Yacht Building Success in China

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Check http://www.yachtforums.com/features/t-future-yacht-adastra-425m-trimaran-15981.html#post125957 and you know who is McConnagy.

Labour is a big part of the cost and to make profit on yacht building you can or ask a lot of money due to reputation. Or build quality and keep labour costs lower. The final price the enduser pay is similar or almost similar to western build boats.
The advantage like said before is the speed and availability by example.
But of course there is much more, too much to tell here now.

Also the mentioned yards in China build their name only they did it in short time. Indeed by building quality. We build also for prices close to western yards. Just to keep margin and profit. When you do have that you're willing and you're able to give clients service, quality and so now and then a very nice option for free.

And when people copy your product I think it is the ultimate approval you do the right thing.

McConaghy, massive name in sailing, massive in Australia. If you wanted a strong fast yacht for the Sydney to Hobart Race, this was one company you get to build your yacht...

Far

Nope. You get what you pay for doesn't only apply to the purchaser. You use cheap labor you get cheap quality. Where you skrimp is your weak link. That's the point so many miss as they cut labor costs and their reputations along with them.

Do you mean to say that the only way oz can build boats is if America fails (if I understand the term correctly)? I'd never be afraid of a competitor who thought that. You should have more faith in your countrymen. I do and I'm 1/2 a world away, and only know the ones I've met here.

Here is an excerpt from a brief report I made to some potential clients about an inspection tour I made of 4 boat building operations in Thailand about 3 years ago.

I’ve been promising you a report on those boat builders I visited most recently in Thailand, so here it is in a brief form. Certainly this only represents a small sampling of the total number of builders in Thailand, but I did try to concentrate on ‘fiber-composite’ builders, and builders in a zone area SE of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. I have some photos available for each visit if you wish to see them. These visits were of a ‘get acquainted’ nature often consisting of 2-4 hours, so some of my observations might be considered ‘first impression’ in nature, probably requiring a revisit to redefine those first impressions.

I’ll proceed in the order in which I visited them.


2) 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, XXX, 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.

I was left unsatisfied as to pricing, and even estimates of cost to build from their existing mold. I will try to speak with another representative of theirs at the coming Annapolis Boat Show in October

Their literature depicts a dedicated carbon mast building shop. Well, the shop is there, but there is no oven capability as of now. And there is not a great enthusiasm for carbon mast construction by the management due to electrical storm damage potential.

There was a dedicated lay-up team working on one of the 85’ monos , and supervised by a woman who had long experience from the 1980’s when the big 138’ sloops were built up in Pattaya. This ‘team’ seemed to be doing a very good job. I understand they actually are subcontracted as a team to do this work, and for some labor relations reasons as well. In other words they don't even have their own layup labor, but rather subcontract it. This could be bad, and/or might be a reasonable way to get the job done by experienced people.

Summary. This yard has great facilities, great potential, and an existing mold for a 70-72’ cat. I would question their capability to do complicated electrical and equipment installations, not so much from the design standpoint (Geoff is good), but from the shop floor crew. With a Chinese owner and what appears to be a lack of cost controls, there would have to be very definitive contact negotiations and agreements in place, before I would consider this yard. And there definitely would have to be oversight. It might be very possible to purchase just the deck and hull moldings from this shop.