The TYBA is planning to stage a “Made in Thailand Boat Show” later this year, featuring marine products manufactured in Thailand such as sails, ribs, boats, marine equipment & accessories. Please email TYBA at [email protected] if you would be interested in participating.

สมาคมธุรกิจเรือยอร์ชไทยมีแผนที่จะจัดงาน “Made in Thailand Boat Show” ภายในปีนี้ ภายในงานประกอบไปด้วยผลิตภัณฑ์สินค้าการเดินเรือต่าง ๆ ที่ผลิตในประเทศไทย เช่น เรือใบ เรือยาง สินค้าและอุปกรณ์การเดินสมุทร หากคุณสนใจที่จะเข้าร่วมงาน กรุณาติดต่อเราที่ [email protected]

Bang the stealth slowly

Alan Carwardine hasn’t always designed sleek catamarans for a living, for a good portion of his adult life he banged drums for a living.

Alan grew up in Wollongong (90 minutes south of Sydney), where he learnt how to sail on Lake Illawarra, starting at the Oak Flats Sailing Club, aged nine. Though Alan’s father didn’t sail he urged his young sons to get into it and Alan and his elder brother Geoff soon built their own boat, an 8’6” Manly Junior, the most popular training boat in New South Wales at the time (it was a two-hander with a main sail, jib & spinnaker). Alan played other sports when he was young, but quickly took to sailing like a duck to water and it became his favorite sport.

Alan lived underneath his brother’s shadow for a while as his brother was the skipper and Alan was the crew. But in time, Alan’s brother became too big for the boat they built and moved up to the intermediate class leaving Alan as the skipper in charge of his crew, which he did for two years until he moved up to sail with his brother again in the VJ class. The two boys won the VJ state championship (80 boats) when Alan was 12 and his brother Geoff was 14.

Alan’s father then bought him the boat that came third in that VJ championship and he spent the winter fixing it up. He started to sail separately from his brother, beating him often and realizing he was a capable sailor and not someone racing in his brother’s shadow.

When he was ten, Alan discovered his other passion when he started playing the drums; at 16, he bought a proper drum kit, and started playing in pub bands.  Everything was about music for him back then, and soon afterwards he started making a living as a musician. For 21 years, Alan played the drums professionally (from ages 23-44), performing in many different bands – remarkably he still has good hearing.

Alan met his wife, June, 44 years ago, through mutual friends, and one of the first things he asked her was “Have you ever been sailing?” She hadn’t but was keen to learn as she loved outdoor activity and challenges so Alan bought a Gwen 12, and taught her how to sail. The couple have been sailing competitively ever since.

June is from near Byron Bay in northern New South Wales, and she encouraged Alan to move to the Byron hinterland just as the music industry and the alternative lifestyle was booming in that area in the late 60s, thru the 70s and into the 80s. A huge amount of people were moving out of the cities and north to the Byron Bay area, buying five acres of land and rediscovering themselves.

The couple has two kids, a daughter, Mia and a son, Ben. But Alan’s job as a musician was difficult on the family because of its late hours. He was going to work when his family was going to bed.

Alan had trained as a mechanical engineer, though he never did work as an engineer. But he liked to build things, so he built a 28-foot yacht, to give his kids a taste of sailing and caught the sailing bug again. He then took his son to sign him up at the Richmond River Sailing Club, but they didn’t have a coach for that age class, so Alan volunteered and soon had 15 young kids under his wing (similar to the program the Phuket Yacht Club is running now under Scott Duncanson).

Alan then bought a dinghy, an NS14 (Northbridge Senior), a two-handed Frank Bethwaite design, with no trapeze, no kite (similar to the 15ft Tasers, same designer). It was at about the same time the music industry (live entertainment) started to die for three-fold reasons: noise pollution limits, the growth of video and drunk driving laws.

Alan and the young sailors at the Richmond River Sailing Club started racing competitively against some of the sailors that he had sailed against as a kid and a group then approached Alan asking if he would be interested in building NS14s, the Peter Goss designed Force Five version in a shed on his farm. He jumped at the opportunity as he was looking at a way to get out of the music business. And by the time he was 42, he was the third biggest builder of NS14s in Australia, building 35 in total (25 in Byron Bay), before moving to Brisbane in 1997, with some of his boats going on to win six state championships and three national championships.

