Long gone are the days when only the well-heeled could afford to hire a boat and explore the islands of the Andaman. A wide range of options now allow virtually anyone, no matter their taste or budget, to get out on the water and enjoy an activity once reserved exclusively for the ้lite.

You can hire a private yacht with or without crew. You can board a join-in cruise, a local speedboat or a traditional longtail. You can take a sports boat off the beach, join a package tour, befriend a local yachtsman and share costs, go on a canoeing tour in Phang Nga Bay or even hire a canoe from the beach and paddle off to a nearby island. And � given that increasing numbers of Mediterranean-based superyachts are opting to winter off Southeast Asian shores � even the well heeled haven�t been forgotten Increasingly recognized as the hub of Southeast Asia�s marine leisure industry, Phuket also offers an increasing number of organizing sailing events, and these are accessible to enthusiasts regardless of whether they own a yacht. For those who wish to learn the art of sailing, several companies offer affordable courses, and a local yacht club always welcomes new visitors.

Once you decide to take the plunge, in terms of yachting, you find a good choice of reputable yacht sales and brokerage companies are authorized dealers for most of the world�s most popular sailing and motor yacht brands. Pre-owned yachts are also listed, and Phuket has a reputation for being a buyer�s market for these boats. Ironically, sailors intent on completing around-the-world circumnavigations often find themselves dropping the anchor off Phuket and abandoning the idea as they fall in love with the local lifestyle. So yachts are always on the market, as once-avid sailors opt to become landlubbers.

Yacht broker�s offices can be found at Phuket Boat Lagoon, the Yacht Haven Marina, and the Royal Phuket Marina.

So how do visitors find a boat for hire within budget? Those how come for the sole purpose of a boating holiday usually book well in advance. But spur-of-the-moment decisions are well catered for. Bookings can be made online or by visiting yacht-charter companies based at the Phuket Boat Lagoon, the Yacht Haven Marina, the Royal Phuket Marina or in Ao Chalong Bay, on the southern end of the island.

Hiring a private yacht is the most costly option, but charter companies are competitive, and last-minute discounts are often available. There are far too many companies to list here, but a visit to any of the above marinas gives one a good overview of pricing. Long-established companies such as Asia Marine (www.asia-marine.net), Elite Yachting Thailand (www.phuket-yachts.com), Sunsail (www.sunsailasia.com), Sunnav (www.sunnav.com), Latitude 8 Charters (www.latitude8yachts.com) and Phuket Yacht Charters (www.sea-phuket.com) offer yachts ranging anywhere from 400 euros/day to 18,000 euros/day. Boat specs, prices and conditions are published on company sites.

Since not everyone wants to spend their entire holiday afloat, both sailing and motor yachts can be hired on a daily basis.

And there are much cheaper alternatives. For as little as 50-60 euros, a family can hire a local longtail boat from Rawai Beach and go to Coral Island, a few miles off the southern coast. Boatmen are normally on standby, and a deal can be made on the spot. The boat driver drops guests off at the island and agrees to return some hours later. It makes for a nice family outing, as the snorkelling is good, the white-sand beach is clean and the thatched restaurants ashore give a local tropical island feel. The thrifty are advised to bring food, refreshments and snorkelling gear with them, as prices are very expensive once there. Coral Island is just one of several off-lying islands that can be visited by longtail from Rawai.

From the same beach, 10- to 20-passenger speedboats can be privately hired for around 400 euros per day. Visitors unable to afford the total hire can usually find like-minded tourists willing to share and save costs. With a speedboat one can go farther afield, for example to Koh Racha, two islands lying 15 miles south. The main island has low-key development, and walking tracks through the island gives added attraction. The other of the two islands remains totally uninhabited and pristine.

Speedboat and longtail hire is available near the Ao Chalong Pier and all along the beach past it. The Ao Chalong Yacht Club lies a 10-minute walk along the beach, and on Fridays nights is full of sailors, some of whom operate low-budget trips aboard their yachts. The speedboats operate daily tours to Phang Nga Bay, the Kai Islands, Krabi and Phi Phi, as do companies leaving from the Phuket Boat Lagoon. Prices don�t vary much between companies, and tickets include land transfers, lunch, snacks, soft drinks, national-park fees and snorkelling equipment. A Phang Nga Bay tour, for example, costs around 2,900 baht. A slower, yet far more comfortable alternative, are the daily June Bahtra Phang Nga Bay cruises aboard traditional wooden junks, which are similarly priced (www.asian-oasis.com/june). Speedboat tours can be booked from most hotel desks, local tour agents or on the Internet. One popular website is www.phuket-travel.com.

