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Business
Unusual Situated at
Custom Road, Galle, Nath (Pvt) Ltd is hard to miss. Specialists
in boat building and marine engineering, the company is well established
and provides services to yachtsmen from around the world. According
to Jayatilake, his products meet international standards set for
boat manufacturers and carry the Lloyd's Certificate. Trained in
the crafts of boat building and repairing at Taos Yacht Co, where
he had worked as an apprentice, Jayatilake had started on his own
in 1976, after visiting a boatyard in Negombo. "I was sent
to repair a boat and I told its owner that I would love to go for
a ride in the lagoon. He took me around in the boat and I saw a
small boatyard," said the lanky Jayatilake with snowy hair.
Having seen the yard, he had visited it out of curiosity and felt
that it was time he started on his own. "The boatyard was owned
by a person called Joseph Peter and everything was done manually.
It didn't seem a difficult business to start and I contacted the
Industrial Development Board (IDB)." With IDB help, Jayatilake
had undertaken orders for boat building and repairing and started
small in his hometown, Negombo. His first big client had been the
Fisheries Department, which placed orders for fishing boats from
time to time. He has also repaired boats for Dr. K. C. Fernando,
a pioneer in water sports in Sri Lanka. "My mother
didn't like the idea of the boatyard because it was not an ordinary
job. She supported me throughout though," said Jayatilake.
During his initial years in the business, he had visited Galle almost
every week to repair boats and yachts and mix with yachtsmen from
around the world. "The Galle harbour was a popular spot and
yachtsmen stopped at the harbour for repairs and maintenance because
we had good craftsmanship and the necessary facilities." Jayatilake
had taken boats and yachts to be repaired to Negombo and brought
them back once they were attended to by his workers. "This
became a bit difficult when the business caught on," said Jayatilake,
who has received numerous orders as a boat-builder and repairer. Seeing the
old jetty, which was not used, he had bought the land adjacent to
the jetty and established a yard there. "The move to Galle
increased business and made things easy for me." Today, however,
Jayatilake operates on the other side of the jetty after his land
was taken over for a Marine Archaeology Project. The move has also
expanded his contact base and Jayatilake has been approached by
a number of foreigners with novel boat-building techniques. "My
boats were originally made of iron and fibre-glass. But now I use
strips of wood and plywood." His first experiment
had been the plywood yacht he did for an English couple who had
approached a number of giants in the boat building field at that
time. "They had gone to almost every boatyard in the country
and been refused. I agreed to do a 24-foot plywood sailing catamaran
for them and then they wanted another." The market
for yachts and canoes is vast because it does not involve much expense.
"All you need is a little diesel to bring the yacht to a harbour
because it is manipulated by the wind. It is a very popular mode
of transport in the West and has a good market." According
to Jayatilake, yacht and canoe building in Sri Lanka does not require
a lot of expenses as labour is cheap here. "We also
use coconut and aththoniya trees for building canoes and these do
not cost much. Our craftsmanship is acknowledged around the world
because the harbour attracts a lot of sailors." Today, however,
the old harbour is deserted if not for an occasional yacht that
approaches the harbour. "Our facilities are poor and sailors
do not come here anymore. But we have great potential as a yacht
harbour." Jayatilake's business has dropped significantly with
the decrease of yacht arrivals due to poor harbour facilities. But
his craftsmanship has been well rewarded by a number of export orders.
"I exported eight canoes to the Netherlands in March to be
featured at a trade exhibition and the Dutch who took them told
me that they had great market potential." A canoe costs over
Rs. 65,000 in Sri Lanka and is sold for over Rs. 200,000 in the
Netherlands by Jayatilake's Dutch contact, Fridtjof Tuynman of Seatech
Services. Tuynman had approached Jayatilake during a visit to Sri Lanka and asked if he would be interested in building canoes from strips of wood. Later he sent Jayatilake a drawing of a canoe and visited Sri Lanka with portable equipment. An architect by profession, Tuynman has asked Jayatilake to build 10 canoes for him with strips of wood and taken eight with him. "He will be back soon and I am looking forward to exporting more yachts and canoes," said a confident Jayatilake. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
boatyard
someday. But H. B. Jayatilake, proprietor of Nath (Pvt) Ltd, not
only owns a boatyard today but exports canoes and repairs yachts
at his boatyard facing the old Galle harbour. Dressed in beige trousers
and a white shirt, Jayatilake looked content with what he had achieved
over a span of 25 years, having lost most of his export orders due
to the 1983 riots.
