Private | |
Industry | Shipbuilding Training |
Founded | 1996 |
Headquarters | Chittagong, Bangladesh |
Key people
|
Yves Marre Managing Director |
Products | Floating Hospital, floating ambulance , fishing boats, transport boats, |
Owner | Yves Marre |
Website | http://taratari.org/ |
TaraTari shipyard was founded in 2004 in Bangladesh by the French sailor Yves Marre. Supported by the French NGO Watever, it aims to develop a modern, safe, and responsible nautical production industry in the country.
In 1994, Yves Marre sailed his barge from France to Bangladesh. There, he and his wife Runa Khan founded an NGO called Friendship to provide health care in the area. They converted the barge into a hospital to provide healthcare to isolated people in the north of Bangladesh.
In 2004, Marre founded the TaraTari shipyard for Friendship's needs, aiming to build a second floating hospital and two ambulance catamarans with fiberglass. The catamaran "Emirates Friendship Hospital" was inaugurated in 2008.
In 2004 Marre also met Marc Van Peteghem, co-director of the naval architecture agency VPLP. This gave rise to numerous collaborations, including the NGO Watever. Van Peteghem designed a floating ambulance for TaraTari, which was produced in two units to support the "Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital" and the "Emirates Friendship Hospital". Van Peteghem also helped Marre design the first fiberglass prototype of a "Masdoris", a traditionally-shaped fishing boat from Kuakata, Bangladesh. These new boats were safer and more sustainable than wooden ones, with a lifetime of more than 20 years.
In 2010, TaraTari convinced the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the FAO, of the need to improve and renovate traditional Bengali boats. The organization put the shipyard in charge of the production of the first 25 of the country's fishing boats made of fiberglass. With the delivery of 35 more units to the FAO in 2012, TaraTari also trained fishermen in the use of the new boats.
In 2011, UNICEF ordered 7 transport boats of the "Mandoris" type for carrying children from the islands of Kaptai Lake to school. These boats have transported over 7,000 children per year.