Cuba Shipyard

Things will come slowly enough as to not cause the Bahamas major problems. As to tourism, there has been a good bit of regular travel back and forth for years. As to boats, there aren't the facilities to even dock that many. I see the big step to bring a significant new level of tourism, being when resorts and casinos are built. Then cruise ships will run there. People will fly over for the weekend. Then you're back to the future, the Copacabana type club.

Today, those of us who haven't been there are anxious to go explore. That doesn't make us regular visitors though after the exploration nor big spenders there. The marina needs lots of work to accommodate more boats. To bring money making tourism there is going to have to be a lot of money spent. All this, of course, has to happen after much further relaxation of US restrictions.

Today, tourists from all the rest of the Americas are free to go there. How many do? The infrastructure for tourism just isn't there and won't be soon. Then toss one other potential problem into the equation. Our political situation. Will the next administration open things up further or reverse some of the changes made?

As to the boatyard for a major refit, it would be years before I could imagine any possibility of major business for it. How many boats are being taken to the Bahamas today for major refit and yet there are no restrictions holding that back.

Now, I am going to toss out one of the first types of tourism I could see opening big when allowed. Medical tourism. Cuba is ranked high for medicine. Leaders of Central and South American countries go there for treatment.

Like you, I do look forward to visiting, but the time is too soon for me right now. Maybe another 6 months to a year. We have no problem meeting the requirements to visit in multiple ways.

Yes, Cuba needs our money. They've been dependent on it for years. Don't think for one moment that a lot of US money doesn't end up in their economy. I know so many who regularly take money to their Cuban relatives.

I spent 1/2 an hour with the guy who is driving the whole thing. I am curious as to how it will go but everything has to start sometime and I wish them the very best in getting this operation up and running.

Let's hope they do bring qualified people to supervise it!

Qualified personnel and facilities in any field of endeavor are built over a period of many years working from the beginner's level and progressing upward over time. Having spent time in poorly developed countries with no recreational marine experience, I do not believe there is any significant populace of Cuban labor with meaningful marine manufacturing, refit/repair skills. I assure you that I for one would not take any vessel to Cuba on the naïve premise that as an island nation it has a knowledgeable marine industry. The Bahamas certainly does not, they merely have a few yards with cheap labor, but no population which can afford boats for themselves, and thus no substantial basis for a skilled and comprehensive marine industry.

As to Cuban medicine, many Bahamians have gone to Cuba for procedures and returned home wishing they had not, requiring remedial procedures to be performed elsewhere.

I've heard first hand accounts of people dying in the US due to error. Would I go to a Cuban hospital by choice? No. However, Cuban medicine is rated by the WHO among the best in the Caribbean and Central and South America. I do absolutely see the possibility of it becoming a place to go for medical tourism. Today for elective surgery people travel the world. India and the Philippines are the most popular destinations. In the Americas people go to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. With it's proximity, I would expect when legal for Cuba to start soliciting patients.

It is a common misconception to confuse dictatorial oligarchy with socialism. Despite the former very commonly labeling itself as the latter, it's two very distant ideologies. Same as both most prominent "communist" states, USSR and China, have very little to do with actual communism, which a US West Coast hippie community may resemble muuuuch closer.

There is no top notch healthcare in Cuba. Their stats are entirely self-reported and therefore suspect. Orthopod friend just got back from there, they won't allow outside surgeons to visit for training/mentor purposes....this speaks volumes!!

Medical:
I believe I remember lots of reports about medical research and student training being carried on in Cuba,...and supported by the Cuban government in a show of 'progress' under the dictatorial/socialist government. But I never detected any real medical facilities of an advanced nature, nor were there a great many medical products available. I think there was even a great lack of medicines, ...some that would be common place in this country.

Not a place I would consider getting any major medical problem taken care of at this point,....more locations with proven records in other places around the world. Not to say it won't improve, and likely much quicker with these new 'relationships' in place. Just not on the top of my list for the next 3-4 years.