But how did Alan learn how to build boats properly so quickly? In Tweed Valley, about an hour way, lived a shipwright, a “Kiwi guru” named Neil Petford who ended up moving to Phuket years later. Every Friday, Alan would drive up to see Neil at Chincogan Catamarans and pick his brains about his latest build and what he could do better the next time.

Sensing it was time to get the kids into better schools and realizing the need to operate out of a big city, Alan moved the family to Manly, on the water in Brisbane. Although Alan had decided to make the move, he still didn’t have a place to build his boats but just before leaving Byron Bay, he received a call from Geoff Berg, the owner of Allyacht Spars. He offered Alan a place to work and build his boats at the back of his facility if Alan would like to look after the rigs and masts of boats under 30 feet, while Allyacht Spars took care of the bigger boats. Quite a transition from working on his small farm in Byron Bay to work in Allyacht Spars multipurpose, modern and high-tech facility.

Alan started designing his own version of the NS14 (Mach 3) and the more sporty MG14, the same hull with a spinnaker and trapeze added. It turned out to be a rocket ship. Alan was stunned he had designed a superfast boat. He made the waterline straighter, taking out the humps and curves, following the philosophy, “water does not like going around corners”. He then built his first Stealth, a Stealth 7.8, mulberry colour with the name Cruise Missile in chrome, which is still in Sydney. He went on to build six more Stealths (7-8.5 m), which dominated the sportsboat scene in Australia for many years.

He did that for four years. Then in 2000, Alan was asked to be an employee of Allyacht Spars, and so he sold his business to Geoff Berg’s brother, Brian. Within a year, Alan became second-in-charge of the company, and in six months, after Geoff took sick, Alan was placed in charge. He had only spent 18 months working for the company at that stage.

Geoff Berg then signed Alan to a five-year contract to be the general manager of the company with the condition that he nurture one of his sons to be his successor. That ended up being Joel, who in his spare time has sailed on many Stealths in Phuket regattas.

During his time at Allyacht, Alan designed and built the first stealth catamaran, a Stealth 12 called, Cut Snake (as mad as), in 2005 when he was the Manager of Allyacht Spars.

At the end of 2009, Alan and June moved to Thailand, under the encouragement Arnie Duckworth, Bob Mott and Mark Pescott.  Alan also knew Mark Horwood as all the Latitude 8 boats were using masts and rigging from Allyacht Spars.

Alan and June had always wanted to live and work in Asia. Everyone told him, “If you want to live in Asia and enjoy sailing, move to Phuket.”

Lady luck smiled on Alan again when just before he was to move to Phuket, he received a call from the UK, out of the blue, to see if he would want to work as the Asia-area manager for the deck hardware company Lewmar, covering 13 countries, but based in Phuket. He ended up working for the company for four years. In 2013, he started Asia Catamarans merging with Roger Diggelmann’s Composite Yacht Construction. The company has built a mix of 21 power and sail Stealth catamarans to date.

Neil Petford taught Alan how to build boats and Geoff Berg taught him how to be a manager. That knowledge and legacy continues to live on with every Stealth that rolls out of the Asia Catamarans boatyard in Ao Chalong.

Drum roll please…

For a rundown on all the Stealths that Asia Catamarans has built go to http://www.asiacatamarans.com/stealth-designs/a-success-story/

(Btw, Alan’s son Ben is a qualified superyacht captain and has worked on the three-mast, 240 ft Addix; the 180 ft sloop Kokomo 5; and is working as a first mate on the 176 ft sloop. Red Dragon now, based out of Palma in Spain. His daughter Mia is the Operations Manager of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, having previously served with Conservation International in East Timor.)

Mark Pescott is a living legend in these parts; the designer of the Firefly 850 One design catamarans and well-regarded delivery captain, this Phuket Yacht Club stalwart and skilled sailor is a much sought after crewmate in regional regattas.

Mark hails from Brisbane, but never sailed dinghies as a kid, he first learned to sail with a friend, caught the bug and soon thereafter bought a 16ft Quick Cat catamaran.

Mark built his first boat, a 28’ Crowther Buccaneer trimaran, in his parents’ backyard. He named it Yarrageh, meaning “spirit of spring” in an Australian aboriginal language. He recalls it was a steep learning curve, learning how to build, sail, skipper it and even anchor safely.

