Precious Cargo

Thailand is a Buddhist country so Christmas is not a holiday. Neither is Boxing Day, the day after. Which is just as well, because my crew and I had to be on hand to oversee the lifting of the recently launched TS60, De Nieuve Maan (or New Moon), a traditional gentleman's motor yacht designed by Albert Nazarov, from the water onto the deck of a cargo ship which will carry it to the Netherlands.
It was a slow, nerve-wracking operation – with the worst moment being when the TS60 was suspended in a sling over the ship's wide steel deck. It was then lowered slowly and carefully into its custom-built steel cradle before being lashed to the deck and covered.. Everything went off without a hitch and the ship is already well on its way with its valuable cargo.

A New Generation Motor-Sailer

Soon to be completed at the RB yard near Jomtien is the first of a new generation of production sailing catamarans designed by Albert Nazarov. The RB38 is a development of the highly successful RB34, Thailand's first production sailing catamaran. The very comfortable, reasonably economical, moderate displacement motor-sailer will be delivered early next year to a Swedish client.

Going Green Inshore

Over the years, my yard has built several, environmentally friendly electric boats for use in protected inshore or river waters, including five 18-footers delivered to Vancouver and a 42-foot cat powered by two 20hp electric outboard motors. Among the most attractive are three, 21-foot open, Picnic day-cruisers delivered to California, USA, and Holland.
Ideal for a small river cruising or a self-skipper rental fleet, they are traditional-looking and yet very comfortable, with low-impact, zero-polluting power. It would be great to see more of these launched.

A Fast Catamaran with Bite

One of my newest – and smallest – projects is a small catamaran, the RB26, also referred to as the Crocodile. Designed with an unusual, 'stepped' hull shape, she is part high-speed power cruiser, part sport-boat. Powered by two 115 to 150hp outboards, sheshould have a top speed around 45 knots. The molds are currently under construction at a partner yard in Pattaya and with luck, a prototype should be launched in February, next year.

Sailing Away

The TS60 launch went without a hitch. The owner was happy – and in the end, that's the most important thing. The vessel itself, the largest yet launched by my yard, is very handsome, with plenty of old-world style. It also performs well and passed its acceptance trials with flying colours.

Maiden Voyage From The Jungle

Today, we tackled the first stage in the launch of the biggest vessel in our company's ten-year history, towing the Albert Nazarov-designed TS60, now named The New Moon, to the one site deep enough to accommodate its launch (on a spring tide) – a local naval base! It was an extraordinarily complicated, long operation, involving a custom-built movable cradle with no less than 50 wheels, a heavy-load crane, a long, flat-bed low-loader trailer and several dozen personnel, some of whom were charged with lifting high voltage, overhead electricity wires away from the coachtop and deck with forked bamboo poles.
Moving an RB-built vessel to the sea always causes extended traffic delays on the busy Sukhumvit Highway to Bangkok and this was no exception – indeed, today was memorable for the chaos it caused! – although locals still managed to derive plenty of entertainment from the slow procession of the vessel and its support team.

Words About Wharrams

What is about catamarans designed by James Wharram? When it comes to sailing blogs, a very high percentage of them are written by people building or sailing Wharram's Polynesian-inspired 'double-hulled sailing canoes' all around the world.
Creed O'Hanlon, who commissioned me to build his Wharram Tiki 38 in red cedar strip-plank composite, drew a lot of attention to my Jomtien yard with his widely read blog, A Tiki In Thailand. Now he has been joined by another of my clients, Warren Matthews, whose new blog, Natural High Adventures, tracks the construction of a sistership (photo above) at my Thepprasit Road yard, also in strip plank composite.

Take Me to the River

One of the reasons I have been so lax about updates to this blog – please forgive me – is the rapid expansion of RB Power And Sailing's operations. After several months of negotiations, an agreement has been reached to finance a new and very much larger yard on river frontage at Bangpakong, near Chonbury, 50 kilometres from Pattaya and much closer to Bangkok, just 15 minutes from the international airport. The yards in Pattaya will continue to produce the RB range of sailing and power catamarans, as well as smaller custom builds, while the new yard will focus on the construction of large motor yachts, from 60 to 150 feet or more.
Which means that in addition to the several yachts now under construction in Pattaya, I now have to focus on the $US500,000 initial development of this new yard and its environs, which will include marina berthing – essential, given the lack of marina berthing on this stretch of the Thai coast – and haul-out facilities. Exciting as it is, it is also a very large responsibility and will mean that I must begin to delegate more and more of the daily supervisory roles in Pattaya to others. Fortunately, I've been able to hire a number of new team members, from engineers to project managers, many of them multi-lingual foreigners, some of whom will liaise directly with clients.

