Yacht Refit Manager
The refit manager takes a yacht into the yard and gets her back out on the agreed date, at the agreed price, with the work signed off. Most come from senior engineering or command roles at sea. The job is part project manager, part negotiator and part surveyor. You spend most days walking a hull in Barcelona, La Ciotat or the Netherlands with a clipboard.
The jobWhat fills the day
The work starts months before the yacht arrives. You collect the work list from the captain and chief engineer, add class and flag survey items, write the specification and send it out to tender. Then you compare yard quotes line by line, negotiate rates and agree a schedule. Once the yacht is hauled or alongside, you run daily coordination meetings, track every subcontractor, approve or push back on variation orders, and report cost against budget to the owner or management company each week.
You might work for a refit yard, for a management company or directly for the owner. Each side sees the job differently. Yard-side refit managers protect the yard's margin and keep the dock moving. Owner-side managers protect the budget and quality, and challenge every extra. On a 40m yacht a winter refit might be eight weeks and a few hundred thousand euros. On a 90m+ yacht with a ten-year survey, you could be managing a twelve-month project worth tens of millions with hundreds of contractors aboard.
Yards and management companies hire people who have lived through refits from the crew side. Former chief engineers are the most common, followed by captains and chief officers with technical experience. Some come up through shipyard project coordination or naval architecture. What gets you hired is a record of refits delivered and the ability to read a specification, a Gantt chart and a class report with equal confidence. Languages help. Spanish, French, Italian or Dutch will get you further in the yard.
Many start as assistant project managers or refit coordinators. Others move straight ashore after years as chief engineer. With a few large projects behind you, the next steps are senior project manager, technical yacht manager or new build project manager, where you supervise a build from steel cutting to delivery. Some go freelance as owner's representatives and charge day rates. The pay is lower than a senior engineer's tax-free salary at first, but you get a home life and a pension.
Skills employers look for
- Refit specification writing
- Tender and quote analysis
- Budget and variation control
- Class and flag survey knowledge
- Subcontractor coordination
- Project scheduling
- Commercial negotiation
A working dayWinter refit week, 62m motor yacht in a Barcelona shipyard
Walk the yacht before the trades arrive. Check the overnight paint booth, the shaft seal job in the engine room and the deck caulking.
Daily coordination meeting with the yard project lead, captain, chief engineer and subcontractor foremen. Agree today's access and hot work permits.
Review three new variation orders. Approve the stabiliser seal replacement, query the hours on the guest cabin joinery and send the third back for a fixed price.
Meet the class surveyor for the tailshaft inspection and record the findings for the survey file.
Lunch with the captain at the yard canteen, mostly spent on the redelivery date and the crew move back aboard.
Update the cost tracker and schedule. Two items are running late, so rework the sequence with the yard planner.
Call with the management company and the owner's family office to report budget against forecast and flag a likely overrun on the AV upgrade.
Final walk round with the yard's quality inspector to snag finished areas in the main saloon.
Back at the flat. Answer emails from the Antibes office and draft tomorrow's priorities.
Pay by experienceAnnual salary. Estimates. Bars share one scale.
Salaries are taxed shoreside. Many roles add a project completion bonus, a car or housing during long yard periods, and freelancers bill day rates of roughly 600 to 1,000 EUR. See the Refit, Shipyard & Project Management salary guide for figures from live adverts.
Qualifications
Must have
- STCW Basic Safety Training
- Proven superyacht refit experience
Gets you hired
- MCA Chief Engineer (Y1-Y4) or Master CoC background
- PRINCE2 or APM project management
- IOSH Managing Safely
- ISM / ISPS internal auditor course
- Spanish, French, Italian or Dutch language
Where it leadsA typical career path
Yacht Refit Manager jobsOpen now on SuperyachtRoles.com
Questions crew ask
Do I need to have worked at sea to become a refit manager?
Not always, but it helps a great deal. Yards and owners trust people who have been the chief engineer or captain on the receiving end of a refit. Shipyard coordinators and naval architects do make the move, usually after several years on yacht projects.
Where are most refit manager jobs based?
Around the main refit yards. That means Barcelona, Palma, La Ciotat, Marseille, Genoa, Viareggio and La Spezia in the Mediterranean, the Netherlands and Germany in northern Europe, and Fort Lauderdale in the US. Expect to live near the yard during projects even if your office is elsewhere.
How does working for the yard differ from working for the owner?
A yard-side manager sells the work, keeps the dock busy and protects margin. An owner-side manager or owner's representative protects the budget and quality and challenges every variation order. The technical knowledge is the same, but the loyalties and the daily arguments are reversed.
Will I earn less than I did as a chief engineer?
Often at first, since shoreside pay is taxed and a large-yacht chief engineer earns well tax-free. In return you get regular leave, a pension and a home life. Senior and freelance refit managers on big projects can match or beat sea pay.