First locally-made yacht skeds maiden voyage on February 27

After months of molding, engineering, timber and plumbing works, the first prototype of a luxury motor yacht produced locally here in Cebu will be having its maiden voyage this February 27 at the Porter Marina in the municipality of Liloan.

Providing appropriate skills training to native Cebuanos from scratch, Coastline Moldings Group, Incorporated— a foreign boat builder, was able to produce this first-of-its-kind yacht called as Coastline 42 made under the highest standard in boat building seen to set the development of Cebu’s boating industry.

“This is the first yacht to be produced locally here in Cebu and even in the whole Philippines with the aide of local workers we’ve trained from scratch and who knew nothing about boat building,” said Amber in an exclusive interview with The Freeman.

Considered to be a world-class 42 foot motor yacht, Coastline 42 will serve as the company’s show boat that will lure prospective clientele from both the global and local markets, said its owners.

With already prospective clients from the Australian market, Coastline is also eyeing to expand their reach to the US market as well as the domestic market in the future having foreseen a huge demand.

“The boat market is worth billions of dollars and we are looking at expanding to the US market since it certainly is one of the largest markets in the world. We thought at first the domestic market will not be big enough but after we generated lots of interests in our factory we’ve also began to consider the local market,” added Hannam.

Already based in Cebu, the company decided to explore the town’s business environment and potential and is now very much determined to intensify their operations in the area after gaining positive prospects from its dynamic local economy.

“We have a very positive feeling about Cebu with its progressive business economy. The city is really growing and there is a large pool of skilled labor here especially that it’s the center of the country’s furniture industry,” said Ricky Martin, Coastline’s marketing director.

Having started as a boat building venture, the company also expanded their services catering to other expertise such as fiber glass manufacturing and boat designing; so aside from boat building, they also produce other products and developments ready for fabrications such as modular swimming pools, children’s playground equipment, modular floating pontoon docks, kitchen countertops to name a few.

At the moment, there are still two more boats being manufactured in their plant as this year they are targeting to produce and sell about 20 boats into the Australian market. The company is also currently under negotiations to increase their facilities to cater to the foreseen growing demand of creating export quality boats at a very competitive price.

“We want to see the development of the overall boating scene in the Philippines. The impact of our operation in the local economy is very enormous as far as employment and skills training are concerned. Manufacturing businesses inevitably develops sub markets so we will not only help the people we employ but we will create a spin-off effect to other industries in the area.” explained Martin about the apparent multiplier effect of their operation to Cebu’s local economy.

Coastline Moldings Group, Inc. is a Cebu-based fiber glass manufacturing company which has been in operation in town for nearly a year now employing some 50 Cebuanos in their plant in Talamban. Established in April of 2007 by Australian boat builder Phil Amber and English businessman Tim Hannam, the company is eyeing to develop Cebu’s boating industry especially showcasing Cebuano craftsmanship in this new area of expertise.