Each month, on the southern end of Phuket, a group of cottage-industry leaders meet to discuss business. In most other industries, in most other markets, their counterparts would jealously guard the kind of information that these gentlemen instead happily share. Rather than consider themselves competitors, however, they believe working together is the best way for each to achieve higher quality in his own work. In the process, they are quietly bringing a new prosperity to this part of the island.

Some years back, Chalong Bay was one of the most popular moorings for yachts travelling the region – and, to a certain extent, it still is. Sailors enjoy its peaceful, small-town atmosphere, its collection of quaint restaurants and bars, and the access to good quality craftsmen when they need to refurbish their craft. In fact, many liked it so much they quite forgot to leave. This all changed in the mid-1990s with the introduction of punitive taxes on the import of foreign vessels. Those either unwilling or unable to pay 205 percent of the value of their boats were forced to move on, and the forest of masts in the bay thinned considerably.

At a time when the yachting industry was booming in almost every other destination around the world, Chalong resembled a ghost town — its restaurants and bars struggling or failing to survive, its craftsmen forced to look elsewhere to make a living.

But out of all this adversity came new hope. Although the import taxes — greatly reduced just a year ago — had put an end to Chalong’s freewheeling days as a port town, their imposition was also a contributing factor in the development of its boat-building industry, particularly catamaran construction.

Fast in light winds and with a shallow draft (the depth of the craft beneath the waterline), sailing cats are ideally suited to the waters around Phuket. And Chalong makes an excellent site to launch such craft, although why Chalong became home to the three principal catamaran builders on the island probably had as much to do with the camaraderie stemming from their connections with the Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC), as with any lack of other reasonably priced and otherwise suitable locations around the island.

Gunther Nutt, whose yard sits a couple of hundred metres back from the ACYC clubhouse, was the first of the three to get into cat construction. This former cabinetmaker from Liechtenstein is best known on the island for his work on the Meroja, an 85ft ketch based on the 130-year-old Howard Chappell "Carida" design, launched on Phuket in 1998 and now plying local waters as a charter vessel for Thai Marine Leisure. He has since established an international reputation, however, as a builder of James Wharram’s classic multihull designs.

When we met at the yachtie hangout Suda’s this past August, Gunther was in an especially good mood. He’d just splashed his latest multihull, a beautiful Wharram’s "Tiki" 30-footer, built to order for Castaway Cats, a new bareboat and day-sailing operation on Koh Phang Ngan, in the Gulf of Thailand. Though there had been the usual teething troubles with the rigging and whatnot, the first day of ocean trials had more than proven the cat’s worth.

"We were pulling 7 to 9 knots in 13- to 15-knot winds. It was amazing!" said Gunther, raising his Carlsberg for another toast. Gunther’s team of 11 Thai workers — many of who have been with him for much of the past 7 years — have made quite a name for themselves as builders of Wharram’s multihulls. Nok-Talay, Castaway Cat’s 30-footer, will be the seventh completed to date. The advantages of this design, which draws its inspiration from traditional Polynesian craft, lie not only in its speed and spaciousness, or that the plywood and glass-fibre craft can be disassembled for easy overland transportation, but in its relatively low cost of construction. Gunther boasts he can splash a cat similar to Nok-Talay for as little as 1.2 million baht (about US$30,000) — making it an ideal first boat for the new charter operation.

Guy Cummins, the second of Chalong’s big cat builders, has also just recently splashed a new multi — a 16m Derek Kelsall design customized to suit the owner’s specifications. (This boat, Kia Ora, is coincidentally also heading for the Gulf, this time Koh Samui, to work as a day-charter vessel.) Guy’s cats are geared towards conspicuous comfort and amiable pleasure cruising boat-building company, as the name of his company — Boys’ Toys — makes fairly obvious. The old motto "He who dies with the most toys, wins" comes to mind when looking at the work going on at the Cummins’ yard.

Built from the latest in durable Swiss foam and a ply and glass-fibre composite — materials favoured by all the cat builders — this large craft still only draws 1.3m, and even less when at speed, thanks to the semi-displacement hulls that literally lift the cat out of the water as it proceeds either under sail or under the power of its twin Yanmar motors. The Harken mast, imported from New Zealand, came with its own team of engineers to help with installation. As Guy explained, they were as excited to see what was happening in Phuket’s cat-building industry as they were to be able to enjoy the pleasures of the island for a few days.

Guy also made sure that plenty of local materials went into the cat’s construction, however. And the whole task would have been impossible without the dedicated efforts of his team of nine workers. "They’re amazing," said Guy, as he showed me around the cat currently under construction. "When we started, they’d never worked with these kinds of material before. They’re all ex-rubber tappers, truck drivers and farmers, but a year here and now they’re experienced boat-builders. Their attention to detail is fantastic. These guys are talented."

Cummins’ admiration for his Thai work crew — something shared by his cat counterparts — is more than reflected in the sleek lines of their workmanship. They have indeed created a fine vessel in Kia Ora. "We’re hand-building boats here on Phuket that far surpass the quality of many factory-built craft out of Australia or the West — using modern designs, modern materials and local talent. These cats wouldn’t be at all out of place in a European port."

On the day this writer visited Guy at his yard, the third member of the Chalong triumvirate, Mark Horwood, had dropped by Boys’ Toys to swap some yarns, cadge a loan of some equipment, and borrow back something he’d lent Guy a few days earlier. This kind of easy-going attitude is what sets the cat builders apart from competitors in other industries. Says Mark: "We’re all working on very different types of boats for different kinds of customers. It’s in our best interests to pool our knowledge and support each other."

"I’ve had customers come to me for Wharrams, and I’ve sent them to Gunther, because I know that’s what he does best," concurs Guy. "Boys’ Toys wants to specialize in big pleasure cats. As for racing … Well, we leave racing to Mark. That’s something he really does very well."

A hop, skip and a jump from the Boys’ Yard lies Horwood’s Latitude 8 Yachting, where he and his partner, designer Mark Pescott, have turned out a number of very fast cruising cats in the last couple of years. The two Marks haven't in any way limited themselves exclusively to cats, mind you. They’re currently eager to get to work on a series of eight-foot sports boats specifically designed for Phuket and specifically built to fill the gap left by the demise of the Farr Platu One-Design race series. Nippy little craft from John Duncanson’s original design, the Phuket Sports 8 will also be able to berth up to four people (an advantage over the old Platus) but, more significantly, will be a racing boat that Phuket will be able to call its own — an important step in the island’s boat-building evolution.

But how many of these new craft the Marks and their workers can produce depends on when their busy order book for cats clears up. Latitude 8 had hardly launched its first two high-performance cats (see Phuket Magazine Vol. 11 No. 8, for more on this) before the yard was filled with work on two more. Pescott’s Whitehaven, Summerhaven and large Oceanhaven designs have certainly caught the imagination of cat lovers

With orders already sailing in from the Gulf of Thailand and beyond, how long will it be before interest in the Phuket cats spreads around the region? And then the world? But the cat people aren’t getting big-headed. By all indications, moreover, they don’t seem very interested in increasing the size of their individual businesses, preferring a small but perfectly formed approach. In fact, it seems that what they would most like is for other boat-builders to bring their own expertise to the island to create a series of small specialist yards, all of them using the special talents of the local craftsmen to develop a distinctive hand-crafted yachting industry. "Something is going to happen here for sure," Gunther Nutt says as he looks out over Chalong Bay, "It’s going to boom."