Thai Refit Quotes

Here are the quotes and invoices we received during our 2+ years in Thailand. The Thai Baht hovered around 30 THB/USD while we were in Thailand (it is about 35 in Feb 2016 at the time of this writing). I've included our 2012 estimate (not an official quote) from a yard in New Zealand. At that time the exchange rate was 1.17 NZD/USD (it is 1.52 at the time of this writing). I've marked quotations we accepted with an *. For the big jobs, we received several responses to requests for quotes where contractors said they were too busy. The demand is high. This is one reason why work quality suffers and prices are skyrocketing in Phuket.

Reading through these prices and quotes can be quite educating as you will see how much they vary. Take your time.

Migration is a 46' (14m) 1969 Cross Trimaran with a beam of 25.25' (7.7m) and a draft of 4.8' (1.5m). She weighs somewhere between 10 to 11 tons.

This is the main work of our refit. Here is the document we presented to the contractors. They used this document, along with a visit to our boat, to create their quotes. No contractor quoted all jobs. Some quoted labor only. Before arriving in Thailand, we had already decided to use Nhoon Carpenter for the interior work because of a glowing review from a fellow cruiser (see below).

Oh's quote was more than our NZ estimate. We were shocked. We couldn't bring ourselves to pay so much after sailing 6,000 miles to save money. In the end, we should have gone with Oh. Well, actually, we should have never come to Phuket.

Unfortunately, we found some severe delamination in the main hull below the waterline. This required replanking about 85 % of the hull and replacing some frames and stringers. It was impossible to get a quote except from Nhoon. He did have a good reputation as a boat builder and this was before things fell apart with him (we were still in the middle of the interior job and it was the end of his interior work that was difficult). See Migrations 22 for photos. Here's Nhoon's quote for the hull. Because we managed every element of the rebuild, we are fairly confident in the result. My only reservation is the quality of the marine plywood... but we only had one choice in Thailand.

Since Gig had just finished fiberglassing the topsides, we hired him to reglass the main hull. Again, we had to work with the crew every day to get it the way we wanted. They would walk away from a newly-laid piece of glass full of bubbles until we called them back to work with us to smooth it all out.

After things went south with Gig (here's that story), we ended up hiring Oh Coatings to finish the job. See quote below.

Note that no materials are included in these quotes. A lot was spent with a local chandlery and I didn't take the time to scan all of those reciepts. We also had to buy the paint which was very expensive (see below).

By the way, here is the kind of email you have to really watch out for in Thailand. We were foolish and trusted Gig.

Friends of ours had used Nhoon Carpenter two years previously and raved about him and his crew, so we decided to use him for the interior projects without getting other quotes. Some of his work was good, some was fine, and some was atrocious. Finishing the last 20% of anything was an excruciating exercise in frustration. Never hire this man. More information here. You can find the jobs we planned to do in our Work Requirements document.

The goal of our refit was to give Migration another 46 years of life. So when we realized we had to rebuild the rudder (due to signs of shaft corrosion), we decided to rebuild using Aquamet 22 or Aqualoy 22 for the shaft. Both materials have better corrosion resistance than 316 stainless steel.

*TAIWAN: AQ22 2" x 1.475 USD$570.00, DHL to Phuket USD$400.00. Total $970. There was some duty to pay (can't remember the amount) but the company I dealt with reduced the cost on the invoice to help with that.

PHUKET - C&C Marine: Aqualoy 22 Dia 2” x 60” 34,722.00 THB, plus 51,659.00 THB shipping. (As a comparison, that was about US$1,800 at the time.)

USA - Marine Machining & Mfg: 2" x 5' Aquamet 22, $486 plus $100 in fees, plus $850 shipping. Total US$1,436.

What stands out here is that I could have shipped the shaft material from the US for less than the vendor in Phuket would charge. And I ended up getting it from Taiwan for half the price of the Phuket vendor. Very common experience.

METAL PEARL CO. (POP): Metal fabrication only (we provided the stock). Quoted 42,500 THB. When I said that was ridiculous, he immediately changed the quote to 28,000 THB. We did not use him. However, we used him for some other smaller projects later and were not satisfied.

*TU-TON: Metal fabrication only (we provided the stock). Quoted as a package with Precision Shipwright Services. 36,000 THB.
As you can read elsewhere, we really liked Tu-Ton. They are one of the few Phuket companies we would recommend.

We wanted the rudder vacuum bagged and there were few outfits in Phuket that had the equipment and the knowledge.

