The profession of refurbishing yachts for wealthy individuals.

I entered this profession because of my passion.

"This guy's name contains the word 'sea' twice, so no matter how damaged a yacht is, he can handle it," an elderly mechanic pointed to Truong Hai Duong, a boat and yacht repairman at the Thu Duc shipyard, when meeting a reporter from Giao Thong Newspaper.

Repairmen inspect the yacht at the Thu Duc boatyard.

At just 31 years old, Hai Duong has 12 years of experience in the trade. In the last month of the year, boat owners send many canoes and yachts to the workshop for refurbishment in time for sightseeing trips at the beginning of the new year. A 250CV marine engine is having its piston removed for gasket replacement. Around it, three four-stroke engines are also waiting to be flushed and cleaned.

With his hands stained with engine oil, Hai Duong paused his repairs and led us to a mini yacht with a bedroom awaiting refurbishment. The yacht, which features a cockpit on the roof, had been the subject of several inquiries from potential buyers over the past few days, but the owner refused to sell. "This one is waiting for its hull to be cleaned, and the barnacles on the propellers to be scraped off. The interior is waiting for the owner to choose a new color," Duong explained.

He shared that his first experience on a yacht was while he was on probation at a tourist resort in Ninh Van commune, Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa province. After obtaining his Class 3 captain's license, the company assigned him the task of taking tourists on fishing tours or sightseeing trips to Binh Lap Island and Hon Mun Island.

Once, when a yacht broke down and he had to struggle to repair it alongside the chief engineer, he developed a passion for mechanics. Currently, he is a head mechanic, repairing canoes and yachts at the Thu Duc boatyard, and also taking on tours for tourists from Thu Duc City to District 1 and Can Gio when the company assigns him.

"I started my career with the smallest, most basic tasks, like sanding ship hulls. Back then, the repair shop owners would teach me the trade on the condition that I memorize the numbers on each sandpaper sheet so I could use them to sand the hull by hand," Duong recounted.

Driven by passion, he diligently sanded for over a year, then learned how to fill and paint, becoming the most skilled composite boat hull refurbisher in the workshop. From there, the workshop owner continued to teach Duong how to disassemble the engine, including each detail and component of the marine engine.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, like many mechanics in Central Vietnam who were laid off due to the slump in tourism, he moved to Ho Chi Minh City and settled down working at a repair shop in Thu Duc City.

"During difficult repair jobs, I spent days and nights struggling with tools and spare parts, and I was so exhausted I wanted to quit. But then, I suddenly remembered the scenery of the lush green islands. I asked myself, if it weren't for these ships, how could we get there? That motivation has kept me going in this profession until today," Mr. Duong confided.

Maintenance and security services provided for hire.

Mr. Do Khanh Dong (27 years old), a member of the generation taking over the family business, is currently the owner of a boat repair facility in Thu Duc. He recounts that in recent years, the number of passengers interested in the yachting segment has increased significantly. They seek out boat repair facilities in Thu Duc to book yacht tours to enjoy on the Saigon River.

A twin-engine mini-yacht has been refurbished and is undergoing sea trials before being handed over to the owner.

After careful consideration, they proactively purchased mini-yachts for their own use, costing around 2-3 billion VND. His workshop would then take care of their safekeeping and regular maintenance.

When asked about the business situation over the past year, he jokingly shared: "My workshop is doing better than last year. Last year, only my parents helped, but this year my siblings have also had to pitch in to help keep the business running."

According to Mr. Dong, previously, the workshop repaired and delivered about 10 boats to customers each month, of which about 4 were yachts with bedrooms. Currently, the number has been halved, and the staff still has to be maintained by taking on additional maintenance work in distant provinces.

Located about 8km from the Thu Duc boat repair shop, Hoang Tu canoe and yacht repair shop is also busy refurbishing two mini yachts for customers. Last month, a small yacht, after having its interior and seating refurbished here, was sold by its owner for 800 million VND. Situated on the breezy banks of the Tac River, these are boats brought here by wealthy individuals for refurbishment, as well as some awaiting liquidation due to economic difficulties.

Mr. Cuong, a mechanic in his 50s, confided: "The biggest difficulty in the ship repair and refurbishment industry today is that most marine engine parts and components are not manufactured in Vietnam and must be imported from abroad. In many cases, repairs are 99% complete, but we still have to wait for a genuine rubber gasket to be delivered from the United States."

Mr. Cuong has nearly 30 years of experience in marine engine repair, having worked extensively throughout the southern provinces, and is currently the head mechanic at Hoang Tu repair workshop.

Expectations for river tourism

Climbing onto a yacht undergoing repairs, Mr. Hoang Tu – the owner of the repair shop – remarked: "This yacht was originally designed with an in-board engine, a complex structure with many parts, so each repair and maintenance takes a lot of time. The owner brought it here to wait for a redesign and conversion to an outboard engine."

A mini yacht with a bedroom is having its anchor replaced at Hoang Tu workshop.

Measuring nearly 10 meters in length and 2.8 meters in width, including the bedroom, this yacht is frequently used by a wealthy businessman in Thu Duc City to welcome foreign business delegations visiting Ho Chi Minh City for river cruises, traveling from Thu Duc City to Dai Phuoc Golf Course ( Dong Nai Province).

"Despite facing many difficulties, I still hope that next year will be brighter thanks to the many river tourism programs that Ho Chi Minh City is implementing," Mr. Tu confided.

Like Mr. Tú, many owners of canoe and yacht repair workshops share the view that currently, regulations regarding the operating areas of jet skis and inland waterways in Ho Chi Minh City are still inadequate, leading to limited development of waterway tourism activities.

As long-standing businesses in the repair industry, workshop owners have petitioned the city government to implement more open mechanisms and provide guidance on adding more water-based recreational areas, creating favorable conditions for establishing inland waterways specializing in river tourism. This would help utilize and develop the long-standing potential of the ship repair industry in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to a representative from the Waterway Management Center (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport), as of December 2023, the city had registered and managed approximately 7,100 inland waterway vessels. This number of vessels will serve as a "launching pad" for the city's river tourism in the future.

Make a difference with waterway tourism.

According to Ms. Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, the city is focusing on developing river tourism tours by diversifying products and maximizing the tourism potential of inland waterways.

Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry aims to make waterway tourism a distinctive tourism product by 2030, increasing the total number of waterway transport vessels serving tourists to 200 canoes, 100 boats, and various types of yachts by 2025.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/nghe-tan-trang-du-thuyen-cho-cac-dai-gia-192240212183242388.htm