2010 A graduate of the All-Arms Commando Course, Marc