Boats for export: the boatyards already on the coast building fishing boats and launches for the countries around the Indian Ocean, not only for the home fleet

A first step

Visit two boatyards on the coast and ask what fishing boats and launches they build, at what price, and whether they have ever sold one abroad. Ask the country's export board which countries around the Indian Ocean buy boats of that kind. Take photographs and a price list of one model to two buyers or agents there. The proof is one firm enquiry at a price the yard can meet.

Who pays first

A fishing company or harbour in a nearby Indian Ocean country that needs boats and pays for one built to its order.

What leaves today

The yards build only for the home fleet; boats sold abroad bring foreign money in for the same skill and the same slipways.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, for the buyers in Hong Kong and Singapore
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster