Bankrupt boat yard in Thailand

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Frosty

No --its not that one. Thats in Jomtien ( Ocean Marina) next to the biggest hotel in the world the Ambassador about 4 K from my house. The one I was talking of is long gone and is in Rayong.

Isn't that one at Ocean Marina the Serenity Yard I reported here??*

Serenity Shipyard Co. http://www.serenityshipyard.com/ This was a great find that I actually missed the first time around. I had stopped at Ocean Marina on my way down to Rayong and visited a few interesting multihulls docked in the relatively new marina. One in particular was a large 70-ish trimaran with a Portuguese style deckhouse/flybridge on it. The B&R type sailing rig was interesting as well. This vessel had a true ‘yacht finish’. There was a Thai captain onboard who spoke very little English, and the Russian captain was absent. Supposedly the vessel was built somewhere other than Thailand, and was in Thailand for various reasons, and had either a Japanese or Russian owner. Interesting vessel.

Out on the hard at the back of the marina were several smaller catamaran ‘rocket ships’ of about 28-32 feet, and then of all surprises a 26 foot trimaran known as Firefly.!! Yes, unbelievably one of my own designs that we built 6 or 7 of in Annapolis MD. A group of guys had purchased in the Seattle area and shipped it over to Thailand….long conversation with one of the partners who was there working on the boat getting it ready for a launch soon.

It had been hinted at, that this Ocean Marine site had been the original location where several magnificent 130’-138’ super sailing yachts had been built back in the 80’s, prior to the new hi-rise and yacht club of Ocean Marine. Mirabella I & III, and Philanderer are three I know of:
http://www.mirabellayachts.com/mirabella5/
http://www.eliteyacht.com/philanderer.htm

But I just didn’t see a building of that size. Turns out half of that original building had been taken down and reconfigured. The concrete pad is still there

And now there is a relatively new boatbuilder there, Serenity Yachts, that has very particular interest in multihull vessels. They had built a couple of ‘charter’ 70 footers (image ref), one located there at the marina, they had under construction a 52’ Schioning design and a 43’ Prout cat that he had bought the moldings for from Concordia.

The managing director, Jean Obry, spent a lot of time in the charter and boat building business in France, so obviously he has a catamaran heart. If his name hadn’t been French, and he didn’t have a bit of French accent, I wouldn’t have believed he was French. He is a very knowledgeable boatbuilder, and one of the most ‘up front’, honest appearing guys I’ve ever met in the business. He has developed a method of keeping track of EVERYTHING in the factory without being obsessive about it. He can tell you how many rolls of tape were used on what vessels, and who took aspirin and when. Now this is the ultimate in cost control production. With this system of record keeping he can bill the client on a monthly basis rather than by stages. This keeps his cash flow problems to a minimum, and allows the client to keep tight control on the running cost of the project…..no BIG surprises to come up as with stage payments. And the client can get a full and exact incremental accounting as the project goes forward. Marvelous for both parties. Very few builders could ever offer such a payment plan as they don’t track things with this exactness.

He is right up front with his charges to build, and that is basically his cost plus 20%. He bills labor out at 8 euro per hour. He builds in a set % additional charge on all equips added to the vessel to cover handling, installation, etc. In general he works on a time and materials basis to build a project rather than some guesstimate as to what the vessel will cost lump sum. He wants to make an honest 20% profit.

So the client is only left with the questions of will he ‘pad’ the bill, or will he have competent folks working on the project that won’t be ‘learning’ at the client’s expense. With his record keeping and honesty, I don’t think you will find any ‘padding’ of the bill. Besides on a monthly billing basis it would be easy to detect. He did another smart thing. He located himself right in the old facility utilized by those fellows that spent 10 years building those super yacht 138’s. He is surrounded by a work force that was trained for those years…he has some real experienced workers from what I can tell….and all the extras he might need in a sudden overload situation.

Composite boatbuilding in Thailand, or other hi-humidity situations, can be a problem. All of his materials, cores, fabrics, resins are stored in a temp and humidity controlled room that has 24 hour monitoring and recording devices. He has assumed control of a metal working facility directly adjoining his space. If you saw the workmanship on these stainless pieces you would want even more of it on your vessel. But be careful our light-weight multihulls should try to restrain themselves from those obsessively heavy big stainless fixtures. Beautiful work though. And he is building for other manufacturers & marketers.

Summary: This builder would be very high on my list of potentials. I think the yacht quality is attainable, and I think you would get a most honest accounting for the work. I believe he might be able to construct at least two 70 foot cats, possible 3 simultaneously along side several smaller projects he might have. There might be some cost savings in simultaneous constructions of identical designs

[brian eiland]

BTW Frosty, I sent you a private message/email about your prop shaft arrangement on your vessel

[Alik]

Brian, how long haven't You been in OM? There are few new builders, two of them are building 60' cats from us. Our 90' was also built in OM in rental space...

