56 JUNE–JULY 2019 | International Boat Industry ibinews.com
Markets & Regions
REPORT | SUPERYACHT SECTOR – REFIT
marine railways of 4,000 and 1,000 tonnes,
and some 500m of berthing.THE CARIBBEAN
Among the key centres are Antigua, the
Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe.
Antigua Slipway Ltd in St Johns, a
Caribbean sailing hub, has the ability to
repair and refit superyachts up to 45m. In
Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, Bradford
Marine Bahamas is a well-known company
servicing the superyacht market and able to
handle superyachts up to 90m or so.
On the islands of Martinique and
Guadeloupe, IMM (International Marine
Management) has over recent years
established facilities in Guadeloupe and St
Maarten. The former offers a 55m-long dry
dock with alongside working on superyachts
up to 200m or more. With its newer base
at Isle del Sole base in St Maarten, IMM
is among the most active superyacht refit
service providers in the Caribbean.
Across the Caribbean region meeting the
needs of cruising and charter superyachts,
there are a series of shipyards offering
a range of services to cope with repairs
and maintenance. These include Curacao
Marine in Willemstad, the IBC Shipyard in
the Dominican Republic, Grenada Marine
and Spice Island Marine Services in Grenada,
Subbase Dockyard in St Thomas in the
USVI, and Peake Yacht Services in Trinidad.
A major facility is operating in San Juan
in Puerto Rico – namely, the Port Caribe
Shipyard & Marina. This company runs two
refurbished facilities and brings together a
marina area in Old San Juan Harbor and the
former Isla Grande US Navy shipyard.
The marina area of Port Caribe, located
between Piers 6 and 9, offers over 1,600m
(5,000ft)-plus of deep-water quays for both
alongside and Med style stern-to berthing.
The stern-to berthing will go up to 110m
(361ft) with alongside going as large as
required. The nearby Isla Grande shipyard
includes a 200m (660ft) dry dock, 457m
(1,500ft) of quay, and a 40-acre hard-stand
area for working on yachts ashore. The
private investment in Port Caribe amounts
to over US$70m.
In Cuba, the French Nautech Group
operates a facility in Havana, Cuba which
can accommodate superyachts up to 150m.
It also has a base in Martinique.SOUTH AMERICA
With the growth of explorer and expedition
yachts, the southern extremity of SouthAmerica is an increasingly popular cruising
area. There are shipyards but few with
experience of working on superyachts.
In Chile, one exception is Alvoplast
SA, a yard in Valdivia that is able to
handle superyachts up to 40m. In Brazil,
superyacht-builder MCP Yachts also has
some capacity for performing repair and refit
work on superyachts. MCP Yachts occupies
an area of around 10,000m² between the
cities of Santos and Guarujá and which
represents some of the most modern
shipbuilding infrastructure in Brazil.
The company headquarters consist of
a design bureau, administration offices
and multi-purpose sheds for aluminium
processing, carpentry work and the building
and finishing of vessels. The yard’s on-
water facilities include a 150-tonne travel
lift. This new site was designed to increase
the company’s construction capability
and simultaneously provide maintenance
services for the luxury yacht market.SOUTH AFRICA
A superyacht destination in its own right,
and a port of call for superyachts on various
routings, Cape Town is, without any doubt,
a strategic location. In superyacht new-
build terms, it is also the base of the famous
Southern Wind sailing yacht brand.
A recent indicator of the potential that
Cape Town could hold as a superyacht
repair and refit centre was shown when
two superyachts, one a new Southern Wind
105ft vessel and the 43.3m Royal Huisman
aluminium sloop Sea Eagle, were both in
the Robinson dry dock. This fuelled talk
of the potential for Cape Town to be a
superyacht repair, refit and maintenance
centre.ASIA PACIFIC
The Asia-Pacific region, promoted over the
past decade or more as the world’s third
superyacht cruising area, is slowly moving
down that road. Some 50 to 75 superyachts
a year are now visiting this huge region
and with the Olympics in Japan next year
and the America’s Cup in New Zealand in
2021, a significant increase in the number of
superyachts could result.
There are fears over adequate support for
visiting superyachts, but across the whole
region from Tahiti and Fiji in the east to
Mauritius, the Maldives and the Seychelles,
there is a network of repair and refit
facilities that can meet a substantial part of
the demand there would be.SINGAPORE
As the marine hub of South East Asia,
Singapore is well served by several shipyards
which in the main deal with commercial
work but with the downturn in the oil
industry some have started including yacht
work to supplement their workload. Among
the regular yards doing superyacht work
are Penguin Shipyard International Pte Ltd
which can work on vessels up to 60m, and
SML Shipyard which can handle superyachts
up to 125m.PHILIPPINES
The main superyacht refit yard in the
Philippines is HYS Yachts located in Subic
Bay which is a yard known for its conversion
projects of usually commercial vessels into
superyachts. Last year the company invested
in a new floating dock with a lifting capacity
up to 500 tonnes or vessels of 45m in length.THAILAND
With Thailand having ambitions to attract
more superyachts both for cruising and
charter, if a new foreign-flag charter licence
is introduced, then its shipyards will face the
prospect of handling more superyacht work.
Currently the Boat Lagoon Marina shipyard
in Phuket is one that can provide a range of
services but new capacity is being developed.
The Phuket Superyacht Shipyard is due
to open soon and it will provide a facility
with an 820-tonne travel lift and 40,0000m^2
of hardstand. It will be able to accommodate
superyachts up to 65m. A second new facility
is due to open in Krabi with a 700-tonne
travel lift, which is a project of one of
Thailand’s commercial shipyards.INDIA
India is in the very early stages of developing
its yachting industry but for any superyachts
choosing to visit the country a facility in
Mumbai operated by the West Coast Marine
Yacht Services Pvt Ltd can provide repair
and refit services. The yard is able to handle
superyachts up to 70m.AUSTRALIA
With an expectation of more superyachts
visiting the Asia-Pacific region and plans
for a foreign-flag charter licence hoped to
be implemented later this year, Australia’s
superyacht refit companies are in
expansionist mood.
In Cairns, where two out of the
three main shipyards actively work on
superyachts, BSE Cairns Marine Slipways