# Building a boat in Turkey



## christinekling (Aug 8, 2015)

My husband and I intend to build ourselves a new boat out of aluminum. We would like to do part of the work ourselves and hire workers to do some of the rest of the work. We are looking for a country with reasonable labor rates, highly skilled workers, reasonably leased commercial or industrial property, and access to high quality materials, especially beautiful woods. It also must be a place we would like to live for several years. Turkey is looking good to us in this regard.

What are skilled labor wages like for welders and carpenters compared to the US? What is the tax situation on locally bought goods and imported goods?

Does anyone on this forum know anyone who is building a boat in Turkey to who they could refer us?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Christine


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## sailor1999 (Aug 21, 2015)

Hello Christine. I am a boat owner myself and live in Istanbul. I am Turkish and long time sea farer. I used to be a Captain Merchant Marine. My boat is fiber (A Jeanneau 439) I myself have been interested in buildng my own boat in Aluminum. So your request has been quite interesting to me. I have done few searches on this. I must say that building aluminum boats are not very common in Turkey. Turkish yards have been popular for building fiber, wooden and steel yachts, even super yachts. So the material and labor is cheaper compared to other European countries. Aluminum builders do also exist and I think it will be more common in future as well. I had found one particular yard which had posts for a newly built aluminum boat. But I never made inquiries about it, as I don't currently intend to build an aluminum boat but in some future time. I had bought my current boat two years ago. So I will be using that boat for some more time. What sort of boat do you like? A sailing boat or motor boat?


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## christinekling (Aug 8, 2015)

Hello sailor1999,

Thank you very much for your response to my query. I'm so happy to meet another sailor. We are currently in Fiji on our 52-foot custom steel motorsailer called LEARNATIVITY. I have sailed for over 40 years and owned mostly fiberglass boats, but when I met my husband, he had this steel boat and I have come to appreciate metal boats. I am now 61 and my husband is 62, and we are becoming more and more interested in building an ocean-going, passage-making power boat that would have at least a 4,000 NM range. This would be a boat that could do some of the canals in Europe, but also cross the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.

We visited Turkey in spring 2014 (I am a writer and I was researching a new book). We got the chance to sail with friends of ours from Finike to Kas on their Catalina 42. After we left their boat, we visited many other harbors and marinas along the coast by bus and on our own. We fell in love with your country. We saw amazing boats that had been built there - not just the tourist gullets, but all different sorts. Bodrum and Marmaris were unbelievable. Now we have learned that there is this free-trade zone in Antalya for boatbuilding and many builders are moving there. We know that it will take us several years to build this new custom boat, and we are so interested in Turkey because of the great skilled labor force you have there and also because it would be a great place to live for several years.

We found one interesting company that specializes in aluminum boats there - Harman Yachts. They are in the Antalya free zone and they are building some beautiful sailboats. That might be the company you saw before. The photos on their website of their facility look like it is incredibly modern and state of the art.

We are investigating all possibilities, but probably, in order to afford this new boat, we will have to do lots of the labor ourselves. We are interested in perhaps finding a yard that can help with the design and modeling as well as building the hull and deck. Then we would move the boat to a less expensive location and install the systems and finish out the interior ourselves. There is another company in Izmir that we are interested in ]Asboat Yacht Building. It appears they build steel boats. I don't know if they would build an aluminum boat.

If you are interested in reading my blog about our travels and all, you can Google (moderated) to find my blog.

Christine


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## sailor1999 (Aug 21, 2015)

Hello Christine

It was Gia Yachting whom I had seen as aluminum boat builder. I have also dropped a message at your blog.

Take care

Erdinc


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