His inspiration at the time was his uncle, a cabinet maker who lived in Victoria and had built a 30ft monohull in his backyard. Mark figured if his uncle could do it, so could he. Mark’s affinity for multihulls can be traced back to a rough experience at sea on that uncle’s monohull.

Mark started his first job in boatbuilding working for Bosun Boats in Caboolture, helping to build a 45’ charter cat and other large cats, working there during the summer and autumn months between sailing excursions on the Queensland coast. During this time Mark completed a yacht design and lofting course at TAFE College.

After a cruise on Yarrageh north to Thursday Island on the Far North Queensland (FNQ) coast, Mark settled in Cairns, starting work for Bob Shanks helping to build a new Lock Crowther designed 40’ cat, Gotcha Covered.

The following year he embarked on a final cruise on Yarrageh to the remote Louisiade Islands of Papua New Guinea with his English girlfriend whose sailing experience before departing on the 500-mile passage was a couple a sails in Mission Bay off Cairns.

Returning to Cairns in late 1985, Yarrageh was sold and Mark started planning the design and build of Summersalt, a 9.85m catamaran with the hulls from the modified and lengthened 29’ Crowther Harrier hull mold.

Summersalt became the basis for Mark’s future designs, his home for over 10 years and was well tested on the race courses winning Hamilton Island Race week twice and twice taking line honours in the Townsvillle to Cairns Race.

Soon after Summersalt was launched Mark crewed on the 60’ Crowther trimaran Power Brewing (nee Yumi Maru) in the Two Handed Around Australia Yacht Race, competing against Peter Blake on the much more modern 60’ tri Steinlager as the only other entry in the 60’ multihull Class.

The first cruise to Thailand on Summersalt in 1991 started in Mooloolaba and included a win in the Darwin to Ambon Race and line honours in the Ambon to Bitung Race before continuing thru Indonesia to Phuket.

Due to a dire lack of funds, Mark decided to return to Cairns with the passage including an 18 day nonstop two handed leg from Singapore to Thursday Island.

The following 2 years in Cairns Mark completed the design for a modified version of Summersalt and the Whitehaven series of performance cruising catamarans, before relocating to Noosa to build the first Whitehaven 11.1 Majeak for a Gove based couple with long time friend Ross Blair.

In 1993 Summersalt was entered in the Coral Sea Classic which allowed multihulls to enter for the first time. In the Cairns to Port Moresby Race Summersalt completed the 460 mile course in 2 minutes under 36 hours, finishing just 3 hours behind the 40’ racing trimaran Australia’s Child,with Summersalt having a best 24 hour run of 316 miles.

Before leaving Cairns Mark was asked by Johh Stricklan to design a 8.5 met racing catamaran that could also be used as a weekend camper resulting in the first Firefly 850, Hot Vindaloo built by John and launched in 1995. Hot Vindaloo soon proved itself on the race course winning it’s first regatta. It is now owned by Mark Leitner and renamed Leitning Storm.

Again Thailand beckoned. Ross Blair took over the sale of the designs as Mark’s business partner, with the passage to Thailand starting with the 1995 Brisbane to Gladstone Race. Summersalt finished fifth over the line behind the 55’ A Room with a View, 40’ racing trimaran Pacific Cranes, 38’ racing catamaran XL2 and 60’ monohull Bobsled, arriving at dusk to the fireworks display and the start of a new adventure.

The Darwin to Ambon Race was again entered followed by the Bali to Jakarta, Arung Samudra Race with 110 yachts and 20 tall ships on the start line of Bali.

Summersalt continued the cruise to Thailand where Mark was part of the winning crew on A Room with a View in the Phuket King’s Cup, a boat he had helped to build.

Mark had planned on sailing around the world, but got stuck here, like so many others. He hung around for a couple years enjoying the island and getting a reputation for doing difficult marine repairs and modifications that no one else wanted to do.

In early 2000, he was hired by Mark Horwood and Damien Kimball of Latitude 8 Yachts to built five Whitehaven catamarans. He worked with them through until 2004.

