March 2020

Do not expect too much of Chandleries (marine supplies). There are few locally-owned sailing yachts and the dominant local pleasure boats are large sports fishing boxes that fill the marinas. Chandleries accordingly are large on fishing gear, wet toys, cleaning materials and kit for larger diesel engines and light on sailing bits and pieces. There are branches of Abernathy at La Playita and of Centro marine and three others including a Volvo dealer at Flamenco.

In Panama City we found Max Industries at Millenium Mall. They are known to taxi drivers as Pescaros and are heavy, marine hardware suppliers, especially to the fishing industry. Not phased at all by request for 25m of 5/8 nylon rope for anchor springs or for Phospho de-ruster, which they had in stock.

Previous Noonsite reports say that life raft service in Panama cannot be done. However, in the Duty-free Zone Viking have their own brand operation. Oceanco Panamax seem to have sorted out their operation and my Givens lifebuoy and another similar seem to have been well serviced. I saw mine inflated and left overnight for a leak test. The CO2 cylinder was hydraulically tested and refilled and the time-sensitive renewables were all available from stock. The repack was notably better than my last service in Thailand.

There is also a service company for rafts ‘Servico’ on the Pacific side.

Panamax will also sell you 20 litre drums of Jotun big ship antifouling for under $900, perhaps the best hard antifoul that you can not normally buy for yachts. On Scraatch it lasts 5 years.

Kitty and Brian Simm
SY Scraatch (Sundeer ’56)

January 2018

Recommendation for electrical repair (Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Cristobal, Panama City, Balboa + La Plaita Marina and Anchorage), see https://noonsite.wccstaging.com/Countries/Panama/Panamamarina/port_view#1516216830366841

August 2017

Report on ship supplier in Panama

I’d like to pass along the following positive experience that we had with a ship supplier in Panama.

Professional Ship Suppliers (Contact Emilio Lau +507 6616 7531 or www.proshipsup.com [Broken Link]) is a highly experienced supply outfit. Emilio knows Panama City and Colon backwards. If you’re repairing, replacing, or doing routine maintenance he’s the guy to call for transportation to the correct stores. He saved me $600 on batteries and even took the old ones to be recycled. He knows the suppliers that the big boys use.

Emilio is 30ish, speaks fluent English (he lived in Detroit for several years) and is an engineer…he’s also very personable and not pushy.

Services offered include provisioning/grocery runs to the big supermarkets, grocery orders and delivery to your location. Transportation/pick up to or from the airport. Custom searches for hard to find items, as well as ordering parts.

The guy is very efficient, friendly, and he’s not even expensive. I’d really suggest you give him a call before you get into a taxi safari.

Duncan and Irene Gould

SV FOX (a Leopard 40 cat, lying Playita, Panama)

We just sailed up from Bahía in Ecuador, enjoying the ITCZ and its wonderful lightning displays along the way. BTY we have no commercial connection with Professional Ship Suppliers other than as satisfied clients.

December 2016

Repair Services at Shelter Bay Marina

Greg ‘The Engine Whisperer’.

Greg van Wyck is a Canadian having been in the marina for some 6 years. He is a licensed aircraft engineer & mechanic with great experience & knowledge of yachts. He can help you with engines, generators, refrigeration, air-conditioning, fuel polishing & small outboards. He has seen it all before & his slogan of ‘there are no problems, only solutions’ has developed out of spending much time correcting the marina boatyard’s errors. He works independently of the marina.

Rudy Essenburg is a Dutch cruiser in the marina. He has great knowledge & experience regarding electrical & navigation systems and we highly recommended him.

SY Spent

16 September 2014

Carpenters in Balboa

I would like to recommend some excellent carpenters in Balboa. They have done so much great work on our 78-foot wooden schooner. The did structural, cabinet making, decks – basically all. It’s a family run business and I love these guys. I dealt with them for over a year and never had a problem.

They are offering their services in Balboa, Vacamonte, Colon and wherever else they are needed.

Pitty Carpenters Panama 

Panamanian family business

Ivan (Father and Manager), Spanish only: Tel 6131 0326

Cristian (Son), Spanish and some English: Tel 6667 8016

Edwin van Gorp

24 April 2014

Recommendation for Panama (Cristobal and Panama City sides)

We have now been in Panama for just over 2 months and had a whole series of things done to the boat (again…). Hereunder some recommendations:

Electric work: (already mentioned by some cruisers, but not on your main list): Tom Valentin, excellent marine electrician, and there aren’t many around anywhere. Mail: th.valentin@gmail.com. Phone: 66662598 He speaks excellent English

Also, the marina employs a Frenchman (Pieric) both for electric and electronic work. He is quite busy but very competent, particularly to solve difficult electronic issues (he sorted out a complex series of issues related to my Simrad/computer/GPS network which I had been working on for several months).