P BOAT BUILDER (PAI): We'd heard good things about Pai. She was very busy with a big catamaran project. She did quote 25,000 THB not including materials.

*PRECISION SHIPWRIGHT SERVICES: 79,300 THB for rudder blade construction, vacuum bagging, and finished with Gelshield epoxy primer (includes epoxy and foam).

We felt this was a lot of money, but we wanted a strong rudder so we went with it.

Total cost for the rudder (excluding the design fee) was nearly US$5,000. Ouch. We should have started the rudder project the previous year. To compare, the Foss Company in the USA sells a new replacement rudder for the Ericson 38 (about the same size as our blade) with a 316L shaft for $2200. Unfortunately we were overwhelmed with other projects, so ended up in a time crunch at the end and therfore limited our choices. But we do have a really nice rudder now.

PAINT
Our paint was very expensive which is why Gig taking off with it cost us so much. Here are some examples.

MALAYSIA: We thought maybe we could get the paint cheaper in Langkawi (though we would have had to figure out how to pick it up), but the prices were about the same. These prices are quoted in Malaysian Ringitt which was about 3 RM/USD at the time.
AKYS Trading Sdn Bhd

T0005 Hot Weather Reducer x4gal RM 1,696 (RM 424 per gallon)
Price quoted for COD in Langkawi only (duty free)

1 ALX-T9128/1GL TOPCOAT 501 OYSTER WHITE T9128 ALEXSEAL 5.00 GAL 8,938.78 = 44,693.90 THB

2 ALX-C5051/1GL TOPCOAT 551 CONVERTER SPRAY ALEXSEAL 5.00 GAL 9,861.12 = 49,305.60 THB

3 ALX-R5030/1GL TOPCOAT REDUCER SLOW R5030 ALEXSEAL 3.00 GAL 2,554.09 = 7,662.27 tHB

Awlcraft
Sunfast red     x5      15,085
Cat2 converter x3     10,718
Reducer          x3      2,941

MISC
Here are some other examples of material and parts costs as quoted.

EAST MARINE
August 2014
Awlgrip High Gloss Clear 500ml Part A -- THB 1,480.00 ex-Phuket
Awlgrip Converter 500ml Part B THB -- 1,963.00 ex-Phuket
Thinner 500ml Part C -- THB 545.00 ex-Phuket

April 2013 (West Marine Part Numbers)
WM# 161968 Forespar 1-1/2" Threaded Marelon Mushroom Head, 3"L -- 1,750 THB
WM# 161935 3/4" Threaded Marelon Mushroom Head, 2-1/4"L -- 1,010 THB
WM# 399071 SEAFIT Nylon Male Pipe-to-Hose Adapter 1-1/2" Pipe, 1-1/2" Hose ID -- 230 THB
WM# 297440 Ancor 16-2 Gauge Flat Safety Wire -- 45 THB / foot

YACHT SUPPLY ( July 2013)
International Paints Perfection Snow White
750ml 2,087 THB/Set
2.25L 5,529 THB/Set
International Paints Perfection Primer: 750ml price 1,930 THB

AME (July 2014)
Epotec epoxy 960 THB per kg
200 gram Finishing cloth 120 THB per square metre (in small quantities)
Biaxial600 cloth 10 metres x 1270mm wide: 290 THB per kg
DIAB H80 foam: 20mm H80 costs about 5,900 baht each sheet, plus transport costs about 2,000 each shipment, plus 5% Customs clearance.
Peel-Ply 90 THBeach sq. metre
Microballoons/Q-Cell in 200 gram bags. 280 THB
All prices plus 7% VAT

We decided to rebuild our steel fuel tank since it was 20 years old, showing a little rust, and the boat was torn up. Here are the plans.

For comparison, we contacted TekTanks in the UK. They make custom polyethylene fuel tanks. The shipping costs were just too much. And we would have had to deal with Thai customs.

We ended up using Oh's foreman who worked on the boat on his day off. He was a bit cheaper, we liked him, and he had all the materials on hand.

We wanted to replace our aged ice box (chilly bin) that we use as a step and an line box. The quotes we got were startling.

Here's what we wanted to make: Line Box plans (68 x 49 x 36cm)

Oh Coatings (foam & glass): 37,000 THB

*Yachts Repair (plywood & glass): 25,000 THB (we supplied paint and we put it together ourselves with our own hardware)

Precision Shipwright Services: (Fiberglass line box, 20mm core epoxy Eglass epoxy lamination, epoxy fairing, finished in Awlgrip, hinges and hasp lock): 118,000 THB

To say we were astounded by Precision's quote would be an understatement...