Cuba Shipyard

It's different here though. Here you have all the parts wholesalers you could every possibly imagine in less than a 1 hour drive from Miami. In Miami, it seems everyone just island engineers every system, rather than going and getting the proper parts. But, this is from people the owners have hired, people in the business. Not uncle joe fixing his yacht. What I see in your neck of the woods is they'll usually use the right parts, but the application is wrong.....For example they'll change a Rule pump and float switch with a rule pump and float switch, but then use electrical tape to hold the wires together or automotive butt connectors.

As someone with lots of experience getting good work out of ex-communist-zone people (reminder: I'm Russian), back up olderboater. The upside is you get people who can be very committed and crafty, and really can and almost want, as per cliche, "go the extra mile". The downside is, when they are not managed properly, and that means more of a "big family - style" then the classic corporate style, they are also experts at "imitating work". So, with good management, you get good results.

As for the lack of technological experience, dare I say blasphemy: it's not in itself such a big deal. Today, with information and trainers available worldwide, you don't need to hail from a dynasty of boat builders helping them at the factory from 10yo to know how to lay out prepregs in a mould or consistently put wiring exactly according to the scheme. A month of intense training. Half a year a very relaxed one.
Those people doing all the sick stuff frequently mentioned around here are mostly not plain "lacking experience". It's themselves never caring to get some, their shift managers never bothering to care, etc. attitude problems, not real technical problems.
Hence the thing about Cubans not having experience with modern boat building techniques is not at all big, and can be changed in a matter of month, at most years.

The problem I see, is I watched that entire show "Cuban Chrome" and it's about these car enthusiasts and fixing up their cars. These guys are gearheads. But, the end result is that the cars still don't turn out that nice with the basics. For example the paint jobs and body work and stuff like that. So, I don't see the workmanship being yacht quality. But who knows.....

I honestly wouldn't use a Cuban Chrome show as a fact source any more seriously then I would use Pimp My Ride show as a guide to car tuning.

There is also a Meet The Russians show in UK which one could also use as a national portrait. (Please, don't.)

I agree it's not a deciding factor by any means. BUT judging by the quality of simple body work and paint jobs. Personally I don't think they have the yacht quality ability right now, nor the parts, nor the ancillary businesses to make a refit successful. Also, as close as it is to Fort Lauderdale, why not have the refit done where you know it will be right.

The assumption being, showmakers chosen a proper workshop as they would for themselves. As opposed to one which would give the best commercial terms and/or the best show material.
Not a good one.
I give you a show budget and setup time, can you find a place in FL to make a "FL Chrome Boats" show with the material of how rip-off and sloppy worksmanship there is?

Okay, worse question: you make a show about how it all goes smoothly, you think, that show will be anything of a "show"?

I totally agree. I've had manufacturing in Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, China, the Philippines, Australia, and used contractors in at least another dozen companies. You give me a group of people and you're going to have a cross section of good and bad but you're going to find motivated workers. Now from an industrial engineering perspective, every job in building a boat has an established learning curve. The vast majority of the work probably has a learning curve under 20 weeks. That's all assuming proper management and a proper training program.

Now, that's also why as a manufacturer you'd require some subsidy. There's going to be a training expense, there's going to be an expense setting things up.

As pointed out above, today parts would be a problem and an added cost due to location. I've manufactured in Puerto Rico. Everything has to be shipped in and the thing I never thought of before is it's an island with no natural energy resource. That's why electricity is so expensive. However, at the point you'd build a facility in Cuba, dependent on US customers, you'd also think shipping regulations regarding parts would be relaxed and they could all legally be shipped from the US and imported into a duty free zone. At that point with regular shipping, the added cost would become minimal.

To do it right is going to take a sizable investment and cooperation between private industry and the government. Right or wrong, no one builds major facilities in the US without government support. States compete with each other. This is true elsewhere.

It will be interesting to follow. The future of Cuba is a story I personally have no idea how it will read.

Back to "Yacht Forum" I do think there will be better facilities for yachts, both marinas and shipyards. I am not optimistic in the quality of the shipyards because I see people going for the quick buck rather than quality and long term in so many places. I am confident you'll see nice hotels and marinas starting the moment all travel rules between the US are eliminated. I see the Genting Group and Resorts World Cuba. While people say they want to see Cuba as it is today, they do, but that's not where they'll continue to take vacations. However, I've been to many incredible resort marinas in countries I'd never expect and most of the visitors were happy never leaving the resort property.

+1

Yer one of the good guys--salute!

The problem is, can someone trust that the government will stay the same in the long term if someone invests a ton of money in a business.

Excellent point. Ask all the companies that have lost in Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and elsewhere. That's a reason they prefer the government build and they rent, to minimize exposure.

Another hedge is to build at subsidiary out of the loan from government or g-affiliated local bank (in countries like these it often just means the biggest).
Or you find a local company with significant overseas assets to partner with - suing the sovereign government itself and, most importantly, collecting being a known M:I.

I've been involved in a deal where eastern-EU government simply couldn't put down a lot of money (for not having much, to begin with), so they threw in a development rights in the capital (a rather liquid thing) as a sweetener and return -accelerating tool. After all, it's one thing to trust for 10+ years, and another just for 2-3. Deal structure ended up, to say the least, complicated.

Also, you probably need a local professional or at least one with a good knowledge of local customs and informal do's and dont's, including GR and government action. Some countries outright alternate between defaults and nationalizations on a decade basis (Argentina), others put a constant and annoying yet manageable pressure (China), some others plain play nice for the most part, until they don't (Russia, doing-business-wise), e t.c.
Even with Cuba being "communist" country (e.g. supposedly no private business), people's been living there and for sure doing things there for a long time, so there's definitely a set of "conceptions".