Southern Caribbean (SOCA) Sailboats Limited, was founded in Trinidad, in 1996 by Paul Amon, an Englishman and experienced craftsman. It's modern, fully equipped, 27,000ft² facility is located on the outskirts of Port of Spain, only minutes from the two major ports and the international airport.

Soca's first project, the tooling and production of the Henderson 30 Sportboat, in collaboration with Henderson Yacht Design has been an outstanding success. This boat won the 1997 'Sportboat of the Year Award' from Sailing World magazine attesting to the fine finish and high quality throughout, all for a reasonable price. It has won accolades from all of the major sailing publications in the USA and United Kingdom as well as winning nearly every major regatta in the USA.

In August 1998 Paul Amon and Glenn Henderson jointly obtained a US Patent for the VARA Rudder System they designed and developed at Soca. This rudder system is exclusively used on the Henderson 30 and complete systems have been retrofitted to several other models of  boats, improving their performances in all cases.

In 1998 Soca produced a modified version of the Henderson 30. By removing the running backstays, making the bow pole non-articulating and reducing the roach on the mainsail the CSA handicap was reduced and the boat was made extremely simple to sail. This boat was selected over the competition by Merriweather Racing of the UK to race charter in the Caribbean, boosting its presence at these regattas.  Over 30 Henderson 30's have been built by Soca, 70% of them going to the USA and 100% being exported. In mid 1998 Soca Sailboats was one of the winners of the Primeminister's awards for export.

In October 1998, Soca set up a new division, SOCA Spars, building Carbon Fiber masts, booms, bowpoles and other custom components from the most advanced prepreg laminates. These items are cured in their, 80', custom built, computer controlled oven, before final finishing for export. Production in this division is run by Herve Devic, who's recently joined the company bringing with him a wealth of knowledge in composites manufacture and resin infusion.

March 1999 saw the launch of of the first custom Henderson 35, which has been campaigned with great success, throughout the Caribbean. Fully equipped this boat comes complete with Vara Rudder System, custom keel and carbon spars all built with pride at Soca Sailboats. The Henderson 35 is another fine example of Soca's commitment to fine fit and finish, attention to detail and high quality, at a reasonable price.

April 2000 we delivered the first LS-10 to the Great Lakes area, this boat is the original S&S Tartan 10 with a modified deck and cockpit with the original hull and rig design. Built to the same weight and hull specifications, these boats have been approved and accepted as a class-legal T-10. This boat has a host of welcome changes including a bubble cabin, swim platform and drink-holders in the cockpit, to name a few.

September 2003 Soca Sailboats launched the custom built Reichel-Pugh 44 called "Storm" This represented the pinnacle in technical achievement at Soca. Storm was built entirely from Carbon firber and Herex foam in SP Systems Ampreg 22 epoxy. All parts were vacuumed consolidated and post cured in the oven at Soca's fully equipped facility. Storm has gone on to win many major regattas in the Caribbean and the United States and remains to this day one of the fastest and technically advanced sailboats of her size in the world.

By 2004 Soca partnered with Melges performance sailboats to develop and build two very different racing machines. The first being the Melges 17 Scow designed by Reichel-Pugh. Soca built all the tooling for the M17 as well as the first 50 boats before shipping the tooling to Melges for them to continue producing the M17 in their own facility in Zenda, Wisconsin. To date nearly 100 of these high performance dinghies have been sold with strong one design racing support from Melges. The result of the second collaboration between Soca and Melges is the Melges 32. This rocket ship is that has many of the standard Soca features including a re-designed CRO engine system and a new and highly evolved VARA system. The boat has already taken off in the U.S as a One Design Class and there are also a few boats in Europe. With over 30 of these boats built in the first eighteen months of production, the signs are that the Melges 32 will be a big name in One Design racing in years to come.

With our competitive labour rates Soca Sailboats is the perfect choice to take on your custom build projects in a full range of materials. Whether it be One-Off limited run production or full production, all including the building of all necessary tooling.