Maintaining or upgrading a superyacht takes time, preparation, and plenty of money. In this article, we take a closer look at what superyacht owners need to know about how to maximise efficiency on their yacht upkeep.
Regular Maintenance
Refitting your superyacht can be quite a chore that keeps your asset off the sea for months on end. When investing in a new superyacht, it is important that you choose (or build) a yacht with an aesthetic that you are going to be able to love for years if you want to avoid needless refits.
Another method for keeping your yacht out of the yard, however, is to have timely maintenance planned and actioned. By taking care of your yacht’s integral systems, the likelihood of them suffering a large enough breakdown to require a full refit is lessened.
If you are yet to purchase a superyacht and are still considering the luxury, it may be worth considering that Forbes believes the annual upkeep of a superyacht to approach 10% of the initial purchase. The bulk of this cost goes to dockage fees, crew salaries, taxes and gas prices. It makes sense, then, that a thrifty superyacht manager would seek to cut costs where they can, such as marine supplies.
Our marine supplies offer superior cleaning power at competitive prices, from big name brands such as Hadex, Unitor and Gamazyme.
Opting for a Refit
Beyond general repair faults that necessitate the upheaval of a superyachts main infrastructure, there are other reasons why you might opt for a full refit before one is due. If you aren’t constructing your own yacht from scratch, for example, you might want to do a refit so that you can put your own stamp on the ship’s interiors.
Alternatively, new developments in technology may also convince you that a refit is necessary for your yacht to continue as the embodiment of luxury travel. Upgrading your entire ship to smart technology might be most efficiently completed in a yard, for example.
If your ship suffers a structural integrity issue that is going to take it off the sea for a while, it may also be in your best interests to start implementing any design changes you were contemplating.
For many yachts, it is necessary that they undergo a survey and recertification process every five years. If the ship has a reason to go to the yard anyway, it makes sense to combine this time with a planned refit.
Planning Your Refit
Committing to rework any object of great value is going to take some serious planning, and perhaps more so when that object needs to be watertight and safe. The time it will take to refit your ship depends on the nature of your ship’s current issues, the difficulty of your requests for any changes you need to be made, and the overall size of the ship.
With this in mind, it is not uncommon for a superyacht to spend the better part of a year trapped in the yard. While the nature of a superyacht refit demands a lot of time, there are some things that can be done to hurry the production.
The first and most vital action you should take is to plan. A good plan will foresee potential hurdles that will slow the refit down and will outline what else can be done during those moments to ensure maximum productivity.
Start Early
Any aspect of a refit that is going to interfere with the image of the ship’s interiors is going to require conversing with the ship’s owner. As such, it is always good to start the conversation much earlier than the work is scheduled for. This will enable you to work out any kinks that might slow down the refit later on in the process.
For example, if re-wiring the electrics in one of the main living rooms requires the refit team to pull up the floorboards, then the owner might consider that an opportunity to lay down a new floor. It will be much faster if such ideas are planned in advance so that all the materials can be collected early on. Such careful planning and conversation is also required to settle on an accurate quote for the cost of the refit.
In all large plans, there is a possibility that not all will be feasibly achievable. For this reason, it is also important to discuss the main goals and plan heavily around those.
There’s a lot to be considered when ordering in a refit, but it’s clear that conversation between the owner, captain and the yard is the most important. Once your ship is back on the water, don’t forget to get in touch with us about our marine supplies so that your ship can show it’s best face in the years ahead.