Damien had said if they could find someone who would build one Firefly, he would build another. Olaf Reese then ordered the first Firefly (Voodoo Child), and Roger Kingdon grabbed the second, Moto Inzi, so Damien ended up with the third Mamba (then XTaSea), which was later sold to Henry Kaye. Latitude 8 built nine Fireflys in total over the next two years. With the Fireflys in full production Mark left the company to work on new designs including new projects for IndoCats in Lombok.

The Fireflys are ideal for Phuket; Marks says he gets a great pleasure seeing owners and crew have so much fun racing them. In the early years of the Firefly 850 One design class, Henry Kaye (Mamba) and Roger Kingdon (Moto Inzi) were both instrumental in developing the class. In their late 60’s and early 70’s and both a little well enhanced weight wise they both made efforts to lose weight, so they could be more agile and better race their boats. Nowadays, there’s a fierce battle between John Newhamn’s Twin Sharks and Hans Rahmann’s Voodoo.

Fiona Stalker, in an excellent piece on Mark in the Nov-Dec 2007 issue of SEA Yachting entitled Phuket’s Big Friendly Guy, asked Mark what is special about the Fifelys: “When you’re getting wet at 28 knots, you’ll be glad you are not anywhere cold. That’s why the Fireflys are great for Thailand. Most of the owners have done a lot of racing on monohulls and were looking for something different that’s exciting and easy to sail.”

Mark says he doesn’t require a lot of money to survive, but he has managed to earn himself a good reputation as a delivery captain, often skippering deliveries with the owner onboard (something many delivery skippers will not do). Those owners want to learn multihull seamanship and sailing skills; it can be a difficult experience at times, but also a very rewarding one for all involved.

The longest and most challenging delivery was skippering a 47 ft Catana cat from Phuket to Vanuatu with the new owner who had sailed a bit many years past, his 24 year old very adventurous son who had never sailed but soon learned and the son’s girlfriend who had sailed when she was 8 years old. The passage from Koto Kinabalu to Port Villa took 36 days with only one 24 hour stop at a remote island.

Unfortunately, sailing back from Sumatra last year, Mark arrived in Ao Chalong on March 28^th, just before the port shut due to Covid-19on March 29^th. Due to a series of unfortunate events, he was unable to register as having returned to the country and spent six months stuck in No Man’s Land in Ao Chalong, before he was legally able to enter Thailand. Mark says if not for the assistance and moral support of his friends, he probably would have lost his marbles but reckons most are still in place.

You can reach Mark at [email protected] •  www.facebook.com/firefly850

The term “Pleasure/Sport Craft” refers to vessels used solely for pleasure or sports, hereinafter referred to as a ‘Yacht’. This excludes vessels imported for commercial use unless it has received special permission under the Thai Vessel Act.

Applications must be done upon arrival by a person traveling on board the vessel, they must be the yacht owner or someone who has received authorisation to act on the owner’s behalf by power of attorney. This person shall hereinafter be referred to as “The Importer”.

The Importer must declare their arrival to the Customs office within 24 hours of arrival.

– Latest port clearance
– Registration and AIS certificate
– Passport of importer, crew and passengers

If owner is not on board:
– Identification papers of owner
– Authorisation letter from owner

• Simplified customs declaration form
• General declaration form

The Importer must sign a guarantee (self cash, bank or personal), equivalent to the value of the vessel plus all duty and taxes applicable.

Should the yacht overstay, a fine of 1,000 Baht per day is payable, the fine shall not exceed 10,000 Baht in total. If it is deemed that the yacht overstayed intentionally, the customs office may enforce the full amount of the guarantee and/or confiscate the vessel.

The Importer must report the stay of the yacht at the customs office of its arrival, not more than 1 month before the expiry date of their stay.
Extension application must be submitted at the customs office the yacht’s arrival no later than 5 working days before the expiry date of their stay.

– Simplified Customs Declaration Form
– Registration Certification
– Application for Extension
– Passport of the Importer
– Authorization Letter from vessel owner
– Identification papers of vessel owner

Other document certifying the yacht’s location

The Importer should submit a Declaration for Ships Outwards form to the Customs officers at the port of exit

– General Declaration form
– Simplified Customs Declaration Form
– Registration Certificate
– Passport of importer, crew and passengers
– Authorization Letter from vessel owner
– Identification papers of vessel owner

Outward clearance form

Mal Canning, Scott Finsten, Bob Garner, Peter Jacops, and Tim Vanhurck formed Disabled Sailing Thailand in 2015 after hearing the Paralympics had canceled sailing as a sporting event. There had never been an association promoting disabled sailing in Thailand, although there were in many other Southeast Asian nations.