A Trinity of Cats

This afternoon we rigged the third in the RB34 range of production motor-sailing catamarans to be completed this year. Tomorrow, weather permitting, the vessel will be launched. The RB34 has proved to be a very popular, economical motor-sailer for the Thai domestic and overseas markets, ideal for charter fleets, with a very high level of specification. My crew is gaining confidence with every vessel launched and this is reflected in the build quality and design improvements over the first three vessels. Larger vessels in the RB range, including both performance sailing and motor catamarans will also benefit from the techniques developed on these smaller vessels.

To the Sea, Slowly

The day before yesterday, we began the long, tedious process of moving the 60-foot 'gentleman's motor yacht', the TS60, designed by Albert Nazarov, towards its launch.
The first stage was loading the vessel onto a custom-built steel cradle supported by 50 small wheels so that it could be moved, very slowly and carefully, out of the covered yard near Jomtien. From there it was to be trailered the few miles to the coast to a crane waiting to lift it into the sea.
The moving of finished vessels from our yard along the busy Sukhumvit Highway has become, for locals, annoyingly commonplace. Sometimes, traffic has been backed up for 40 miles or more behind wider, heavier yachts, prompting complaints to the local police chief from as far away as Bangkok.
I expect the TS60's overland journey to be uneventful – but it's likely to be yet another show-stopper!

The RB34 Aweigh

The latest RB34 has been in the water for nearly a month and all the indications are that the use of Nidacore closed cell honeycomb in the construction of the hulls, deck and coachtop have lightened the boat considerably – it floats a lot higher! – and improved its overall performance, particularly in light winds. The overall finish is very good and the yard will improve on this further as more in the series are completed.
Another half a dozen RB34s will be built over the next 12 months, with orders coming from as far afield as Sweden and Australia.

Exporting A New RB34

The latest in the RB34 range of motor-sailing production catamarans, designed by Albert Nazarov and built at RB Power And Sailing's yard in Thepprasit Road, Pattaya, has had its rig fitted and is now ready to be launched. It will be delivered to Singapore under sail in the next couple of weeks. The RB34, which is Thailand's first, fully-fledged production yacht, represents great value for money, with a 'sail-away' specification equal to that of popular but much more expensive French and North American production catamarans.

Above: Details of the high standard of finishing for the economical RB34 cruising cat'. Photos by Raoul Bianchetti.

Tiki Two takes Shape

The hulls for a second James Wharram-designed Tiki 38 are taking shape quickly at the 'old' Thepprasit Road yard, in Pattaya. Built in red cedar strip-plank composite, the Polynesian-inspired, V-shaped, double ended canoe hulls are lighter and better laminated even than the very good pair of hulls for our first Tiki 38 project, now about six weeks from completion at the Jomtien yard. Overall, this new Tiki 38 is likely to be 200 kgs. lighter, a significant amount – and useful for a moderate displacement cruising catamaran.

A Bargain for a Quality Build

The RB 42 catamaran was built for just $US150,000. Intended as a moderate displacement charter catamaran for Asian waters, the quality of her fittings and appointments belie her low budget. A vessel of similar size would cost two or three times as much from a yard in the developed world – and probably more if it was custom-designed and built as this vessel, the Island Breeze. Still, that hasn't hasn't stopped people raising questions in at least one US-based blog about the build standard of the RB 42 (and other of my vessels) even without seeing her. I think the following photos answers such questions.





Above: The RB 42, Island Breeze, motor-sailing off Pattaya with several groups of happy guests aboard.

The Shoe Fits

With the T60 motor yacht designed by Albert Nazarov just a month or so away from launch, a stainless steel shoe, filled with two tonnes of cement ballast was bolted onto its keel this week. Further internal ballast will also be fitted to the traditional displacement hull.
The coming months will see half a dozen yachts launched or delivered by my yard, the culmination of a hectic 2007/2008 build program. Among the vessels already awaiting delivery is an RB 34 catamaran to be sailed to Singapore, as soon as there is a break in what has been a very stormy south-west monsoon.

