Covid-19 status in Vietnam
As of July 27, 2021, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health documented a total of 109,055 cases of COVID-19 and 68,271 cases in Ho Chi Minh City (where we are located) with an increase over 3,000 cases per day. However, 21,340 of the total patients have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals. From 9th of July, Ho Chi Minh city has been put under strict lockdown where all residents are to remain at home except when seeking medical care, working in essential industries, or purchasing essential goods. Nonessential gatherings are limited to two people, public transportation is suspended. Then the Government decided to extend the restriction from 18 July on 16 southern localities including Ho Chi Minh city and the Mekong Delta region under this strict social distancing measures for another two weeks.
As of today, Jul 27, 4,807,674 vaccine doses have been administered, with 309,791 people fully vaccinated. Vietnam aims to secure 150 million doses of vaccines to immunize 75 percent of its population by the end of 2021. (ref: https://tiemchungcovid19.gov.vn/ – Government portal for Covid-19 vaccine information)
The current situation at Seawind Catamarans
While Vietnam survived 2020 with very few COVID cases and fatalities, the last few months has seen the DELTA variant enter the country and spread rapidly through the community. With many of the worlds developed nations now recovering from the COVID pandemic, a very slow vaccine rollout in Vietnam now has the nation reacting to the very issue many of our friends abroad were faced with over the last 12 months. Recent tightening of intercity travel has forced us to close our gates to transiting visitors and staff. We have erected on site accommodations for roughly 30% of our team who have volunteered to continue working on priority projects to ensure we stay ahead of customer orders and prevent delays where possible. The good news, is that we have worked hard over the last 12 months to get ahead of our scheduled deliveries. And we believe that the swift and severe level of this lockdown should see us back in action in 3-4 weeks which shall enable us to continue to deliver vessels on or slightly ahead of schedule.
Last weekend whilst operating under these conditions, two boats (Seawind 1160 & Seawind 1260) were shipped to Miami, both ahead of schedule and were able to meet their booked shipment thanks to the dedicated team who have volunteered to remain on site for the duration of this lockdown.
Supply Chain
We were fortunate to have been well stocked with materials prior to the outbreak in 2020, and swift procedural adjustments have enabled our team to continue to supply boats on time despite the supply teams workload expanding tenfold. This has us ordering much larger volumes of equipment far in advance of ideal requirements. An engine for example would currently need to be ordered 9 months prior installation in order to be installed on time without delay.
Whilst our stock levels and forward orders are carefully monitored and are well within required levels at this stage we are aware that any new part orders shall be delivered with longer lead times that we would typically expect to see. We are therefore asking all owners with boats under construction to finalise all options choices 6 months before start of construction to enable us to forward plan and ensure all goods are delivered on time so we can continue to deliver your boats on schedule.
Our Customer Service team is now all working remotely, remaining on call and are standing by to help with any inquiries or requests for support.
My 1600 is due in December. The most important thing is quality of the build, NOT on time delivery. I want to know what options I have when changes are needed from your standard build materials, labor, time or options.
Not sure if it will help, but I want to get into Viet Nam as soon as possible to inspect my 1600. When I can do so, I will be open to bringing anything that would help with the assembly of my boat as well as others. Could be special fittings, screws, hardware, anything that would help. I do this often when I travel to other countries my boats my be in.
Let me know.
Thx, Scott
Thank you Seawind Production Team for your dedication and sacrifice to keep production going. I hope everyone stay safe and healthy during this difficult time until vaccine is more widely distributed in Vietnam.