But where would they get their boats?

There was nothing available in Thailand at the time, not even second-hand, and importing them was just too expensive.

Peter, a yacht surveyor and CE inspector by trade, had a boatbuilding school for hearing disabled children in South Africa, so had some experience in the field, but he needed someone to design the boat.

Not having much luck, he decided to reach out to his circle of friends by putting a notice on Facebook asking for pro-bono help designing a disabled sailing boat for Thailand.

Within minutes of the posting, Alex Simonis, a partner in the naval architectural and yacht design studio Simonis Voogd contacted Peter and said his company wanted to take up the challenge.

Peter was adamant that though the boats needed to be affordable, yet they also had to be modern, competitive and sleek. “The problem with most disabled sailing boats is they really look like disabled sailing boats,” he says.
The group soon met with Russell Vollmer at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, Vollmer a parasailer with two Cape Town to Rio crossings under his belt, quickly signed on as an advisor.

The first boat was made out of marine ply and it went on display half-finished at the 2016 Ocean Marina Pattaya Boat Show. Royal Phuket Marina’s Gulu Lalvani saw the boat and he agreed to pay to finish it. Ray Ringuet from Austhai Marine then built another boat using the same material giving it to HRH Princess Sirindhorn who on her turn donated it to Disabled Sailing Thailand.

Maarten Voogd of Simonis-Voogd had been visiting Fareast Yachts regularly when he mentioned the project to Demolar Du, the CEO of Fareast Yachts. She was immediately interested and wanted to become involved. She committed to building the first 1,000 SV14s at a subsidized price for disabled sailors, with the standard model costing only cost US$4200 USD.

As with all models from Fareast Yachts, the S/V14 is a fully vacuum-infused construction in GRP/Foam Core. The rudders and lifting keel fin are made with carbon and the cast iron bulb is encapsulated in glass. The weight is the same as the original wooden version to allow both models to be used in regattas.
By making these dinghies available at a cost below the raw material cost for the wooden version, the aim is to kick start the class by introducing as many people with disabilities as possible to sailing, with the ultimate goal of seeing participation grow to a number that sailing can take its rightful place once again in the Paralympics.

FarEast Yachts also agreed to keep this price fixed until the end of 2019 after which the price correction will be no more than the material cost, and capped at the official inflation rate as published for the People’s Republic of China.

FarEast Yachts is best known as the largest Optimist builder in the world and more recently for their success in the sportsboat market producing a range of boats from 19 to 37ft, with their 28R being an official WorldSailing approved class.

Ocean Marina bought eight S\V14 dinghies and they arrived in one container just before the Top of the Gulf Regatta, where they participated in the inaugural Thailand S\V14 Para Sailing Championship sailed over four days during the regatta.

Peter was keen to see how stable and safe they were and how they felt – he was very impressed. World Sailing’s Training Delivery Manager Rob Holden make the trip to Pattaya to see the boats perform and was very impressed.

Working closely with the Thai Paralympic Committee, the long-term goal is to support the establishment of a Thai Para Sailing Team which can represent Thailand and compete regional and global sailing events in the future.

There are several options that can be added to the S/V 14, to allow the boat to be used over the widest possible range of requirements for adaptive sailing, allowing even those with a more severe level of disability to compete in the class by making use of the electric actuator controlled tilting seats. Peter says there has been a lot of interest in the dinghies, especially in Germany and Holland.

Simpson Marine was the first company to buy one of the Fareast boats. As Peter now lives in Phuket, he started all over again with the help of Belgian expat Arnaud C. Verstraete, the Phuket Masonic Lodge: Light of Siam and Royal Phuket Marina, who also host the fleet free of charge. They now have five SV14s, a rescue boat and a hoist for the disabled sailors but apprentice sailors are standing in line for a few hours of freedom on the water.

The SV14s have already enabled a whole group of new people to experience the wonderful world of sailing and their popularity is bound to grow.

