In a Column for Yacht Style, Guenat reveals how good organisation and advanced technology at Thailand’s PMG Shipyard has helped the waterfront facility build better boats and handle production challenges.

PMG Shipyard features multiple large, open production halls

It may seem obvious, and it is in many respects, but a well organised shipyard that utilises technology in advanced ways should build better boats of higher quality and do it more efficiently. However, the Covid pandemic showed that challenges don’t always appear where and when we expect them, and the solutions may be different from originally planned.

Two hours’ drive from Bangkok, PMG Shipyard is literally located ‘on the beach’ in Rayong province, Thailand’s eastern seaboard. The yard was re-built and refurbished less than a decade ago after we moved the business from a smaller production facility near Pattaya. Today, our shipyard is one of Asia’s largest, most modern facilities for building leisure yachts.

PMG is also a pioneer when it comes to solar-assisted and solar-powered catamarans, and most of the current production falls into one of those two categories.

An electric motor for a 60ft catamaran

Dealing with leading-edge technology reflects our organisation. Recent inventions and new technologies are used for energy generation and propulsion, while the way our yachts are designed and built reflect the same way of thinking, using the best-available technologies to create boats that are practical, economical and solidly built.

Thailand is a great location for a high-tech shipyard, with good access to and from all corners of the world, excellent logistics and access to skilled, well-educated boat builders. Our international staff include people from every continent, while our clients come from all over the world and frequently visit the shipyard.

The importance of good organisation and logistics became very apparent when Covid-19 took hold. For PMG, it started with a European supplier of foam cores that manufactures in China but closed for weeks due to an undefined respiratory virus.

PMG is a specialist in solar-assisted and solar-powered catamarans

Soon, lead times of vital components started to increase, making logistics a big challenge. Some products, like resin, have limited shelf life. When shipping times double, production planning also suffers.

The result was that production had to be completed with whatever products had arrived, not necessarily according to the original production schedule. Often, the same part of all boats in production would be finished at the same time. When resin, shipped from Dubai, finally arrived, vacuum infusion was going on day and night to stay within shelf-life limitations.

New equipment was also affected by the pandemic. A new, extra-wide travel lift, suitable for catamarans, arrived in 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak. However, the technicians couldn’t come to assemble the machinery, and nobody could predict when the travel bans would be lifted.

A wide travel-lift and a testing pool are among impressive hardware

That’s when the advantages of being in a highly industrialised area were again revealed. We were able to find local workers who could assemble the travel lift, which was able to enter service as planned.

PMG managed to stay Covid-free through the most stressful periods of the pandemic, which was important. The threat from the government to close production if more than two to three staff were sick was always lurking.

It was only in April 2022, after the pandemic started to ease and attitudes relaxed, that employees started to get sick. And although delays are never welcome, this was a milder variety of the virus, one that didn’t lead to any serious medical issues.

A Silent 62 is launched at the waterfront facility

While Covid-19 was a problem on many levels, there was a lot to learn from the experience. Some of those factors have made work more efficient and even more cost effective, like increasing use of online meetings.

Before the pandemic, doing a CE inspection required an inspector to travel from another country. Now, technology has been adapted, like wiring the whole shipyard for Wi-Fi connection, to make it possible to do at least some inspections online with the help of cameras and other electronic tools.

For PMG Shipyard, the Covid era taught us to prepare for the unexpected, to learn how to maintain production under circumstances that are not ideal. And while no one can predict how future pandemics will affect suppliers and third-party logistics, the pandemic has shown which suppliers were able to stay operational and which weren’t.

Children from a PMG-sponsored orphanage visit the shipyard

It has also shown that having good financial foundations, modern production facilities that are owned, not rented, and professional employees who are passionate about their work can all work together to help us get through difficult times.

PMG was able to build and launch very high-tech, solar powered yachts throughout the pandemic, and if there is another crisis, the knowledge gained will help us remain productive.

PHILIPPE GUENAT

Guenat is the owner of PMG Shipyard, where yacht production includes the Cora Cat 48 represented by Multihull Solutions, the Solar Explorer 52 with e-propulsion and the Silent 60/62 solar-powered catamarans. The shipyard evolved from the former Bakri Cono yard at Ocean Marina, where the Swiss developed his plans for a solar-assisted powercat by launching the Heliotrope 65 in 2013. Increasing his involvement with the builder, Guenat sourced the current 20,000sqm seaside location in Rayong, where operations began in 2016 and the shipyard was renamed PMG after he fully bought the company in 2019.

pguenat@pmgshipyard.com

www.pmgshipyard.com