Speedboat Charter in Phuket

What speed changes about a day

A speedboat is not a smaller yacht. It is a different way of spending the same eight hours. Where a motor yacht cruising at twelve knots spends much of the day getting somewhere, these boats run at twenty-five to twenty-eight and arrive while the anchorage is still empty.

The practical result is more stops: three or four islands instead of two, and time in the water at each. The trade is real and worth stating. There is no saloon to retreat into, shade is limited to whatever the boat has above the seats, and in chop a light hull at speed rides hard. Speedboats suit an active day, not a lazy one.

Ten boats from ฿18,900

Kiri Long-tail 40 from ฿18,900 is the lowest rate in the whole catalogue: a traditional Thai long-tail for eight, from Chalong Pier. Limpopo Axopar 28 from ฿21,000 takes four, with a Seabob aboard. Monterey from ฿41,000 takes six at twenty-seven knots. Axopar 37 LILA from ฿59,000 has a full-length shaded roof and takes six.

Jeanneau Cap Camarat 10.5 from ฿65,000 has a grill station on the aft deck for eight. Sacs Strider, the smaller of the two Italian RIBs, from ฿70,000, reaches forty-four knots with eight aboard. The larger Sacs Strider from ฿85,000 seats twelve — the only rigid inflatable here that takes a group that size. Nimbus T11 from ฿115,000 is the only speedboat with cabins, sleeping four overnight.

AQVA 37 from ฿33,900 takes twelve at twenty-five knots, and Al Dhaen 38 Vice from ฿38,900 cruises at thirty with eight aboard. Both leave from Chalong Pier.

Four to twelve guests, and no more

This is the tightest capacity range of any category, and the ceiling is firm. Twelve is the maximum on the largest boat here, and above that the answer is a power catamaran or a motor yacht rather than two speedboats. For two people, the cheapest private charters on this site are Kiri Long-tail 40 from ฿18,900 and Limpopo from ฿21,000.

For a family of four to six, the Axopar and Monterey. For eight, the Jeanneau, the smaller Strider, Vice or Kiri. For a group of ten to twelve, the larger Strider, Nimbus or AQVA 37. Because the numbers are small, these boats are also the easiest to book at short notice.

Two piers: Boat Lagoon and Chalong

Seven of the ten are berthed at Boat Lagoon Marina on the east coast. From there the sheltered water is close: Phang Nga Bay, Khai and Naka, Koh Hong, the Koh Yao islands. At speed those become short hops rather than passages, which is why a half-day charter on a speedboat is a real trip with time at anchor rather than a transit with a swim at the end. Kiri Long-tail 40, AQVA 37 and Al Dhaen 38 Vice leave from Chalong Pier in the south, closer to Coral Island, the Racha islands and Phi Phi.

Overnight, shade and children

Three practical limits worth knowing before you book. Only Nimbus T11 sleeps aboard, and only four people; everything else here is a day boat. Shade varies from a full-length roof on the Axopar to none at all on the RIBs, so for a long afternoon ask which boat has cover before you compare prices.

And with small children a catamaran is markedly more comfortable than a speedboat at speed — child-size life jackets are aboard, but the ride is the ride. For a short trip in calm conditions a speedboat is fine with children; for a full day it usually is not.