Floating on Air

Among my non-marine interests is flying and I have been training as a private pilot for a couple of years. However, as my enthusiasm has evolved, I no longer spend as much time as I once did in microlight aircraft. So I am selling my Amphibian Microlight with Rotax 503 engine in Pattaya, complete with integrated Lomac rubber dinghy, for just 450,000 Thai baht (just under $US13,500). If you're interested, please email me at raoul-at-loxinfo.co.th And, yes, flying lessons can be arranged!

Aft Mast moves Forward

An exciting moment: the inside of the hulls and wing-deck moulding for the 'aft mast' 40-foot catamaran, designed by Albert Nazarov, is sprayed. It looks like a UFO being prepped for inter-planetary flight by a crew in sterile suits. As I wrote in this blog in April, the vessel was conceived for cruising offshore short-handed. With its revolutionary, easy-to-manage rig, it has been commissioned by a couple in Hong Kong and should be launched early next year.

A True Thai Cruising Yacht

One of the most exciting new projects under development at my yard is one of the smallest.The Buccaneer 28 is an 8.6 metre, shallow-draft, centreboard, GRP monohull sloop designed for a small family to cruise in the 'thin' waters and light airs of the Gulf of Thailand.
If the RB34 catamaran was the first fully-fledged production yacht to be designed and built in Thailand, then the Buccaneer 28 will be the first production monohull. I'm confident it will find a wide market not only in South-East Asia but also in Australia, where the north-east coasts are littered with coral reefs and cays and a deep draught can hamper access to some of the best reef and bar-protected river anchorages.
Designed by Albert Nazarov, the small yacht will be 8.63 metres LOA and 7.13 metres on the waterline, with a maximum beam across the deck of 2.50 metres. With its centrebooard raised, it will draw less than half a metre, unladen, not accounting for its transom hung rudder. The 10.75 metre high mast will carry a maximum sail area of 37.4 metres squared.
The yacht will be relatively light, fast, and easy to sail, making quick work of coastal passages in the prevailing light airs of equatorial and tropical waters. Its modest dimensions will allow it to be transported by road – or delivered by a 40-foot shipping container to anywhere in the world. As for the price: around two million Thai baht or just under $US60,000, very competitive with even the most economical small production yachts available in the U.S., Europe, or Australia.

Stopping Traffic

Yesterday, we moved a custom-built 45-foot catamaran from the old, very cramped yard at Pattaya to our larger yard in Jomtien. The cat is almost completed but for various reasons, it can't be delivered to the customer so it has become something of an obstruction to new projects.
It's always an adventure towing a large vessel through the streets of Pattaya. None of our yards are close to the shore so every boat we build has to be trailered – very slowly – to the sea for launching. It always turns into a spectacle, a kind of street theatre in which traffic is backed up for miles (once, almost halfway to Bangkok!), locals come out of their homes and shops to watch and offer advice, and policemen gather to create their own inimitable performance art, usually a loosely choreographed ballet of gestures intended to direct traffic (which only makes the traffic worse!)
In a couple of months, my crew will have to do this again with the large TS60 motor yacht. I expect, then, traffic will be backed up into the middle of Bangkok itself.

Home on the Water

The 40-foot long, Nazarov-designed motor catamaran, pictured below at my Jomtien yard, is still some way from being launched but its attractive design is already apparent. Built in honeycomb composite and powered by two 75hp Yanmar diesels, it has been commissioned by a Swiss pilot who will use it as a second home in Thai waters. The wide beam, ample deck space, high cabin top (which accommodates a flying bridge) and spacious interior will make it very comfortable and stable, in addition to being reasonably powerful and fast.

Two Vessels, One Approach

The Albert Nazarov-designed TS60 motor yacht and the Tiki 38, a Polynesian-inspired sailing 'double canoe' designed by James Wharram (the first of this class to be built anywhere in the world in red cedar composite strip-planking) are both just a month or so away from being launched.

In many ways, these two vessels represent polar-opposite design philosophies – one a lightweight, minimal sailing multihull of an Asian-Pacific ethnic tradition, the other a robust, moderate displacement, single-screw, motorised monohull rooted firmly in a mid-20th century Northern European aesthetic and functionality.
But both have been constructed in close consultation with knowledgeable owners who understand the limitations of their budgets. These owners also have a realistic vision as to what can be achieved in a close collaboration with our yard, along with a practical understanding of design and marine construction. In once case, there is also a depth of sea-going experience. They have been able to communicate their requirements clearly in words and images at every stage.

If only every owner was the same!