Building luxury yachts through social empowerment
View(s):MIRISSA – On any day during the tourist season (October to April), there is a traffic jam at around 6 am in the southern town of Mirissa. The scramble is not because of vehicular office traffic but tourists and locals driving to the nearby harbour where around 50 boats prepare for a daily, whale watching adventure ride.
Pic by Ishanka Sunimal
All this is partly due to the efforts of Pierre Pringiers, a 74 year-old Belgium national and entrepreneur who has lived in Sri Lanka since 1980 and once was the Consul General for Belgium, and who was alerted by a tourist who went on a fishing trip.
“This visitor said he didn’t catch any fish but had seen whales off the Mirissa coast. That’s when whale watching began,” he recalls, adding at that time – when he first arrived in 1980 -, everyone said there were blue whales only in Trincomalee.
A long-standing friend of Sri Lanka, he has built a reputation of helping unemployed youth in the south, training to build and operate catamarans … and is now setting his sights on creating an industry for luxury yachts.
Along with that, Mr. Pringiers is preparing to launch his super luxury, 10-room floating boutique hotel – the Ocean Diamond – by end 2019, which will herald a new era in Sri Lanka tourism.
Mr. Pringiers is Chairman of Sail Lanka Yatching Group which comprises BAFF (Building a Future Foundation) Polymech Pvt Ltd (building catamarans), Solar Impulse Pvt Ltd (building rigid inflatables and sails) and Sail Lanka Charter Pvt Ltd (which owns and operates yachts).
In a recent interview in Colombo, he said the company has eight yachts – three are day charters and five are multi day, residential charters which stay at sea for three to six days with all supplies.
Sails
While his day and multi-day charter vessels are doing well, he is banking on the Ocean Diamond heralding a new era of luxury yachts in Sri Lanka and says he can create a manufacturing industry that could produce hundreds of these boats while providing a new adventure in tourism.
At every point of the interview he reflects on the social benefits including employment and social empowerment through building yachts, from the south to the north.
Big business
Sailing on luxury yachts is a big business in Asia. Thailand for example with just a handful of yachts in 2004, today has 2,200 yachts. Mr. Pringiers believes Sri Lanka is ideally suited to build a yacht manufacturing and operating industry, because the blue ocean and blue skies offers 260 days of opportunity – Northeast or Southwest which you cannot find in many other places in the world. “Another advantage is that there are no yachts as yet here; so there is a great opportunity for the government to work with us and make it a socio economic success.”
At the moment, the pioneering yacht builder is seeking partners’ vis-à-vis hotels, travel companies and destination marketing firms to rent the Ocean Diamond for long periods, since “I can build yachts but I’m not a hotelier or tour operator”.
His message to the hotel industry: “Tourism is growing at a rapid rate and while we understand that they have to give priority to their hotels, this market (yachting) will anyway grow … and thus there is a benefit for them to step in. We are looking for a kind of synergy with the local hotel industry.”
The origin of the catamaran building project came in the aftermath of the tsunami with the emergence of a few boats involved in water-based activity like snorkeling, until the shift to whale watching in around 2007.
Crew
“We had a boat with a carrying capacity of 16 people and I told our trainees to fill this and take people on a whale watching trip. At that time the price of a whale watching trip was Rs. 22,000 (in 2007). It cost a fortune; this boat was given by the foundation to the boys from the beginning and from that moment onwards – after two years they paid the cost of the boat to the foundation after becoming commercially viable. Their company was Mirissa Water Sports and they then also purchased a second boat from us, paying the full sum after 18 months.”
After 5-6 years, this company had three boats and went to the bank to buy more boats and after a while many fishing boats also started to convert their boats for this purpose. That was the origin of the whale watching industry. “This is a good example of a social business/entrepreneurship as grassroots involvement – run by local people – and not big companies. I was happy to see this growing.”
No interest from European builders
Initially Mr. Pringiers, after inheriting a local boatyard that went bust, approached several European boat builders as investment partners to build and export. No one was interested.
