For Services and Resources in French Polynesia
The Tahiti Cruisers Guide is brought to you by Julien Desmont from Xperimental and Chuck Houlihan from Jacaranda. Starting as an idea based on the very successful Panama City Cruisers guide, it has evolved into 200+ pages of information on vendors and services throughout French Polynesia. In January 2018, we added GPS coordinates and links to Google Maps to assist in locating businesses.
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Especially thankful to John (SV Mary Ann II) and Steve (SV Ocean Star) for their huge effort in supplying a vast amount of information for the guide.
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Last update: 24 Mar 2023
Rigging Wire & Supplies
Mat Rigging Service
2022-05-02 03:25:56 UTC
Island: Tahiti
Mat Rigging Service
+689 87720502
matriggingservices@gmail.com
Jonathann Morvan
Has a van to come to your boat with swedging machine.
5-2022 SV Aroa I placed an order about 7 months ago for a complete change of the standing rigging on our catamaran. We paid a substantial deposit of 50% for this service. The material that was supposed to arrive 2 months after the order took 5 months to arrive. A logistical problem and a pandemic was an acceptable explanation at the time. But since then my opinion on the matter is very different. In December, worrying about our order and after many reminders, I finally understood that Jonathann Morvan was waiting for the customs clearance of an order that in the end had not even left his supplier!
03-2022 SV Tiama I wanted to make a strong recommendation for Jonathann Morvan (Matt Rigging, matriggingservices@gmail.com / cell 87720502). If you have rigging work or just an inspection, he is a conscientious and honest professional. He replaced my martingale on my Switch 51 catamaran and am perfectly happy with his work.
+689 87720502
matriggingservices@gmail.com
Jonathann Morvan
Has a van to come to your boat with swedging machine.
5-2022 SV Aroa I placed an order about 7 months ago for a complete change of the standing rigging on our catamaran. We paid a substantial deposit of 50% for this service. The material that was supposed to arrive 2 months after the order took 5 months to arrive. A logistical problem and a pandemic was an acceptable explanation at the time. But since then my opinion on the matter is very different. In December, worrying about our order and after many reminders, I finally understood that Jonathann Morvan was waiting for the customs clearance of an order that in the end had not even left his supplier!
As we were due to leave Tahiti in mid-February, Jonathan Morvan assured us that our rigging would be changed by then. Once again the deadline was not met. On the other hand, we obtained that the intervention be done 1 month later on Raiatea in conjunction with another intervention that he had to do on an Outremer.
Once again the deadline was not respected. The owner of the Outremer threw in the towel and gave up his deposit to deal with a more serious rigger.
At the end of March I tried to find out the status of my order because he was no longer answering my calls or emails. My questioning on different forums made him react and he explained to me that he was very busy and was still waiting for the clearance of the goods. By deduction I found and contacted the different parties involved and in 2 phone calls I understood that the material had arrived for 1 month and a half and that his forwarding agent to whom he owed money had been trying to reach him for quite some time already. By confronting him with his inaction and by pressing him to solve his problems, I managed to get him to recover his goods. By digging a little I understood that I was unfortunately not the only one to have suffered his incompetence and that his qualifications of rigger had been "acquired" at the time of the repurchase of the company Mat Rigging because before Jonathann Morvan was commercial for a shipyard. On the other hand, it seems that he is looking to resell his company and that he works in parallel in the administrative staff of a charter company. So when he proposed me to plan the beginning of the works I said stop. If he took almost 7 months to manage the material, the formula "start of the work" makes me fear the worst and I don't want to block our boat for I don't know how long while being completely dependent on his goodwill. As it seemed obvious that he was unable to reimburse our deposit, I offered to compensate him by supplying the material for our rigging. This he accepted. Unfortunately, thinking finally to be out of this nightmare, after still multiple postponements to validate the delivery of the material I have again no more news of him.
I therefore decided to file a complaint for fraud however I also wanted to warn potential victims of his actions with this message
01-2022 SV Konbreo Sadly I had a similar experience. Materials taking months longer to arrive that promised, no communications or updates, and when the parts finally arrived he’d had ordered metric not imperial! A basic error that a professional rigger should know. It was a complete failure that lost me 3 months of cruising. Then it took a further 4-5 months to get my 50% deposit back and only after threatening legal action. MAT rigging used to be a quality business when Mathieu owned it. Johnathan bought it a few years ago and from what I know is not a trained rigger. He is simply trading off the previous good name of the companies original founder. I highly recommend waiting until you get to NZ or Oz for any major upgrades or unless is small very basic work find yourself any another rigger!
03-2022 SV Tiama I wanted to make a strong recommendation for Jonathann Morvan (Matt Rigging, matriggingservices@gmail.com / cell 87720502). If you have rigging work or just an inspection, he is a conscientious and honest professional. He replaced my martingale on my Switch 51 catamaran and am perfectly happy with his work.
12-2020 SV Barracuda of Islay
Mat Rigging have just replaced all our rigging and we are happy with the work done by Jonathan and his colleague Julien. They did the work at the technical pontoon at Marina Taina which has much better space and facilities for rigging work (rather than at Papeete). The timescale was very much driven by the time it took to import wire, furlers etc from Europe which slowed us down - so worth making sure you have agreed and checked the full spec and equipment requirements at the outset. Once everything finally arrived they did a good and efficient job.
11-2020 SV Tintamarre
Jonathan Morvan carried out a complete re-rig for Tintamarre. Initially this was just a replacement of our inner Ds. Jon did a great job, and we went ahead with the rest of the boat. This was not the most efficient way to carry out the work, as for each order we had to wait for the parts to be delivered in to him from Europe, (so you can be sure the components are new stock) and then for weather and Jon's availability (he is a busy man). He did a very professional job, and we are pleased with the work done. My only criticism is that he didn't always stay in touch as well as I would have liked...but actually, once he knew this was important to me things improved. Work is certificated.
9-2020 SV Influencer
We used Mat Rigging for replacement of a V1 and D2 at two different times. The work performed was of a high quality and fair price. We found Jonathan to be reliable and a pleasure to work with. He went to great lengths to obtain parts during the lockdown crisis due to Covid 19.He speaks and writes fluent English.
3-2020 SV Shiraz
I can recommend Jonathan Morvan now the boss of Mat Rigging. Jonathan speaks good English. He ordered a stainless steel fork toggle for our forestay. It came from the Netherlands, not China. He and his coworkers did a thorough and professional repair.
Mat the rigger has sold his company and sailed off with his family.
Jonathan Morvan has taken over. He's a young French guy who lives on a yacht in the Papeete marina. Keeps the same business contact details as Mat.
10-2019 SV Amilie
We were recommended Matt Rigging Services when in Marina Taina, again he seemed constantly booked up, when we contacted Polynesia Yacht Services(PYS) we were on the schedule and it was worth the 10% fee charged for going through Laurent.
10-2019 SV Panache
Mat has a reputation as the best rigger in Tahiti. We had him inspect our rigging. He found several issues. The manufacturer replaced the parts under warranty and Mat did the installation. The inspection was 20,000XPF but money very well spent
10-17 SV Fandango Ian mentioned on the SSB Poly Mag net that he had great results with Matt re-rigging his boat. The prices were fair and Matt came in under his original quote. Ian said it was less than he would have paid in NZ.
1-17 SV Jacaranda We used him. He showed up at the boat when he said he would and charged us his quoted price. Good guy and would recommend him