Rio Dulce Marinas

[zboss]

All,

I would like to get my teak caprails replaced and I was thinking that a good boatyard in the Rio Dulce may be equipped with the skills to do it at a price that is palatable. Also, looking to get the deck and top sides professionally painted.

Are there great boatyards there with the skills and the pricing I am looking for?

- z

[belizesailor]

There are several boat yards in the Rio Dulce (RAM, Nanajuana, Abels). Local contractors work at all of them.

Also check with Captain John, he has a crew who does good varnish and wood work.

For painting, RAM is probably your best bet for good quality work, they even have a full on paint shed.

http://www.rammarina.com/rammarina.cgi?page=index

http://www.riodulcemarina.com/wordpress/

Rates are quite favorable on the Rio compared to developed country rates.

If you want to cut some cost you can hire relatively unskilled local labor very inexpensively (Q65-Q150/day, unskilled to semi-skilled) to do some of the initial grunt work like stripping/sanding, but you will have to supervise closely.

Re teak, you can get regionally grown teak, but the grain/hardness are not the same as higher grades of teak.

There are a number of related threads here so you should give those a look too.

[Triumphant]

Yes you can get this work done in Rio Dulce, lots of options, about the only thing you cannot get done these days is electronic repairs.
I would suggest you come down and have a look as things change all the time, for example, RAM is very backed up with paint jobs at the moment.

Have a look at some of the facebook groups for the area as well for reviews and recommendations.

Nana Juan is another option for a haul out and you can pick the contractors/s you want to do the work as they allow you to bring your own crews in.

You may not even need to haul out to do most of the work as the workers can come to you in whatever marina you are in (but check with the marina first)

Teak is available but sometimes in short supply.

As belizesailor says, you need to be there to project manage the job and answer the (daily) questions otherwise the work will stop, do not expect to be able to leave a list of work you want done then fly away as it will not happen

[PaulSommers]

belizesailor said:

As belizesailor says, you need to be there to project manage the job and answer the (daily) questions otherwise the work will stop, do not expect to be able to leave a list of work you want done then fly away as it will not happen

I can verify that - a year was not enough time for a paint job ("it has been raining a lot"). Once I was an onsite squeaky wheel, some forward momentum started to build. Some ... this was at RAM and the paint job was well done, but to get them to do it and keep at it, given the backlog and the other squeaky wheels on site, well, you just have to be really, really persistent, get to know the yard and office people well, and do whatever you can to appease the gods.

[zboss]

I do plan on being onsite to manage the projects... but thanks for the reminder. I'll look into the facebook pages!

Our boat was built in Costa Rica and I believe the plantation they used is still in operation but I'm up for using another wood that may be just as good, like Ipe/greenheart/whatever.

[belizesailor]

Interesting. CR is not known for boat building. Where in CR was it built?

[CPO]

Are there any other inexpensive places in the Caribbean area to get paint and other general boat work done? I'm looking for some interior redesign, paint (interior and exterior) and rigging. Thanks.

[belizesailor]

Hard to beat the Rio, but Cartagena, Colombia is another option. Several existing threads discussing each and other places too.

You can get interior/exterior/rigging done, but "design" may be a challenge. There is the occassional "ship wright" passing thru, but otherwise design skills are pretty limited.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Interesting. CR is not known for boat building. Where in CR was it built?

No its not! It was built on top of a mountain... there is a book written about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Down-.../dp/B00JZ1CUB2

[belizesailor]

Cool.

[jdaltonpe]

Be careful with Nanajuana. They have lots of rules about not working on your boat while it is in the water, etc. and they enforce them as they would rather have you haul out to do anything. They also have rules about grinding and painting in the boatyard but do not enforce those rules. I was hauled out there when a contractor sprayed the adjacent boat without properly protecting mine and got lots of overspray on my boat. He cleaned most of it but my expensive Sunbeam Systems solar panels took a big hit and I could not clean them properly because they are plastic walk on units. The contractor was not willing or able to replace the panels so I went to the owner and manager of Nanajuana and all they could say is 'Not Our Problem'. They would not even consider filing an insurance claim and acted like total gangsters to me. BEWARE!!!

[Triumphant]

Nana Juana now have a policy that every worker you bring on site will cost you Q50 or US$6.50 a day, if it rains after you been charged and no work gets done you still pay. If the Worker's boss pops in for an hour to see how the job is going another $6.50 a day.

So you very quickly rack up a lot of extra charges on a big job.

Also they are trying to charge US$5.25 a day for electricity whether you are using it or not as they have very few meters. This is the equivalent of 300Kw a month at other marinas in the river. Other yards are charging US$0.49 a Kw and have meters.

The moral of the story is to look very hard at the bottom line on the yard charges.

Oh, and by the way, I am NOT A MARINE SERVICE PROVIDER. The forum decided to change this without discussing it with me