Sailboat refits in Thailand

[sailcrazy]

Interesting comments, Farang.....but from one who's been there, done that (13 months in Phuket)....just where, pray-tell, have the labor rates NOT gone up?
I stand by my already-posted comments-I'd go back in a heartbeat!

[Farang]

thankyou for highlighting my point.....you cannot just “go back in a heartbeat” because borders are extremely difficult to move easily across. Many of the tradespeople have moved away to find work elsewhere because Covid killed off the steady stream of cruisers arriving from the east.

Even if the OP bought his boat, managed to get a refit before his visa ran out, where does he go? Anywhere within cooee you have to pay exorbitant agent’s fees, Covid tests, quarantine, mandatory marina berth, monthly visa fees etc..

[Emmalina]

I have done a refit in Satun took over a year but happy with the outcome. The you-tubers Follow the Boat also did an extensive refit so you might want to look at there youtube pages about it.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Farang

...I’m just suggesting the OP, and anyone considering the same, to buy closer to home in the current environment.

Well I concur with that, totally.

Although my friend (in Seattle) bought a race boat in England and got it sailed. shipped, trucked to Seattle and that worked out, but no long distance refit was involved.

[Gheinz]

Farang, thank you very much for your PM. Here's what I have concluded. Thailand is not my preferred location to purchase a boat and definitely not the place I would like to do a refit. I am not yet in a panic to buy a boat so will keep looking. If by March or April I haven't found something elsewhere, and this cat is still available in Phuket, I may put in a low(er) ball offer as it will then have been on the market for over a year. If successful, I would repair/replace only the essentials needed to get allow me to get to a more preferred location to do the rest of the work. I have no doubt there are good trades people in Thailand but I don't have the desire to manage and babysit the work to the degree necessary (understanding a certain amount comes with the job of having a refit done). Thanks to everyone who responded.

[wingssail]

It’s worth looking at why people do refits in Thailand.

Mostly they don't choose that place. The place chooses them.

When cruising in the pacific and asian region people have travelled a long way. It is thousands of miles from North America, farther if they started in Europe, and it's even 5000 miles from New Zealand or Sydney, Australia.

In addition to the miles it's often many months or, usually, years since they left their home ports.

Thailand is a natural stop over when you are going westbound.

With all the wear and tear on the boat that comes with the miles travelled and years of cruising, there is work to be done. A further issue is: what do we face next?

Setting out across the Indian Ocean is daunting to many; going back east isn't exactly easy either.

So a decision is made to get the boat fixed up. It becomes a refit.

And there you are, doing a refit in Thailand.

[Farang]

Passagemakers from the east to Thailand are few at present. But if one was planning a refit over a year on the hard in the tropical heat perhaps it is prudent to be critically selective in choosing a location for said refit rather than it just being on the rhumb line? Just sayin’. For me, the less time on the hard or tied to a pontoon, the better

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Farang

Passagemakers from the east to Thailand are few at present. But if one was planning a refit over a year on the hard in the tropical heat perhaps it is prudent to be critically selective in choosing a location for said refit rather than it just being on the rhumb line? Just sayin’. For me, the less time on the hard or tied to a pontoon, the better

Help us with that Farang. Let's say you crossed the Pacific, made it to New Zealand.

Next season you got back to the Islands, say Fiji, New Cal, Vanuatu, or the Solomons.

Now what? Do you head back south th Oz? or piddle on westward to Indo.

Then what?

Thailand is full of boats. Virtually all of them are passage makers from the East.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

I have done a refit in Satun took over a year but happy with the outcome. The you-tubers Follow the Boat also did an extensive refit so you might want to look at there youtube pages about it.

Yep, it's where we are keen to get to so as to give our old girl the love she deserves.

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by Gheinz

I am considering buying a 2004 catamaran which has had virtually no refits to anything - just regular PM as far as I can tell. Currently required, among other things, is Standing and running rigging, new sails, trampoline, through hulls, all instruments, solar, batteries and other systems needing a good check over and likely attention.It's a major refit.
.

