Yacht delivery from Phuket: Langkawi, Singapore and beyond

Most yachts that leave Thailand go one of three ways: north-west to Langkawi, south down the Malacca Strait to Singapore, or further afield to Hong Kong, the Indian Ocean or the Pacific. Each route has its own weather window, its own paperwork and its own list of things that go wrong when they are left to the last minute. This guide sets out what a delivery on each route involves, so you can plan the timing, or hand the whole job to a professional delivery team and know what they are doing on your behalf.

First, the season

Thailand’s west coast has two seasons that matter to a delivery. From November to April the north-east monsoon settles the Andaman Sea: light winds, flat water and long clear days. This is the season for moving boats along the Andaman coast and across to Langkawi, and it is also the charter season, which is why boats are repositioning into Phuket in October and November and out again in April and May. From May to October the south-west monsoon brings rain and a westerly swell to the Andaman coast; passages are still made, but they are planned around weather windows rather than the calendar, and the Gulf of Thailand side, Koh Samui and Pattaya, is the calmer water.

Which is why a good delivery quote comes with a weather plan as well as a price. We sail to the window, not to the date.

The weather plan also sets the number of days in the quote. For what else goes into the price, see how much a yacht delivery costs.

Phuket to Langkawi: the short one

About 150 nautical miles. A motor yacht cruising at 10 knots does it in a long day; a sailing yacht plans one overnight, often with a stop at Koh Lipe. Boats go this way for a yard period, for Langkawi’s duty-free fuel and storage, or simply to reset their time in Thailand, and it is the passage owners most often ask us to do at short notice.

• Leaving Thailand: port clearance from the Harbour Department, immigration departure for everyone aboard and customs export clearance, all at the port of departure. Crew list, registration, insurance and passports are the working documents.
• Arriving in Langkawi: clear in with the harbour master, immigration and customs in Kuah. Arrive in office hours, with copies of everything, and it is done in an afternoon.
• The catch: the boat must clear out of Thailand with the same crew that clears in to Malaysia. If the owner is joining or leaving part-way, it has to be planned around the clearance, not after it.

Phuket to Singapore: the Malacca Strait

Roughly 550 to 600 nautical miles. Allow three to four days for a motor yacht and five to seven for a sailing yacht, plus a day at each end for clearance, fuel and weather. The strait is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, which is the strongest argument there is for a proper two-person watch schedule: someone rested and licensed at the helm all night, every night, while the other keeps the engine room honest. Fishing fleets, unlit nets and squalls that build in the afternoon are the everyday hazards; a single-handed delivery skipper on night three is the one nobody talks about.

• Fuel: plan the stops before departure. Langkawi is the usual top-up on the way south; further down, the west-coast Malaysian marinas serve fuel by arrangement.
• Singapore: arrival is notified to the port authority ahead of time and the boat clears at the designated immigration anchorage before going to a marina. Get the notification wrong and the boat waits at anchor while the paperwork catches up.
• Insurance: some policies exclude the strait or require a named crew and a passage plan. We confirm cover before we leave and send the insurer what they ask for.

Further afield: Hong Kong, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific

Phuket to Hong Kong is about 1,900 nautical miles via Singapore and the South China Sea, and the timing is governed by the typhoon season in the north (roughly May to November) as much as by the monsoon in the south. Westbound, the Indian Ocean crossing to the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the Red Sea is a north-east monsoon passage, December to March. Eastbound into the Pacific is a different scale again: weeks at sea, no yard to call and every engineering problem solved aboard, which is precisely the experience our two captain-engineers bring, having sailed the remote South Pacific where you really are on your own.

Ocean passages are where the shore side earns its keep. A Designated Person Ashore takes the daily position and status reports, keeps the owner and the insurer informed, arranges the fuel, berths, parts and flights at each stop, and is on call around the clock if the boat needs a decision from shore.

What every route has in common

• A pre-departure inspection and a written condition list, so everyone knows what is aboard and what state it is in before the lines are slipped.
• Servicing before she leaves, not after she breaks: oil, filters, impellers, belts, anodes, steering and rig checked, with a delivery spares kit picked from stock so the passage never waits for a part.
• Paperwork done in the right order: crew visas, port clearance, customs and immigration at each end, and the manning requirements of the boat’s flag met on paper before anyone asks.
• A record at the end: log, fuel and engine hours, anything found and what was done about it, handed over with the boat.

If you would rather not run any of that yourself, Drake Marine’s two-man captain-engineer delivery team is based in southern Thailand, works these routes in both directions, and will send a written quote within one working day. Send us the boat, where she is, where she needs to be and when.

Book a delivery: Langkawi · Phuket · Singapore, each with a quote form, or the main yacht delivery service page.