Changes at Pantawee for Jack Hall & Hans Christian

[rick_bradshaw]

I had reason to email Jack Hall the other day with a question. The answer I received was completely unexpected. His daughter posted and told me that Jack had retired in February due to illness.

Further, the Hans Christian line has been discontinued at the same time and will/are no longer produced. Later this year they will be taking down the HC web site. They will continue to produce multi-hulls and and others and pursue other projects.

I tried to get a little more info about my issue and more but no other answer was forthcoming. There was no word if they have or will sell the moulds or whether they will be destroyed or just left to sit in the jungles of Thailand. There was a company in the EU that had tried to work with Hans Christian a couple years ago but I don't know if they are still doing that or not.

[lonesome_boatman]

Hi Rick
That is bad news about Jack and his illness. I meet Jack and visited the yard several times about 6 years ago and he appeared to be in very good health. Jack and his Thai wife live on and own the land that is Pantawee Marine. Jacks wife was also very hands on in the yard and hopefully there will be no urgency to dispose of the moulds. It appeared when I visited the yard that Hans Christian's were becoming a lesser part of the business with a 33 and I think it was 41 being built at the time. Their was also a HC Offshore Explorer 465 ready to handed over to the owners. I got the impression that HC's were not the core business of Pantawee but more general boat building and marine work. Their were numerous over jobs in the yard at the time including a offshore racing power boat. We can only hope that someone steps in to take over the HC manufacture. Attached a photo of the HC 33 mould.

[wildswan]

I saw a post on Facebook the other day shared by Hans Christian Yachts EU that was a letter sent from Jack to Craig Beckwith and Slobodan Bobo Varga about the closing of yard. I'll post the letter below. Also I see on Jack's Facebook page, he has a few of the molds for sale. I'll share that below as wel.l I know Bob Varga owns and operates HC Yachts EU, and it appears he will still build a few boats. I know he sells quite a lot of custom items for the boats. It is a sad day indeed, but impressive that they have lasted this long.



Dear Craig and Bob,
After extended discussion and soul searching the Pantawee family unanimously wishes to announce the company has formaly ceased production of the entire range of Hans Christian Yachts due to many reasons but main considerations have included zero sales of new completed builds for nearly 4 years in a row, aging / health and retirement issues of key staff (including myself) and another major factor is that the molds are completely unusable without need for extensive repairs to both molds and finished boats alike except perhaps for the 33T.
Molds were already in deteriorating condition when we inherited them from Andersen Yachts Ltd in 2004 but 13 years later they are now terribly osmotic, non-tooling type gelcoat (very typical of early Taiwanese built molds) flaking off in large chunks on deck molds in particular and generally now all well and truly beyond their usable life. Again, the exception is the 33T molds.”
Hans Christian Yachts Europe has taken over the production of the HC33, and will continue to offer it, together with HC48TW and 41TW built in cold molded technique, strictly as a custom build.
However, Jack & HCYEU continue their efforts to support the owners of Hans Christian range all over the world.

FOR SALE
Fiberglass molds for two models of now discontinued Hans Christian sailboats For Sale by current Pattaya, Thailand based boat builder / owner who is retiring from building mono-hulled boats and clearing site for other kinds of business.
The two models are as follows;
1. Molds for Hans Christian Yachts 38MkII sailboat with 180 boats built through the years - price for these molds very cheap @ Thai Baht 100,000 only as is / where is.
2. Molds for Hans christian Christina 43' sailboat with 35 boats built through the years - price for these molds also very low @ only Thai Baht 250,000 as is / where is.
Both sets of molds include molds for hull, deck, rudder and other miscellaneous fiberglass components for each design. Copies of some basic scale drawings including sail plan and general layouts can also be provided.
Can also assist with transportation arrangements if required as well.
For enquiries or further information please e-mail pmar1@bkk3.loxinfo.co.th or call Miss Sucheela on mobile number 089 074 0257

[andyv94]

Does anybody have Craig’s or Bob’s emails?