Disappointment With Singapore's Facilities

Created by doina. Last modified on 2006-08-05 16:55:40
Countries: Singapore

I am currently staying in Singapore and trying to do repairs on my 42 ft Catamaran. I saw on Noonsite that Singapore was highly rated for repairs. Well this is what I have found. There are only 2 places for haulout, Raffles Marina and Punggol Marina, and both are quite expensive and the yards there are small and seem to have limited knowledge. We have also tried to use smaller companies for repairs and either the price is exorbitant or they have never done real work on yachts before. Also when trying to get a new engine and drive installed, the companies are more than willing to sell you an engine but do not do installation, do not sell coupling etc, and know even less about propulsion units (Yanmar importer said there was a 3 month delivery delay on engines). Even though my wife is Singaporean we are both very disappointed by Singapore and will be moving the cat elsewhere once I have put the engine and cat drive in that I ordered from Europe. I do not seem to be an isolated case, several sailors I have met here are very disappointed with Singapore.

Paul Rice