RB Power & Sailing
Pattaya Coast Magazine, March 2008
If you ever find yourself on a lonely stretch of
Down a long, quiet soi, past several growling dogs too lazy to get up, I meet Raoul Bianchetti, the man behind RB Power & Sailing, known as one of the best boat builders in
“Come-a with-a me,” says the friendly Italian as I shake his hand. “I take-a you to my real work-a-shop,” he says in a lilting, upbeat accent that’s fun to listen to as we get into his car.
As we zig down streets and zag down sois, Bianchetti tells me his story, explaining that he comes from one of the globe’s oldest boat building centers –
Needless to say, Bianchetti ditched the suit and tie and headed back to his old stomping ground, honing his skills working on boats until he left to actually work on a boat, which took up a few years. But he never got the craftsman’s curse out of his system, and soon found himself in the
“By this time, I felt the need to work on my own projects, but
Originally, Bianchetti wanted to work on a project that would make every man jealous – build a boat in
“It was quite strange – just after I started building my first boat, I sold it, because no one was building sailboats here,” he says, still smiling at the curse/blessing nature of the whole thing. “I tried building more, but people just kept asking me to built boats for them, and I stumbled onto a totally virgin market.” Within a few years, I had orders for a very large boat and five workers helping me, then ten, then fifteen… now we have over eighty staff working full time.”
We pull up outside of a nondescript garage and step inside, where I’m immediately dwarfed by the twin hull of a huge catamaran that has workers crawling over it like ants; sanding, cutting, gluing, wiring. The shop looks smaller than it is, mostly because of the four or five hulking shapes parked around the floor, all in various states of construction. Several are Bianchetti’s own design, like his best-selling RB-34, while the rest are custom orders. One is going to
Once a customer contacts Bianchetti, there are two possibilities: you can buy a boat ‘off the rack’ and choose from one of his pre-designed models, or you can ask for something unique. “When you want a special design – for example if you’re very tall or need a few extra feet for some reason – we get together and go over your expectations, feelings and what you want it for,” he explains. “I then generate a set of specs and a 3D mockup, and then we just work together to refine the details – and of course, the budget.”
The sky’s the limit, really – as Bianchetti explains, “It’s not a matter of ‘can you do it’, of course it can be done; it’s just a matter of money.” Boats aren’t cheap, but Bianchetti is proud of the fact that you pay far less for his boats here than you would for a similar craft in any western country. “I carry out a lot of research and testing to find alternative materials and construction techniques so I can keep costs down but still maintain quality,” he explains.
I ask how technology has affected his job, and he almost starts talking before I can finish my sentence. “Boatbuilding has come so far, even in the last decade,” he says. “I used to spend weeks on my knees tracing a life-size outline of the boat on plywood using a pencil that had a line 1-mm thick. But now, I give the designs to the laser cutter who cuts my design to within one-tenth of a millimeter in just a few minutes!” His love of the process is apparent in his enthusiasm when talking about the job.
“Also, when we used to put the boat in the water, we had no idea what would happen. It could tip over or sit too low – no one knew, and we had to use lead or sandbags to balance it out!” he laughs as he gesticulates wildly with his hands. “But now, it’s all designed on a computer, which generates an enormous amount of hydrostatic and hydrodynamic data, so you’ll know exactly what will happen.”
In October of 2007, RB Power & Sailing achieved ISO certification (9001:2000 and 12215), which will help him streamline his operation as it grows – and it is growing, with ideas that should take the company to much wider acclaim. He excitedly shows me a large CGI mockup of what he calls ‘the future’ – the RB-30 PowerCat Warrior, a sleek new catamaran design that has hidden compartments for two kayaks, space to store a motor scooter, sleeps 8 and comes ready to sail. The idea is that you can cruise right up onto a beach, and be off exploring the island within minutes.
Bianchetti and his team are also working on developing Thailand’s first commercially available ‘ground effect’ vehicles, which are a kind of futuristic cross between a boat and a plane, utilizing the unique physics of air and water compression to glide very smoothly just above the water at a high rate of speed.
Once back at Bianchetti’s original workshop, he says he has one more thing to show me. I walk around the half-finished bow of the ship I saw earlier and see something I certainly didn’t before – an enormous, 80-foot catamaran that’s nearly finished and as black as coal; it looks like a cross between KITT from Knight Rider and Batman’s jet boat, with a healthy dose of ‘badass’ thrown into the mix. I nearly expect it to growl at me.
“I don’t know why this guy wanted black, it’s going to be really hot in the sun, but that’s what he wanted, so that’s what he got,” smiles Bianchetti. “Sometimes it’s hard to please everyone, but we try.”
If the rapid growth of his company and high customer satisfaction are any indication, he’s certainly on the right track.
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Your description here is correct Mr Raoul is like that.
What he didn’t tell you was that he has/had many disgruntled customers who he cheated in one way or another. Bad quality workmanship is one.
The black catamaran you saw has been rejected by its owner. Mr Raoul refused to allow the owner access to his boat, when accompanied with his surveyor. The owner had to get the Thai courts to allow a surveyor to check over his boat. This has been done. The surveyor’s report was as expected:-full of faults found with this boat. The owner is taking further action.
The new workshop has permission for storage only. Raoul has no planning permission to produce boats at this place. The ISO certification has nothing to do with quality of his products. The big yacht outside his Threprasit workshop is another case for Mr Raoul. The hull has no strength. The catamaran for commercial use around the Ko Chang Islands is unfinished. The workmanship is poor, the hull, deck, and seating fibre thickness is far too thin. Domestic cable clips with masonary nails were used to fix the navigation light (miniscule too - more suitable for a model boat!) cables to the beams. When loaded with sand bags to the equivalent weight of 30 passengers and baggage the waterline was 18′” below water and in fact the self draining passenger deck was unable to self drain. This test was carried out without any other equipment being installed- no engines, water/fuel tanks, batteries etc. It is indeed on his website as a river boat.
A speed boat that was built by Raoul had to be taken to 2 other boat yards to get it completed properly. A big catamaran stays in a newish boat yard on the way to Baan Saray because, after less than a year
bubbles appeared on the skins of the hulls. a 5 year guarantee was offered but not supplimented by Raoul. The cat only sat in the water at a marina and rarely used.