Rigging: An excellent man, based in Panama City, but will travel to Colon: Mike (New Zealander). He is a very experienced rigger and the agent for several top brands of rigging. Mail: marinescene.marina@gmail.com. Phone: 67276722

Diesel engines: Greg, already mentioned by previous cruisers is excellent with diesel engines and outboards.

Hydraulics: Protecsa did an excellent job on my hydraulic keel. Based in Panama City, but will travel to Colon. Mail:taller@protecsa.com.sa. Phone: 2253533. The general manager, Robert Souter speaks excellent English.

Fire extinguishers: Firemaster de Panama in Panama City. Service extinguishers on the same day at very reasonable rates. Tel: 2360880

Sail repairs: Roman Porsche is based in Port Lindon but will travel to Colon or Panama City. He is German, very thorough, and reliable. Mail: tanoa200@yahoo.de Phone: 67920895

There is another sailmaker setting up shop at Shelter Bay Marina, with a loft on site, but we have not tested him as he was setting himself up by the time we got our sails back from Roman. He lives on his yacht in the marina (Yacht Kafeoli).

Liferafts – to be noted: Most brands of life rafts CANNOT be serviced in Panama. Cruisers who plan to cross the canal better sort out their life raft before getting here, as the alternative to send the raft back to the US is both very costly and time-consuming.

Watermakers: Also, nobody services watermakers competently

Other info: Another note is the incredible lack of services generally in this place, where everyone needs to prepare their yacht before embarking on what will be the longest crossing ever for most. Finding parts or qualified technicians is a real hurdle course, and it is a lot easier to prepare the boat in Trinidad, Martinique or Saint Martin prior to coming to Panama.

Importing parts: Lastly, my experience with Pakya, recommended by Shelter Bay Marina to import parts into Panama was very bad. Marine Warehouse, also recommended by Shelter Bay Marina, provided a much better service at a decent price.

Olivier Meurzec – SY Mary Ann

March 2014: I want to inform the yachting community about a top notch Electrical Engineer who is working both in Shelter Bay Marina (Colon – Panama) and out of Panama City/Balboa.

He is the first seriously professional electrical trained person that I have encountered in many years of cruising. This is the first time that I have bothered to make a comment about a Trade here or anywhere.

Name Tom Valentine.

His Company: Marine Electric

E-mail: th.valentin@gmail.com

Tel: 507 -6666 2598

D. Laurin, S/Y  Vimy (March 2014)

29 December 2013

Recommended Marine Engineer

Hello Noonsite,

I have had a wonderful experience at Shelter Bay Marina repairing engine problems caused by the taking on of contaminated fuel in San Salvador, Bahamas.

Greg Van Wyck has lived on his boat at the marina for a couple of years and is a gifted mechanic—one of those rare craftsmen who have an intuitive sense diagnosing mechanical problems and a sure touch in solving them in an appropriate way.  His card calls him the engine whisperer and that is not an exaggeration.  He worked on my engine for four days, methodically working through all the issues patiently and took it from failure (we had to be assisted into the marina with no functioning engine) to fully capable.

I highly recommend him to anyone at Shelter Bay who is in need of assistance.  His help is much in demand locally, and it is well worth being patient until he has the time to address any problem.  His email is dutchdreamers@hotmail.com.  He doesn’t pay attention to his cell phone but gets messages at 6479.4070.

Todd S Thompson

S/v Elcano.

27 January 2013

Recommendation for Panama engineering and electronic repairs

We had some technical problems in Panama while waiting to start our Pacific crossing and engaged this small company to help us out.

From their website, it appears they would like to specialise in big ship jobs, but they appear to be able to handle or find somebody to handle just about anything in the electrical, electronic, refrigeration, mechanical department.

They re-machined a salt water pump, went right through our mechanical and electrical refrigeration systems and eventually found the problem. They did some re-wiring fitting safer more reliable switching for our central heating system. They removed and thoroughly tested our B&G autopilot, deciding eventually there was nothing wrong with it but that it was not correctly programmed.

They were extremely efficient and reliable, reasonably priced (you are expected to haggle on these), very polite and competent people and we would like to recommend them to anybody in trouble in Panama or Colon.

Company: SEETECMAR MECÁNICA INDUSTRIAL

Contact person is: Deenys Guzman

E: seetecmar@gmail.com

M: + (507) 6694-1465 and +(507)698 293 61

www.wix.com/seetecmar/seetecmar

Ian McCallan