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

BTW Frosty, I sent you a private message/email about your prop shaft arrangement on your vessel

?????????????????????? when.

Didnt get it!!

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Alik

Brian, how long haven't You been in OM? There are few new builders, two of them are building 60' cats from us. Our 90' was also built in OM in rental space...

Its been a couple of years since I visited those yards. BTW what is OM?

I'm in Thailand now, and plan on coming down to the gulf area in a week or so.

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Frosty

?????????????????????? when.

Didnt get it!!

Sorry sent as private email first time and just discovered that did not go thru. So I just sent it as 'private message'

[Alik]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Its been a couple of years since I visited those yards. BTW what is OM?

OM is Ocean Marina.

I'm in Thailand now, and plan on coming down to the gulf area in a week or so.

Pls stop by to see us; we are on Sukhumvit, impossible to miss!

[Frosty]

I would not call on you but where are you ? you say suhkumvit,--thats 160Km long Bangok to Sattahip.

[Alik]

Originally Posted by Frosty

I would not call on you but where are you ? you say suhkumvit,--thats 160Km long Bangok to Sattahip.

Pls chk map on company web

[sabahcat]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

So here is what I now pull up as their current website,
http://www.celebrityyachting.com/about.html
Only a few weeks ago I could pull up their older website ‘concordia, with photos of their facilities, and the molds of the big cat

Wayback machine has it

http://web.archive.org/web/200902031...com/about.html

[Frosty]

Something not quite right here. Concorde yachts was parallel with the highway and the shed is now half the size, I was employed as consultant once there fore a project on Mirrabella. Half the shed was taken by Bill Gassons Buzcat, they built one only.

The biggest shed now is not parallel to the road and make lots of cats I dont know what. I have a troll through sometimes..

They are rebuilding the Marina shortly this years but are still booked up

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Just wondering if it might be this yard I wrote about a few years ago when I was making an inspection tour down there.??

Concordia Yachts (now renamed Celebrity Yachting). This is an operation that I had known of for a long time. Only even I was confused about its origin. Unknown to me there was another boatbuilder in Thailand named Concorde Yachts that was specifically formed to build several mega-sailingyachts of 138’, the first one for Joe Vittoria of Mirabella fame. I had long thought they were one in the same due to the similarity of their names and some ads in the boating publications I had seen, and the fact they were both working on a Dubois designed vessel.

So here is what I now pull up as their current website,
http://www.celebrityyachting.com/about.html
Only a few weeks ago I could pull up their older website ‘concordia, with photos of their facilities, and the molds of the big cat

Several years ago this company built a luxury 69’ catamaran designed by Bill Dixon and referred to as a Prout 69. There were to be both a power and a sailing model. Only one sailing model was built initially, and prior to delivery, the client experienced a health problem resulting in the vessel being put up for sale. The thai gentleman Khun above, was involved in the building of the molds for this cat and the building of the initial vessel. His report to me, ‘the molds are excellent, but the first boat was overweight, and interior was finished out in a substandard plywood.’ I had always wondered why they experienced some problems they did when they went to sell this vessel, as I had sought accurate info on the vessel to submit to some potential clients I had suggested this vessel to.

The facility these people have is fantastic. It is large enough to build 4-6 big cats at the same time, and it is right on the waters edge for launching. Currently there are two big cats (69’ expanded to 72’) under construction, as well as two 85’ Dubois monos, a 43’ cat, and some 36’ monos. One of the big cats is destined to be a power model, and has a totally new deckhouse design with a flying bridge. As I understand it this yard is now the owner of the ‘Prout’ catamaran name and rights.

I spoke with primarily two people there, the owners representative/manager who divides his time between Thailand and China, and the production manager John Oliver, an older New Zealander who has spent considerable years in Thailand. Briefly I also talked with Geoff, the mechanical systems manager who also sidelines his own operation mentioned above. I think the owner of the yard is a singular, very wealthy Chinese businessman from Hong Kong who rarely visits this operation. From my limited knowledge of Chinese business people, I am totally surprised that one would have invested such a large sum of money in the facility they have, and particularly to build boats, and particularly to build sailboats rather than powerboats. Added to this equation I could not get a definitive answer to my question as to whom the two big cats were being built for. I have a hard time believing they are both ‘spec boats’, but that’s how it appears at the moment.