For more information, contact: [email protected]
disabledsailingthailand.org  •  sv14.org

Contact:

+66 (0) 81 892 2484

[email protected]

www.superyachtservicesguide.com

Headway Engineering specializes in marine mechanic, and electrical repair and installation.

This engineering team provides maintenance services to marine and power generation. The team consists of an engineer and qualified technician that specializes in marine, power generation, and offshore services. They can service any modern yacht engine brand including Volvo Penta, MAN, Cummins, Yanmar, and MTU.  The team also consists of an experienced marine electrician and air-conditioning expert.

Basing at Port Takola, Krabi., Headway Engineering will start providing mechanical and electrical service in May, and provide mobile service across southern Thailand.

Service inquiry can contact [email protected] (www.facebook.com/headwaythailand).

The Oceans For All Foundation made history recently with the announcement of the construction of the first eco-friendly catamaran of their “License to Clean” Project.

The 5.8m costal cleaner catamaran will be fully built from recyclable HDPE plastic and is the first of a series of seven catamarans to be operated in and around Phuket beaches and marinas to collect floating trash.

This project is a collaboration between Wawa Creations, the vessel designer, and G&T Boat Yard and Yacht Supply Chandlery, the boat builder.

The OFA Foundation managed to find the funds needed thanks to the generosity of the HeadStart International School’s charity event last year as well as recent donations from private sponsors. Stay tuned for updates on the step-by-step construction from the shipyard.

If you want to know more about OFA License to Clean project and/or if you are interested in sponsoring the next vessel, please contact [email protected].

If you want more information on super strong, sustainable HDPE boats visit www.wawacreations.com.

Phuket Yacht Haven has announced the installation of additional pontoons has commenced as part of its expansion plan. Reaching this milestone will help enable the marina to welcome superyachts from across the globe, as Thailand continues to grow as a world-class boating and charter destination.

In February 2015 MarineTek installed a new 260-metre pontoon and three 50-metre fingers were installed. The installation of the 18 new pontoons by MarineTek will add 14 new berths to the current total of 320, with the marina able to accommodate yachts up to 50 metres (164 feet) in length. The pontoons are constructed to comply with international standards for marine eco-system protection and will be equipped with electrical power, fresh water connections and 24-hour security services across the property.

From April 20, 2021 the PCR Test Negative result is not required for the tourists visiting the Maldives that have taken two doses of recommended vaccine two weeks before departing to the Maldives.

The welcome news reported by Mohamed Hameed, heading up Asia Pacific Superyachts Maldives, supersedes the previous regulation whereby yachts/crew had to present a negative Covid-19 test on arrival.  Below are some of the other protocol your agent (using an agent is mandatory in the Maldives) will advise:

One of the most fascinating travel destinations in the world, The Maldives is also one of the few top cruising destinations lifting Covid-19 restrictions early on.  The decision to open during the pandemic has been a positive and beneficial decision for visiting vessels, notes Hameed, “Maldives entrance formalities and restrictions are very easy to comply with and there has been a lot of demand and inquiries, especially when compared to other competitive markets/countries”.

“Also benefiting yachts is a substantial reduction in fees to enter the Maldives, a decision made in April of 2020. This has helped to make the Maldives not only a superyacht favourite, but the reduced fee also provides a viable stopover for all yachts crossing the Indian Ocean as well as a convenient stop-over for yachts bound for either the Red Sea or en route via the Cape of Good Hope.”

“There are a number of yachts visiting the Maldives at this stage and our clients love the generally picture perfect weather featuring sunlit days, breezy nights, balmy mornings and iridescent sunsets”, Hammed remarked.

The Maldives Archipelago consisting of 26 atolls in entirely natural formation, with only a small number inhabited, stretch across the equator. The miniscule coral islets of deep blue seas offer fantastic cruising adventures with the waterways providing the best and most natural of transport. The country epitomizes luxury and elegance with exclusive resort islands defined by their high end luxury and incredible beauty, ambience and high end service. To learn of any changes in requirements before traveling and cruising itinerary options contact Mohamed Hameed at [email protected].

(Credit: www.asia-pacific-superyachts.com/maldives)

Indonesia is now open and welcoming yachts. It’s official – visas are now open to all nationalities, as long as they fit some of the requirements. The visas are mainly for business travel but they are also open for yachts and their crew.

