Endorsements
Check back regularly, as we plan to update this area often. And if you're an Austhai Catamaran owner with great stories to tell, we'd love to hear them! You can easily connect with Austhai Marine on Facebook and Twitter, or share your stories via email: Just drop us a line at possessors@austhaimarine.com
Dear Ray,
Many congratulations to you for the warmth and kindness, and your company Austhaimarine for professionalism and high quality of the boat you sold me! The boat you sold me is better than all expectations, and the after sales service in even better than the boat. I hope to buy another next year!
Thanks again for everything!
Corrado
Orso Diving Italy
Email: info@orsodiving.com
Web: www.orsodiving.com
Hello Ray,
With our boats third birthday coming up next month I thought I should let you know that after three years of hard work it is still in great condition and the best dive boat possible for our environment. With the experience of three years use we find it difficult to suggest improvements, so congratulations to you and your designer. Our aim now is to move up to your new 15 metre boat, which we hope to do next year.
Regards,
David Wright
PADI Master Instructor 102647
A.S.S.E.T Scuba Technician
Thanks for all your help and assistance.
You r 1 of the good guys Ray.
Cheers
Andrew Jarrett
Tiger Catamarans
www.Tigercatamarans.com.au
Hello Ray,
Sorry for such a late reply but internet has been playing up enormously since our arrival.
We received all your parcels yesterday and are off down to the Marina in an hour or so.
We would like to say a big thank you for the extremely professional way you have treated our problems. If you manage to come to Natai during one of the periods that we plan to be down here we would be delighted to invite you for a meal, lunch or dinner. In the meantime we will not hesitate to spread the good word about the experience we have had as I think it is very rare for anyone to go to so much trouble for "customer satisfaction"
Best regards
Vincent & Vanya Poisson
poissonvincent@gmail.com
Phuket, Thailand
It was the year 2008 when we decided to buy a new boat again. First of all it was meant to be very safe and comfortable for our customers. The purpose of the boat was to be used for transfer from Koh Samui to Koh Tao and also as a dive boat.
In the years before we had a common speed boat. Unfortunately this kind of boat does not really fulfil our needs for the conditions in this area and the long distances we have to go every day in the open sea.
We invested a long time of searching for the right boat. It was after around six month of investigation when we read about Ray and his Austhai Marine Catamarans the first time. On the paper the concept of these boats convinced us as they achieve the best results of comfort, cost of purchase and maintenance, safety and procedure of building the boat.
In June 2008 we met Ray the first time. He is a wonderful guy and a real old school gentleman. It means a lot to him to built solid boats and realise the wishes and needs of his customers. He never got tired answering to our many detailed questions. He always tried to think through our ideas answered them with impressive expert knowledge and often he came with ideas that would fit our needs better then our ideas.
We paid Ray a visit in Pattaya at his manufactory. What can we say; we were impressed by the high level of professionalism. Everything had its place; every workplace got its machines and employees. The visit made us sure that we found the right boat builder.
The boat was ready one month earlier than agreed. We went to Pattaya again where the catamaran already was waiting for us. Already the first test drive made us very happy and content. Ray indeed built the boat we wanted for our customers.
The captain has a good overview over the boat; the passengers are sitting comfortably in seats behind him. Also the boat got a lot of loading space.
Now nine months later, we had a look at the boat again. With the same result like the first time! It's an outstanding good boat for daily usage. Small cracks here and there are the result of hard work and not always mindful staff. But that's small thing, insignificant and easy to resolve. The seats are of great reliability, not even one had any problem. Same applies to the electrical and electronic system. There was only one switch we had to replace. The integral stainless steel is of high quality, all is painstakingly processed, no branching cracks or whatsoever.
Mr. Ray and his team made a good job of it and built a great boat. In fact we are that convinced about Ray and his boats that we ordered another catamaran. We are looking forward to get it soon.
CALYPSO DIVING,
Hi Ray, Austhai 6200 Cabcat Sao & Warren Spence
Now about the boat, I am very pleased with it. Weather was poor the whole time I was home but still spent 5-6 days out on it, it certainly handles well, the winds were blowing up a really good chop and the cat wasn't phased at all, in a 1-1.5m wind assisted chop was still able to cruise at 17-20 knots directly into it with no loss of comfort., so was really happy with the way it handles. Still need to play around with trimming it in good conditions but seems that peak performance was achieved with engines trimmed fully down, although always had a full load of fuel and water, also need to put some though on loading to ensure as much weight is carried forward as possible. Cruise speed was approximately 20 knot with full load in good water, and got it up to 30 knots WOT.