We did an extensive rebuild of our cat in Phuket/langkawi from 2005-2013. Most of what you list above is not structural, but rather equipment oriented so, hopefully, you can avoid a lot of the pitfalls of a major refit overseas. New sails can be had from Rolly Tasker in Phuket. Rigging from David at the Boat Lagoon. You can get rigging at RT but, at least when I was there, the quality was sub-par. Through hulls and batteries can be sourced in Phuket, but will be expensive. For solar, instruments and anything else that is difficult or expensive to source in Asia, you might just sail 150 miles down to Langkawi where you can ship just about anything you want from home, duty free.

[Farang]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Help us with that Farang. Let's say you crossed the Pacific, made it to New Zealand.

Next season you got back to the Islands, say Fiji, New Cal, Vanuatu, or the Solomons.

Now what? Do you head back south th Oz? or piddle on westward to Indo.

Then what?

Thailand is full of boats. Virtually all of them are passage makers from the East.

I thought this was a thread about buying a boat in Thailand and a refit, not passage planning. But since you asked,
do your refit in NZ if no plan to visit Oz. Good quality, skilled tradesmen. Bruce Balan said it best when describing how he mistakenly sailed >5k ++ nms from NZ to Thailand thinking he’d get a better refit deal. A must read for anyone considering a refit in Thailand.
Forget Satun. You tubers make it all look easy but they show’d up during my fitout looking for warranty redo’s from their(now my) carpenter! Satun is a fishing port of entry up a shitty high tide only river. It’s where all the southern trades start out before migrating north to Krabi boatyards and then to Phuket where they want the big bucks. Sure, choose Satun for the woodwork if you’re sailing an old girl wooden lugger, but not your precious shiny plastic euro. It’s worth remembering their fishing boats don’t venture beyond territorial waters (unless they’re not fishing...) so a tow or repair is close at hand and thus the workmanship matches the requirements. There’s no way I’d trust a Thai to replace my thru-hulls.....
I respect that ya’ll may have fond memories of your time there but that, it seems, was years ago and you’re now in other parts of the world. Your advice to a would be $500k purchaser is outdated. Yes, Langkawi is still duty free but you can’t sail there atm and supply chain delays means your visa would run out anyway before your goods arrived.
RT rigging is still the same. EM is still an expensive chandlery. Yes, Phuket is full of cruisers and charter boats but rotting away or washing up on beaches with absent owners who can’t return thru borders and are desperate to sell. While a pandemic rages, buy at home, refit at home.

[Emmalina]

There’s no way I’d trust a Thai to replace my thru-hulls.....


Ignorant at best is the only reply for this.


There are good and bad everywhere in the world

[Farang]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

There’s no way I’d trust a Thai to replace my thru-hulls.....


Ignorant at best is the only reply for this.


There are good and bad everywhere in the world

In other words the only person I’d trust to replace my thru-hulls is myself. I don’t want to get half way across the IO and spring a leak because some frugal worker only put a smear of sealant on the skin.

There’s no need to get personal and snarky it just demonstrates your inability to build a constructive reply.

[Farang]

And same goes for any other critical system....standing rigging, navigation electronics, house power etc...

[Farang]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

I have done a refit in Satun.

To illustrate my point on cost comparison here are quotes from 2018 when I was considering a paint job on my new 48’ cat.

Being in Oz at the time I considered Norsand, a top yard in NZ and a paint company in Phuket, Thailand. Things to note: the level of detail from Norsand (separate deck and topsides prices) and the higher ! cost from Satun. 3million baht is around $100k usd or $135,000 kiwi dollars. Both didn’t include yard fees. Serious money.
Norsand quote ($100k kiwi) gotta add gst but you can claim that back on exit.

In the end like so many others who can easily, but mistakenly, think Thailand is a cheap place to refit I thought nah, I can pm this myself. So I bought the paint and epoxy and sailed 5000nm to Phuket and sure I cut 50% off the labour cost, but it took twice as long (++ yard and accommodation costs) and cut years off my life in frustration. finished just before Covid hit.

Oh, and just a note on Satun., you didn’t say what year you did your refit in Satun, Semolina, but in 2018 the Thai Chinese owner had a stroke and is now incapacitated, in 2019 under new management the yard jocks dropped a 100’ goodwill schooner off the railway holing the hull and completely destroying engines, electrics, everything. Go there at your own risk.

The OP deserves the most up to date information, not biased commentary from local expat lifers or those who passed through 10 years ago.