Interior Woodwork Recommendation in Malaysia or Thailand ?

[Mata'irea]

After 15 years of use, the interior of our boat is showing some signs of her age. Teak veneer is lifting, splitting and chipping where walls meet the floor or counter tops. There are nicks and gouges in the woodwork throughout the boat. And our cabin sole needs attention.

We're going to be in Malaysia by December and Thailand sometime after that. If it is affordable, we were thinking of having some work done on her at that time. Does anyone have any experience having woodwork repaired in those regions? We'd appreciate any recommendations.

Best,

Danika

[Boracay]

You can't get the wood anymore...

I looked into boat building in the Philippines but Thailand/Malaysia should be better if a little more expensive.

The main problem that I would expect that you might come up against is that the wood might be a bit green.

If you can work out your needs in advance it may be possible to get the wood rough sawn to size and set aside to season.

Otherwise you could get a beautiful job that cracks.

I did a Google search on Phuket/Langkawi Yacht Repair and got a few hits.

[Ex-Calif]

If you know where to go you can still get fantastic woodworking done in Asia.

The issue is really that as a "boat owner" you are perceived as fabulousy wealthy when you go to any established marina and you will pay close to western prices for boat work.

You have to get off the beaten track, where the cruisers don't go to find the better deals.

I'd love to find a place to get our boat redone but so far I haven't been able to crack the code and I'd be happy with marine ply and veneer much less teak.

[maxingout]

When I cruised in Australia, I met an Ozzie who built a new aluminium catamaran every couple of years, but he didn't put in an interior. He launched the catamaran, sailed it to Malaysia/Thailand area where they put the interior in, then he sold the cat, and returned home and started all over. He seems to have prospered, and I expect that eventually he will have enough money to build one for himself.

[donradcliffe]

I looked in the Langkawi region in Malaysia, but Phuket, Thailand had much better work done at better prices. I am very happy with the work done by Nai and Toe in Boat Lagoon in Phuket. They had teak, they have moisture meters to make sure it was dry, and they have some excellent craftsmen, at very low prices by world standards. As with all boat work, you be happier with the results if you are there to supervise the work.

[H/V Vega]

If your rich go to Phuket! If you have years to do it in , and are rich go to Langkawi ( nice people there though). I would suggest you contact Des Kerns who is heading up the Cariad project in Satun, Thailand. The work they are getting is first class and Des is a good lad who will share his vast experience in this area with you. The problem is most places use real wood, not ply wood with a thin layer of something pretty glued on top. Real wood takes longer to work but last a lot longer also if done right. After all if you had real paneling rather than ply you wouldn't have started this thread in the first place. You can get pretty good work done in this area and some very good woods. Tip: always look for recycled wood. (If you can't figure out why then ignore that last bit). In the main yacht centers you are seen as a resource to be exploited or as a walking ATM machine so do avoid the places like Phuket etc etc et al.

[cat man do]

I had this come through from the writers on this site Cruising Under Power Southeast Asia in a Converted Fishing Boat

You were thinking about fitting out in SE Asia weren't you? Thought you
might be interested....some of the boats that came here to Palawan
continued over to Cebu to a place called Port Carmen where there are a
few "marina"/slipway/workshops who apparently do good work on boats.
Some friends of ours ended up bringing their catamaran there for a refit
(after they'd seen the work). Their names are Christine and John on a
boat called Fantasy 2. Christine has been a great source of info for us
about the Philippines as they have been a couple of months ahead. If you
want to contact them to find out about what they are having done and how
good the work is, their email address is (send me a pm if you REALLY need it)

There is also a website for one of the yards, Pinoy yacht services...you
can google it.

Here it is Pinoy Boat Services - your yachting partner in the Philippines!

Near the border of Thailand and Malaysia the writers of the site have used Phithak Shipyard and Services and recommend them, but they did not get fancy timber done

Here are some other places with no personal recomendation
NUSA DUA CUSTOM BUILD YACHTS | Power Boats | NUSA DUA MARINE | BALI | INDONESIA
boat charter on sailing yacht and catamaran, yacht building Phuket/boat_building
Yachting Siam - Boat Building in the Gulf of Thailand

Dave

[H/V Vega]

PSS is where the Cariad is being rebuilt and there is some first class work being done there. I still suggest you contact Des and ask his advice. After all these years he has seen it all and can tell you exactly where to go and where not to go. The fact he chose PSS in Satun says a lot to my mind. Best of luck. If you were in Bali I could help out more.

[Rossmonty01]

I had a yacht in PSS 18 Months ago. Teak is a banned timber in Thailand and Des Kerns had to have a special permit to bring it in from Laos or Burma took months to get approval but it was a lot of timber.
Tradesman are just not there Des also had to bring in Carpenters from other countries. I have been in Yacht haven north of Phuket and they have several good carpenter there. There is some Teak but there are other nice timbers there too.
We will be back at PSS in January to do some touch ups but I don't expect to have any timber work completed there
Good luck
Rossmonty