The canopy extension looks great and works wonderfully, a good idea of yours to move the rod holders to the rear as well. Deck wash is great, missus is happy as well with a toilet, only on the water 30mins and she tried it out. I am happy with the trailer, it tows great, although heavy to pull up laden, but price of brakes over here is offputting.
All in all a nice boat, has a few marks and was definitely neglected by the previous owner. It will be well loved from now on though. By the way both engines started first turn of the key and never missed a beat the whole time, would have done between 15-20 hours on them. Will keep you informed and take a few photos when home next month, weather will have settled by then and time to get into some serious fishing and island hopping.
Regards
Warren
27th March 2011
To take two small 8 metre power boats across 420 miles of open water and out of site of land one has to be either stupid or
have faith in the builder and the boat. As a very experienced professional delivery Captain I like to think I am not stupid and
I did have faith in the boats that Ray and his gang at Austhai Marine manufactured and we were going to deliver from Phuket
in Thailand to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.
The two brand new Austhai 800 Widebody Dive Cats that had missed the scheduled ferry service to India had meant that the
owners,Barefoot Scuba India, would be loosing valuable high season business so they contacted World Yachting to deliver
them as quickly as possible.
After being delivered by truck from the factory overnight to Phuket it was a matter of getting them in the water, checking them
over and then out for our first test 'drive' and straight away we could see that they performed in every way that the builder
and owners had said they would.
With full tanks (600 litres), a further 650 litres of fuel in 24 plastic containers plus 30 litres of oil filling up the cockpit, we set
off early one morning under a blue sky, a gentle sea with a forecast that promised more of the same for the next few days at least.
For the first few hours and still in sight of land we changed out boat speed on the hour, checking our fuel and oil consumption
before we could think about turning our noses north west. Being brand new engines they needed time to bed in
and consequently our oil consumption was a lot more than we had calculated and so a detour was made to
Ban Thap Lamu where we bought some more oil as well as topped up with fuel. As it turned out the oil wasn't needed.
At 2115 hours completely black apart from the shore lights and the flashing red and green channel buoys and with the aid of
the Garmin chart plotter we made our way out, rounded the headland and set our course for Port Blair. At first we motored
at a conservative 8 knots because of the many unlit fishing and Tsunami buoys, bits of flotsam even fallen trees which needed
constant concentration to avoid as they can be a potential disaster in the making if we hit them.
Once clear though, the engines now bedded in we opened her up to 15 knots then as the sky turned from black to grey increased
our speed again this time to 22 knots. After 10 hours with nearly empty tanks it was time to transfer the fuel from the
containers to the main fuel tanks using a small plastic syphoning tool. Slow and at times messy as we had to top up with a
funnel all that the syphon had left in the containers. The clean fresh air smell now being replaced by what one experiences
at most Shell or BP garages around the world.
A quick swim to clean and refresh ourselves and with 200 miles to go, enough fuel and oil to make it, a sea that was still calm,
blue skies, clear horizon, our boat speed now increased to 25 knots which was easily maintained throughout most of the day.
Steering couldn't be any easier, she almost steered herself, and it only needed the odd twitch at times with two fingers to help.
Rest of the time we just sat back, listened to the music, looked out for dolphins, flying fish, watch the miles being ticked off,
taking it in turns to be the lead boat, taking photographs eating our pre-made rolls and fruit, everything was just perfect.
The Andaman Islands came into view about an hour before the sun set and at 30, sometimes 35 knots we approached Port Blair,
called up Port Control who directed us to the anchorage where we rafted up together to await the Immigration and Customs
people to come aboard and clear us in.
Shortly the owner of Barefoot Scuba India, Samit, together with his agent and all the officials arrived including one
Naval Officer in an immaculate white uniform. Under the lights of two tiny hand held torches, a boat full of empty
petrol drums, perhaps 15 people all crowding in whatever available space there was, the formalities and paperwork
were all done so amazingly quick and efficiently. Full marks to everyone involved because all of this was done outside
of the normal working hours of the departments.
In conclusion, the engines installed were 175 HP Evinrude E-Tecs. At 4100 rpm we could comfortably cruise at 25 knots
using about 32 litres of petrol and just a little over a litre of oil per engine per hour. For the first 12 hours the oil consumption
was about twice this. Throughout the whole trip we experienced no problems, the condition though were perfect.
We did do some wave jumping as we passed a couple of fast moving merchant ships but we just cut through the
wake as if it wasn't there. The whole trip was easy, never felt endangered being so far from land and these tiny
little work boats will certainly perform and do any job they are asked of them.
Graham Harris (Captain)
World Yachting
www.worldyachting.biz
More to come..