This inspection tour was at least 2 years ago. Prior to my coming to that facility I had corresponded with a gentlman by the name of Andy Pitt (I believe I still have a contact info for him). He was no longer there.

What confused me originally is that the original company that built 138' Mirabella was named Concorde Yachts. This other company that built the Dixon 69 cat was Concordia Yachts located in Rayong. This company eventually renamed itself and turned the Dixon vessel into a Prout cat.

Here is something I remeber finding that further leds to CONFUSION
"Prout International sells Factory-Direct yachts, eliminating the 15% – 25% markup that dealers typically add to the boat’s price. Prout has eliminated this costly dealer distribution network system by having in-house catamaran professionals who operate globally and will guide and advise you throughout the process of creating the yacht of your dreams from our extensive product line of power and sailing multihulls. You will also receive after sales service and back up factory direct, globally.

Prout Catamarans are built in China and Thailand where labor is a fraction of the cost of Europe but the quality is equal or better. Using this competitive advantage Prout is able to produce labor intensive, high end touches to its yachts such as: compound curved high tensile safety glass in the saloon windows (versus inexpensive Plexiglas), inlaid woods, marble countertops, to name a few. Because Prout is able to purchase materials from source in the Far East at substantially reduced prices we can afford to deliver top quality Custom yachts at great prices. The re-sale value of Prout Catamarans is well protected because the used market is not flooded with inexpensive charter versions that drive the price down, even if the yacht has never been chartered.

Prout International builds the finest luxury yachts in the world. Its Catamaran division, Prout Catamarans, is the most prestigious catamaran brand in the world. Prout Catamarans was founded in 1954 by Roland and Francis Prout. In 50 years of production over 2,000 cruising catamarans were built. In later years the success of the company declined and in the year 2000 it was sold to Quest of Canada. When it was realized that Prout could not thrive in such a high cost environment, Quest restructured. For six years, the Prout design team modernized and re-tooled the range to meet current market trends and designs with a new generation of catamarans. Prout decided to relocate to Rayong, Thailand and Zhuhai, China for its first Far East manufacturing facility and refocused to segregate its products and specialize in each step of the manufacturing process.

Prout truly has a global presence. Currently Prout is part of a large, well funded corporation which has a diverse portfolio of businesses ranging from construction and property holdings to aerospace and ship building industries. Prout belongs to the Winfair Marine group, part of Celebrity Yachts which includes three yacht building operations: a shipyard in Rayong, Thailand, the joint-venture Dalian Songliao-Celebrity Marine Co. Ltd. (Dalian, China), and Winfair Marine (Zhuhai) Co. Ltd. (Zhuhai, China). Our Thailand shipyard is the largest shipyard in South East Asia. Prout entered a 50/50 joint venture with a military shipyard in Dalian to diversify into other areas. Prout also recently opened the first of its two Zhuhai shipyards. The next shipyard in Zhuhai is even bigger. Prout is a real player in the global catamaran market and is setting the standard once again with new designs and innovations in its products. Prout International is expanding to include 10 different lines of products."

These guys have had more name changes, and changes in description, and lack of full info, etc that I wonder what the heck is going on??

On top of that I see their 72 footer is now for sale....uncompleted of course
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2012...92240/Thailand

And now they have some big trimaran project going on
http://www.proutinternational.com/media/Winfair.pdf
"Already, Winfair is building a 138-foot trimaran in Zhuhai that has been sold. Sea trials are due in November 2009. Clearly, Winfair and the Prout brand are moving ahead quickly.".....right

[Alik]

Brian, talking about this strange-maran:
http://www.proutinternational.com/media/Winfair.pdf
I have seen it in 2006 'as will be launched soon'. There is absolutely no engineering behind; I pointed that side hulls were of small volume and shifted back causing significant bowdown trim when heeled. Seems they moved them after that; but all together it is just a marketing blurb.

Then, this boat:
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...2240&noOfPic=7
I met the owner couple of times when he was looking for survey; told me a lot of interesting stories... Later, the boat was completed at owner's cost.

[brian eiland]

Just found some photos of that Concordia yard

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Frosty

I was given the (professional ) plans of a 10meter power cat for sale at a fibre glass boat yard in Rayong. The yard is apparantly bankrupt and is selling off cheap furniture and many things moulded in Fibre glass.
A power cat hull is available for 11,000 dollars 10 meters and looks very nice -perhaps a little bit like a Schioning. It has fly bridge and is designed to have 2 Yanmar 6LP according to the plans.

The engines are far aft and it may have tunnels for the props. I would not have thought 11,000 dollars would pay for the materials.
I think I might take a look.

Did you go check that boat out? Got any details, or did you decide to buy it?