Yacht refurbishment for the rich

Come to the profession because of passion

"This guy's name has two words 'sea', so no matter how damaged a yacht is, he can handle it," an elderly mechanic pointed to Mr. Truong Hai Duong , a canoe and yacht repairman at Thu Duc shipyard, when meeting a reporter from Giao thong Newspaper.

Repairmen check yachts at Thu Duc shipyard.

Although only 31 years old, Hai Duong has 12 years of experience in the profession. At the end of the year, ship owners send many canoes and yachts to the workshop to be refurbished in time for the New Year's excursions. A 250CV marine engine is having its pistons removed to have its gaskets replaced. Around it, 3 Four Stroke engines are also waiting to be washed and cleaned.

With his hands covered in engine oil, Hai Duong temporarily stopped his repairs and took us to see a mini yacht with a bedroom waiting to be refurbished. The yacht with a sit-on-top driving mode has been inquired about by several customers for many days, but the owner has not sold it. "This one is waiting for the 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 introduced.

He confided that the first time he stepped on a yacht was when he was on probation at a tourist area in Ninh Van commune, Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa province. When he had a third-class captain's license, the company assigned him to take passengers on fishing tours or to visit Binh Lap island and Hon Mun island.

Once the yacht had an accident, he and the captain struggled to fix it, and he became a mechanic. He is currently the main mechanic, repairing canoes and yachts at Thu Duc shipyard, and also taking on the task of transporting tourists on tours from Thu Duc City to District 1 and Can Gio when the company mobilizes.

"I started my career with the smallest, most basic tasks, sanding the hull of a ship. At that time, the owner of the repair shop accepted to teach me the job on the condition that I had to start by memorizing each number of sandpaper to use my hands to sand the hull," said Mr. Duong.

Also because of his passion, he worked hard sanding for more than a year, then learned how to fill and paint, and became the best composite hull refurbisher in the workshop. From then on, the workshop owner continued to teach Duong how to disassemble the engine, each detail and component of the marine engine.

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

"The times I encountered a case of damage that was difficult to repair, I struggled day and night with tools and spare parts, I was so tired that I wanted to quit my job. But then, I suddenly remembered the scenery of the green islands. I wondered, if there were no such ships, how could I have gotten there? That motivation has motivated and kept me doing this job until today," Mr. Duong confided.

Maintenance and care for rent

Mr. Do Khanh Dong (27 years old) is part of the generation that took over the family business and is currently the owner of the Thu Duc boat repair facility. He said that in recent years, the number of passengers interested in the cruise segment has increased significantly. They come to Thu Duc boat repair facilities to book cruise tours to enjoy the Saigon River.

A refurbished twin-engine mini yacht is undergoing testing before being delivered to the owner.

After a period of careful research, they proactively ordered mini yachts for their own use at a cost of about 2 - 3 billion VND. At that time, his workshop will take care of and periodically maintain them.

When asked about the business situation last year, he humorously shared: "My workshop is better than last year. Last year, only my parents "supported" me, but this year, my siblings also had to "support" me to maintain the business."

According to Mr. Dong, the workshop used to repair and deliver about 10 ships to customers each month, of which about 4 were yachts with bedrooms. Now, 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 Thu Duc boat repair workshop, Hoang Tu yacht repair workshop is also busy refurbishing two mini yachts for customers. Last month, a small yacht after being "touched up" with interior and seats here was sold by the owner for 800 million VND. Located on the windy bank of Tac River, the boats were brought in by the tycoon for refurbishment and some are waiting to be liquidated due to economic difficulties.

Mr. Cuong, a mechanic over 50 years old, confided: "The biggest difficulty in the ship repair and refurbishment industry today is that most of the marine engine spare parts are not produced in our country and must be imported from abroad. In many cases, the repair is 99% complete but we still have to wait for a genuine rubber gasket to be delivered from the US."

Mr. Cuong has nearly 30 years of experience in the marine engine repair profession, working all over the southern provinces, and is currently the main mechanic at Hoang Tu repair shop.

Expectations for river tourism

Having just climbed onto a yacht that was being repaired, Mr. Hoang Tu - the owner of the repair shop commented: "This boat was originally designed with an inboard engine (sound engine), a complex structure and many details, so each repair and maintenance takes a lot of time. The owner brought it here to wait for the design and conversion to an outboard engine."

A mini yacht with bedrooms is having its anchor changed at Hoang Tu workshop.

With a length of nearly 10m, a width of 2.8m including a bedroom, this yacht is often used by a tycoon in Thu Duc City to welcome foreign partners to Ho Chi Minh City for a river cruise, traveling from Thu Duc City to Dai Phuoc Golf Course (Dong Nai Province).

"Despite many difficulties, I still hope that next year will be better thanks to many river tourism programs being implemented in Ho Chi Minh City," said Mr. Tu.

Like Mr. Tu, many owners of canoe and yacht repair shops shared that currently, regulations on the operating areas of jet skis and inland waterway ports in Ho Chi Minh City are still facing many shortcomings, leading to limited development of waterway tourism activities.

As long-standing units in the repair industry, the workshop owners recommended that the city government have an open mechanism, guide the addition of more water entertainment areas, and create favorable conditions for the establishment of inland waterway ports specializing in river tourism. From there, take advantage of and promote the potential of the long-standing boat repair industry in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to a representative of the Waterway Management Center (HCMC Department of Transport), as of December 2023, the city has registered and managed about 7,100 inland waterway vehicles. This number of vehicles is the "launching pad" for the city's river tourism in the coming time.

Make a difference with water travel

Ms. Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that the city is focusing on developing river tourism tours in the direction of diversifying products and promoting the tourism potential of inland waterways.

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

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