New 'Made in China' Prouts ?

[Eleven]

I've just had an e-mail from karen@multihull.co.uk who says they are showing the new FP Lipari41 at the Southampton Boat Show (11th to 20th September 09) with trial sailing the week after (expect heavy demand).
Try www.multihull.co.uk to view photo's.

[beiland]

This info is several years old, and I've only included the excerpt pertaining to the 'Prout' facility in Thailand (Chinese owner).


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,
http://www.celebrityyachting.com/about.html 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.

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.

You might ask me for an update in about a ear as I am moving to Thailand

[jacket_fan]

Brian, that is a very interesting bit of info you have there. Well thought out seems to be impartial. Thanks for your input.

A little side note, the latest edition of Sailing magazine has a bit on the Prout 45 in the article on new boats for 2010.

[DHHong Kong]

Brian,
I think you will find that one of those 69'/70' cats, probably the first one, "Lady Melaya", is now back in Thailand after spending some time in Hong Kong and the Philippines where the interior was re-done. She is quite heavy, having been used for corporate entertaining etc and apparently mostly motor-sails. She is a nice looking boat.
Cheers
Paul

[Laidback]

Brian, would it be correct to assume that your summary is describing whats happening in yards near Pattaya - Thailand ??

For info I spoke to friends in Zhuhai this morning re the "Prout" yard in Zhuhai - The yard was a gift by a very rich Chinese to his son. They are constructing a mega size catamaran - that is the only boat being built there. It has nothing to do with Prouts anywhere else.

PS Zhuhai = special economic zone just north of Macao.

[muskoka]

Prout Catamaran Be Warned

This is a blog by someone with an axe to grind (legitimately or not, I can't say) regarding Prout International.

The Prout International website is misleading. It infers that they have decades of experience building cats when the current management had nothing to do with the original Prout boatyard in England (for those who aren't familiar, the original Prout team went on to form Broadblue).

The 'executive' team also raises questions - they identify four yacht brokers followed by two very junior executives in the roles of COO and CBO. Who is the managing director? The designer? The head of production? Who owns this company?

There is also a lack of information regarding their facilities, their warranties, actual boatbuilding experience, etc.

Caveat emptor!

PS:

A search of
http://www.celebrityyachting.com/
brings up a screen "This domain is for sale!"

This sounds dodgier than a two dollar bill....

[Eleven]

I believe MultihullWorld (at Emsworth UK) have some interest in the recent, now gone, BroadBlue company intending to make new boats. I think this is based on the BB 385 moulds and may be of interest.