“Port Quarantine restrictions widely vary from port to port and are still in flux”, reports Captain Thomas Taatjes of Asia Pacific Superyachts. “Yachts and their crew can enter with these visas and crew can also fly in. The maximum quarantine is five nights onboard for yachts arriving and five nights at a hotel for fly in crew joining the vessel”.

An exceedingly attractive Asia Pacific cruising destination until the country shut down borders, Indonesia opening up is good news for yachts, superyachts and charters waiting to enter.

Indonesia is a great destination to plan for as the world moves toward the backend of the pandemic and those with a penchant for exploring and adventure will find nothing short of a cruising paradise and a rare opportunity in finding a highly favored cruising destination reopening.

Captain Thomas welcomes inquiries, remarking, “Indonesia now is open and it is relatively straight forward and relatively easy to enter, especially when compared to other Asian countries”.

“We are standing by ready to share information and offer quality service to yachts interested in visiting this amazing country. We’ve also been successful in making special arrangements for a speedy entry for our clients once it is determined to visit Indonesia.”

For visa Info: [email protected]

(Credit: www.asia-pacific-superyachts.com)

Seafarers with expired Social Visit Passes (PLS) are allowed to stay in Malaysia until December 31, but they have to obtain a pass at the nearest Immigration office, said Immigration Department of Malaysia director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

He said their applications must be accompanied by a letter of confirmation from their respective embassies and a letter of support from the operators or the owners of the marina where they are docked.

He said the department had held a discussion with operators and the Malaysian Marina Association via video conferencing on the measures that the seafarers must take to enable them to continue to stay and moor at any marina after April 21.

“To assist foreign seafarers who are in Malaysian waters during the movement control order (MCO), the department allows them to continue staying in Malaysia until December 31 by obtaining the PLS from the nearest Immigration office,” he said in a statement.

Khairul Dzaimee said that as of May 10, there were 138 foreign seafarers berthed legally in Malaysian waters.

“But some among the foreign seafarers are found to be berthed illegally and they are set to face the music,’’ he said, adding that prior to this, foreign nationals with expired PLS had to leave the country before or on April 21 and failure to do so could result in enforcement action being taken.

On April 21, Khairul Dzaimee announced that foreigners with expired PLS must apply for a Special Pass to enable them to be in the country, while waiting for flights home to their countries of origin. — Bernama (Malaysian National News Agency) as appeared in the Malay Mail.

The International Council of Marine Industry Associations – ICOMIA – is the non-profit international trade association representing the global marine industry since 1966.

ICOMIA brings together national marine industry associations in one global organisation and represents them at an international level, presenting a strong and united voice when dealing with issues challenging the industry.

Close to 40 national associations across the world are full members of ICOMIA today. Members include the vast majority of the industrialized countries from North America across to Japan and China and from Finland down to New Zealand.

ICOMIA’s working committees predominantly consist of its member associations and they provide forums where the national associations can share their experiences and most importantly plan collectively to address issues of the industry worldwide.

With the support of its members throughout the world and in conjunction with the appropriate associations, ICOMIA lobbies international authorities and major organisations, publishes documents and guidelines and produces tools to facilitate the growth of the industry.

ICOMIA acts internationally on behalf of all those concerned for the boating industry’s continued success and the public’s ability to enjoy boating at all levels in a clean environment.

For Thailand to be considered a maritime nation on an international level it very important to be a member of ICOMIA as the organization helps gain lobbying leverage when talking with governments who are creating the yachting regulations with which we must live by.

ICOMIA has 14 sub committees focusing on technical, regulatory and marketing matters. TYBA board member Peter Jacops urges all TYBA members to go to the ICOMIA site and let him know if you would be interested in joining any of those sub committees.

Jacops says, “We can only be strong if we join hands with other maritime countries. This is especially true when talking about the Asian Corridor from the Suez Canal to Australia. This is only going to work if we work with other countries because superyachts don’t just stop in one country. We need to try and make sure the regulations are similar in neighboring countries. Superyachts won’t bother coming here if there is a maze of red tape that varies from country to country.

“It is also Important to have maritime statistics and that is one of ICOMIA’s primary functions, collecting data from member countries. This is vital because when we are in discussions with governments we need to present them with statistics to back our proposals.”