Boat Repair:
When I visited for a month+ back in 1999, i spent a fair amount of time on a vessel docked in marina Hemingway. There weren't that many other boats there at the time, but there were a few transits coming and going. There were some discussions that occurred among the boat people about the existence of boat yards, etc that might be available. I do recall the mention of a 'complex' to the west of Hemingways that was gearing up to do painting of Superyachts. Supposedly one or two had already been done. This could make sense as a start up business considering the environmental restrictions placed on these paints and their application processes in developed worlds.

There were also some talented wood workers in Cuba. I'm not certain that many of these were boat building types, but with a little supervision they could master the basics which often time are the time-consuming hours of wooden boat repairing.
I once owned a wood powerboat (that Hemingway was rumored to have fished from once long ago), that had been glassed over, and was in need of lots of work (strip off that glass and repair the underlining wood, primarily on the decks and superstructures). That work would have been prohibit able expensive in the USA, but likely could have been favorable in Cuba. I was beginning to make a plan to move the boat from the Chesapeake Bay are down to Cuba, but one of the vessels 2 engines was inoperable. I was trying to think of various plans that might work, when suddenly a guy walked down the dock and offered me a price I could not refuse (headache gone, on to other things).

I also recall one Canadian fellow who lived on his vessel at Hemingways Marina. He would come down for several months at a time (without his wife, who did not enjoy boats), and 'vacation' on his boat in Cuba. Then he would go back up to Canada to run his business there, and the vessel would be hauled and stored away upon his absence. He did not move the vessel often (or sometimes never) while it was in the water there,...just lived on it. Actually you did not want to come and go on your vessel as the customs procedures were terribly time consuming and unnecessarily complicated ( I termed it the Spanish propensity for paperwork combined with the Communist system for recording all things, and without enough writing paper to do all of the above, ...plus no copy machine supplies......ha....ha)

Have to see if I can find some old pics of that vessel?

Please indulge me and hop into this time machine.
We are back in the early sixties in Miami, Florida. There is a small, upstart boat company over by the airport (housed originally in a Genuine Auto Parts warehouse until a proper plant was built close by the Tamiami Canal). They have excellent design and engineering staff, a kick-ass 31-footer that is winning ocean races left and right (win on Sunday, sell on Monday) but are in need of a labor force to kickstart the operation up to a fast idle.
Enter the Cuban Refugee influx. A huge labor source providing needed fiberglass laminators, carpenters, electricians, tooling-savvy folks, and good managers. Some were doctors and lawyers back home while some were likely just off the farm...
[Short divergence here: During WWII, the US Armed Forces, especially the Army Air Corps (pre-USAF) especially sought out farm boys from the Midwest because they were self-taught mechanics and critical thinkers capable of learning to fly and fix and build airplanes.]
Fast forward to 1977 when a young engineer joins the company and is impressed by some of the clever solutions found on the shop floor. Oh, and these Cuban fellows aren't shirkers, either. I heard many times about how shocked these newcomers were when told they could work 28 hours a day if they wanted, and by God they did. Those who left started their own businesses. They are, in a word, entrepeneurs.

Unless, two generations later, the Cuban populace has suddenly suffered massive brain fade, I'd put my money on yards & refits in Cuba as being viable, based on my experience.

My $.02

I believe in some number of years there could be good shipyards in Cuba. I think that's a long way away though. You've got to have good management and good training programs. I believe in the inherent ability and desire of most people to do a good job. The difference is management and training and right now you'd have neither in Cuba. If I was going to set up a yard there, the first thing I'd do is hire experienced managers and then clear all the legal hurdles for them to be able to go in. Meanwhile I'd make a deal with the Cuban government to build schools and programs to train people in the skills I needed and to send them to schools in other places. Then I'd move forward slowly as I built trained staff.

I think finding hard workers, dedicated workers since you'll have the best jobs in town, will be no problem. But you have to have trained and experienced managers and trained workers and that will take time and effort.