Dive companies operating from Ao Chalong Pier offer a variety of both live-aboard and day-dive trips. Trips are offered to the Similan Islands and less-crowded dive spots south of Phuket. A day trip can cost as little as 60 euros, including equipment, boat trip, divemaster, equipment, hotel transfers and lunch. These can be booked online, from hotel desks or by making a trip to the pier to investigate possibilities. One of the oldest and most established is Seafarer Divers-Phuket (www.seafarer-divers.com, tel. 089 866-8472).

A large selection of Phang Nga Bay canoeing tour companies offer all- inclusive packages, with or without paddler crew. Phang Nga presents the ideal canoeing environment in a totally natural setting. The dramatic limestone karsts scattered throughout the Bay hide myriad hongs, caves and inland lakes surrounded by towering limestone walls. The oldest of these companies is John Gray�s Sea Canoe (http://johngray-seacanoe.com) who offers eco-tours, sea kayaking and canoeing in little visited locations away from popular spots. They opt instead to go into the well-visited places at night, when everyone else has gone home. Paddling into the inner chamber of Koh Hong, for instance, guests extinguish their torches, make a wish and set afloat banana-leaf baskets decorated by fresh flowers and illuminated by a candle standing in the centre of it. These little craft are known as krathongs, and are set adrift for good luck by local Thais during the annual Loy Krathong festival.

For those who want to explore neighbouring tourists spots amid the undeveloped islands that stretch all the way south to the Malaysian border, it�s easy to catch local ferries. These are very cheap and run daily schedules between islands throughout the high season.

For those into yachting events, Phuket now hosts four annual sailing regattas, any of which are easy to join.

The biggest and oldest is the King�s Cup Regatta, which will be 22 years old this December. It�s held annually over a week that includes the King�s birthday on the 5th. Last year�s event attracted over 100 entries, and boats were crewed by both Thai sailors and others from around the world. You don�t need to own a yacht to compete, since vessels can be hired for the event. Alternatively, crewing positions on private yachts are often available. The Regatta website offers crew-wanted and crew-available pages (www.kingscup.com). Except for the lay day, races are held daily off west-coast Kata Beach, and Race Committee headquarters are based at the Kata Beach Resort. A notice board allows crew postings, and, just by turning up on the beach early in the morning, one can often find a desperate captain looking to replace a crew member MIA from the previous night�s pub-crawl. And if you�re only interested in the parties, nightly party tickets are available at the door for around 1,000 baht per night.

Next is the 11-year-old Purarvana Phang Nga Bay Regatta (PBR), staged each year over Chinese New Year. The four-day race starts and ends in Phuket, with yachts racing to different islands in the Bay and anchoring at different locations each night. Known as the �fun regatta�, its participants place much emphasis on the nightly beach parties, although the racing is still taken seriously. Purists beware: there are no protests allowed in the PBR Regatta, only resolutions. Founded by SEA Yachting publisher John Everingham, the regatta is run by a group of volunteers who have capped entries at 50 boats. Details can be found at www.bayregatta.com.

A series of regattas run throughout the year in Southeast Asia, but for Phuket the next is the SEA Properties Inaugural Phuket Multihull Championships, in July. Organized by the Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC), it�s the only multihull-only regatta held in the region, and this year will be its inaugural year. Held on the 12th and 13th � just a week before Phuket Raceweek � this will encourage sailors from around the region to join both regattas. Contact ACYC Commodore Mick Kealy on 081 396-0785 or race organizer Mark Pescott on 081 079-4794 for details.

The final race of the yearly Asian Regatta Circuit is the Six Senses Phuket Raceweek, held 23-27 July, and based at the Evason Six Senses Evason Spa and Resort, in Rawai. Known as the windy regatta, this event is popular with die-hard racers, as a good steady breeze generally offers excellent racing conditions. Yachts either anchor in front of the resort or farther down in Ao Chalong, and visitors are welcome to join nightly parties. Details can be found at www.phuketraceweek.com.

Finally, for boaters who want to do it themselves, you can learn to sail or, for those already adept, take a course explaining race rules and teaching racing skills. You can even get internationally recognized accreditation that allows you to hire a yacht in much the same way you�d rent a care. Sunsail, for example, offer summer UK Royal Yachting Association (RYA)-accredited sailing courses, starting from around 32,000 baht (call 076 239 057 for more details). Sail in Asia also offer a variety of courses aimed at both sail and race-sailing training (www.sailinasia.com). Across the bay from Chalong, in Ao Po at the Andaman Sea Club, a variety of nicely priced standard or tailor-made courses can be arranged (www.andaman-sea-club.com ).

Whether you�re a visitor, a �boat-less� resident ex-pat, or someone in search of the ultimate exclusive yacht cruise, there�s a relatively affordable, ideal way for you to enjoy the vast marine playground surrounding Phuket.