Thailand Boatyard

Hi there

Does anyone know of a boatyard in Thailand with wooden boat experience where I could work on restoring my boat?

cheers
Daryl

 

Many of them with terrific wood experience. They build wooden trawlers daily.



Where abouts do you want to be?

 

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/member.php?u=7697

This may help... he is a pal.

 

Thanks for the replies - I hadn't got as far as thinking what area I would want to be in as the only reason for being there would be for the boatyard.

Ideally would be looking for somewhere that has reasonable and cheap accomodation (with internet access) near the yard, would allow us to work on the boat alongside local carpenters and is not to difficult to ship the boat to.

 

If you're looking into S.E.Asia then he (Adaman ) would be a fine choice... quality is what u want... I really like his work. China is cheaper but the lumber is expensive and import from other countries...

If you are an able carpenter just need to direct a few worker and need cheap wood but good quality lumber then Kalimantan of Indonesia or Sulawesi would be a better choice.

In Indonesia Kalimantan have a lot of hard lumber and have a city name Balikpapan, an oil city fame for the ehmmm... cheap to expensive lodging ... many internet post and cafe to satisfied your finger. In Balikpapan it is safer and cleaner, finding a couple of bugis carpenter is easy as my friend have mentioned...over a cold beer

 

Hey Daryl,
now I am curious. What boat do you have? And can you post some photo's?
Is it that you will be in the area already, is the boat already there, or are you going there specifically to seek out a cheaper better nicer alternative to doing the work in Europe? (Edit- sorry, I just re-read your second post and see that you are going to ship the boat there...)

Hope it goes well.

 

Internet access is every 200yds in Thailand Any where.

All boat yards are friendly,helpfull and cheap --all accomodation is cheap -all boat yards let you work on your own boat. They may not like you bringing other boatyard workers into thier boat yard.

labour is about 300-400 baht per day --36 baht to the dollar.

Fishing boats are every where, up every river basically and so there will be a ship yard there. However not all can accomodate keel boats, but most will try.
Some are set up for it with European toilets internet acess (wirless in some cases) and interpreters. Food cheap and wonderfull. bars every where,

Very friendly atmosphere.

The wood worker are like from the last century.

 

heres a picy --as usuall click onto it to make it bigger

 

hy,
they rebuilt "cariad" in satun, just close to the malaysian border, look OK !
surveyor des cairn from langkawi is the PM for this project..
cheers

 

Bertho

The picture is PSS ship yard in Satun. Des kerns is still there and Cariad is still a long way off.

I have got serious steel grinding damage to my starboard side off Cariads grindings.Very pissed about it too.

As usuall gentlemen click onto it to enlarge

 

Thanks again for all the replies - all sounds great so far.

hansp77 - the boat is called Senora, there is a pic of her on the national historic ships register at http://www.nhsc.org.uk/index.cfm/event/getVessel/vref/2012

My other concern is transport. I guess shipping her to Thailand would not be a problem but how about getting her from the arrival port to the boatyard? Would hiring cranes and flat bed lorries be a problem?

Also how about permits/visas to allow myself and my girlfriend to stay in Thailand to work on her?

Thanks again in advance for any advice!

 

nobody work here !! , just paid and look ! as a tourist !! 3 month touristique visa in all ambassy..25 $ ( in fact 2 month and 1 more for 2000 bath extra...)

 

Thanks for the link Daryl,
She's looks a beauty,
http://www.nhsc.org.uk/images/300/sonera.jpg

Regarding visa's for Thailand, do you mean to actually work another job, or just work on Senora?
If it is just to work on your boat, then a tourist visa would be the easiest way to go. As bertho explained, a tourist visa can be had with extension(s) for three months at a very low price, at the end of which all you have to do is cross a border and then return again to begin a new three month visa. While you could just cross the border and come straight back again, in effect this can work rather well by forcing you to have a little holiday every three months, dropping up to Cambodia to wander Angkor Wat, to Laos , Vietnam, etc...

It is a beautifull part of the world (probably my favourite so far), and the prospect of living there and restoring a big wooden boat, going on three monthly brief holidays, well, I couldn't imagine anything better. It is actually a bit of dream I have for later on in life.
I hope it works out for you.
Keep us informed and let us know how it goes.

Best luck.
Hans.

 

Dont what ever you do ship your boat to Thailand the customs will screw you blind.

Get the boat as seaworth as you can then ship to Pinang or Klang or singapore even better. Singapore is a doddle duty free port. ( ive done it)

Thai customs will take your boat and sell it . They will wrap you in so much tape you walk away.

 

2 Jack Frost
You're too pessimistic. We did that, no problem if customs is handled properly by good agent.