He then decided to run the boatyard with 40-50 workers and develop the market in Sri Lanka. So far the company has built seven yachts with engine cum sails which are operated by Sail Lanka, each with a 4-man crew including a chef.
The group operates day charter and 3-4 day tours from the south to the north including visits to Delft island. Mr. Pringiers is also the founder (along with the Jinasena Group) of Loadstar, the world’s largest solid tyre manufacturer based in Sri Lanka, now named CAMSO.
Ruby
He reckons the yacht building industry will also follow in his footsteps (like the success) of Loadstar which led to many foreign investors setting up solid tyre plants in Sri Lanka.
In long discussions he has had with government authorities, Mr. Pringiers is urging the Export Development Board and others to provide incentives to build yachts here.
There was good news on the day this interview was conducted (November 30). “Great news! I sold my first yacht to a Sri Lankan investor today,” he says, happily.
Mr. Pringiers says his business is manufacturing and running the boats. “We have the DNA to manufacture and operate but not find clients. My crew and captains are fantastic and better than foreign captains. The local boys are careful coming from fisher families,” he said, adding: “They are people who understand the sea.”
(Feizal)
| Riding the Ruby | |
| The nicest part of the overnight stay on the Ruby, Sail Lanka’s 43-foot luxury yacht which has three air conditioned, double cabins with attached bathrooms, was that the boat rocked us to sleep. The movement of the waves was like the gentle rocking of a cot and putting a baby to sleep. Awake the next morning by dawn, we had a nice breakfast of fruit, bread and eggs and then set off on a whale watching expedition. Earlier on the previous day, we arrived at the Mirissa harbour and boarded the Ruby at around 4 pm. After sailing for a few hours, we set anchor a few metres off the Weligama beach and while having a sumptuous dinner prepared by chef Madushan, watch a fireworks display from the nearby Marriot hotel by a wedding party. It was the perfect start to a day, ahead, where we were lucky to see 3-5 whales at close quarters. The Ruby and three Ceycat catamarans (with 4 double cabins and bathrooms) are hired out for 3-4 day voyages in the north, east and south while three other yachts are hired for day trips with one able to carry 40 people. Our crew comprising skipper Samitha, IP and Chamal were constantly busy steering, setting up sails or bringing them down or helping the chef in the kitchen. The chef in turn helped in boat operations while the crew was at hand to answer any questions about the sea, whales and the coastal scenery. “That’s a navy hotel,” points out Samitha as we glide through waters. The next morning, after breakfast we head to near the shipping lanes, about 15 km off shore where the whales are present. After going at 6 knots per hour and followed by other whale watching boats, Samitha spots some activity at a distance in the water and steers the boat to that location. Other boats also converge just in time to see a blue whale rising for fresh air and diving into the ocean. There is excitement for myself, photographer Ishanka and Ranjit Perera, Sail Lanka’s affable PR consultant, as we craned forward to get a better view. Not so for Samitha who has seen dozens of whales since sailing for the past 14 years. After spending another two hours, waiting and eventually seeing three to four whales, we return to shore having lunch en route and spending almost 24 hours offshore. There are many things to do during these trips like snorkeling, swimming and fishing. |
Boatyard
| Boatyard | |
| At the BAFF Polymech Pvt Ltd boatyard at the free trade zone at Koggala (near Mirissa), there are no workers as November 20 is a public holiday. However Production Manager Chaminda Sanjeewa accompanied by Margaux Detry, Sail Lanka’s Marketing Executive and PR, explains to us the giant moulds being made to build yachts. The company has three orders from Thailand and New Zealand. Other than the fibre glass and engine which are imported, the rest of the boat is made from local material and according to international specifications. The 86-foot Ocean Diamond is also under construction with a model cabin already constructed for viewing by companies who may be interested in long term hire of the luxury sailing craft. Whenever a boat is built, the Galle Road has to be closed till the boat, which is generally the width of the entire road, is transported to the harbour. |