If your vessel has to be south of the line from November to April, make the layover do some work. Generators, stabilisers, shafts, watermakers and air conditioning overhauled at Gold Coast City Marina, Coomera, so she goes back north in autumn with the jobs done.
5.0 From 28 Google reviewsMarine Solutions Australia carries out vessel refit work on the Gold Coast for owners who bring a vessel south from the Whitsundays, Townsville, Cairns and Port Douglas for the cyclone season. Many insurance policies restrict where a vessel can be kept between November and April, so she comes south anyway. Five months alongside or on the hardstand is the natural time for the jobs that take her out of service: generator rebuilds, stabiliser and thruster overhauls, running gear, exhaust systems, watermakers, air conditioning, a repower.
The refit runs from Gold Coast City Marina, Coomera, with the hardstands and lifts of the marina shipyard and The Boat Works next door, and our own workshop for the parts that come off. Larger vessels are worked alongside: a 54 metre superyacht had both generators removed, rebuilt and refitted at the berth over six weeks. Smaller vessels come out of the water once, and everything below the waterline happens in that one lift.
You do not need to be here. Options and estimates come in writing with photos and video, and the passage north is planned around the end of the season and the weather, with our delivery skipper or with you aboard. Call 07 5612 7161 or contact us with the vessel, where she winters now and what is on the list.
A refit of any size takes a vessel out of use. On the Gold Coast the layover takes her out of use anyway, so the two overlap and the big jobs stop costing you a season. The exhaust overhaul on a RINA-class motor yacht ran ten weeks on the hardstand; the stabiliser fin shaft and bow thruster job, four weeks. Both fit inside November to April with time left for the sea trials.
The yards can take the vessel. The Boat Works lifts to 300 tonnes, Gold Coast City Marina has undercover hardstand, and the two sit side by side on the Coomera River with our workshop at the marina and a second showroom under construction at Pier 25, The Boat Works.
Alongside or on the hardstand · Written options · Skippered passage each way
Booked before the season, worked through the summer, sea-trialled before the passage north.
Tell us the vessel, where she is now and what is on the list. Haul-out dates are booked with the yard early, and the works are scheduled inside them.
Our skipper brings her down from Cairns, Townsville or the Whitsundays in legs via Mackay and Bundaberg, planned around the reef and the weather, or you run her down and we meet you at the berth.
Engineers go through the vessel and the list, then the options come to you in writing with photos and video, costed each way.
Alongside or on the hardstand, with the yard's painters and any other trades scheduled around ours. Parts come from the showroom shelf, local suppliers or the factory, and you see the job as it runs.
Commissioning and sea trials in the last weeks of the layover, with you aboard if you want to be, then the passage home as the season closes.
The vessel's size and the list decide it. Both run from the same workshop.
Superyachts and larger motor yachts stay in the water. Generators, exhausts, pumps and deck machinery come off at the berth and go to the workshop. The twin generator rebuild on a 54 metre superyacht ran this way for six weeks.
Shafts, seals, bearings, stabiliser fins, thrusters, seacocks and antifoul happen together while she is out. The stabiliser fin and bow thruster overhaul ran four weeks on the Coomera hardstand.
Three jobs from the projects archive, each the length of a layover or less, with the weeks they took.
Both main engine exhaust systems on a RINA-classed motor yacht were stripped to the hull flanges during an extended hardstand refit: DN350 and DN400 butterfly valves renewed with E...
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A snapped swim platform strut brought us aboard in the water; the haul-out that followed became a full overhaul of both stabiliser fin shafts, the bow thruster gearbox and the plat...
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Both Muir anchor windlasses on a classic sailing yacht came off for overhaul, and the starboard main shaft refused to leave its gearbox. Heat, a hydraulic power pack and a jack all...
Read the case studyLarger refits with several trades are run as a managed project; see vessel project management. For vessels over 24 metres, the superyacht page covers class work and crew support. Coming from the south rather than the north? That is the interstate boat repairs page.
From the generator rebuild alongside to the fin shafts and exhaust valves on the hardstand, and the passage that gets her here.
The insurer, storage, sea trials, a late season, the passage down and the paintwork.
That depends on the policy, and the wording varies. Some restrict where the vessel can be kept north of a named latitude between set dates, some exclude named-cyclone damage in that period, and some do neither. Read the clause with your broker before you plan the passage. If evidence of where she will be is needed, the marina booking and our works schedule are both in writing.
Berth and hardstand storage are booked direct with Gold Coast City Marina or The Boat Works. Give us the dates and we fit the works inside them, so she comes out of the water once and the time on the stands does the most work.
Yes, and most owners do. Commissioning and sea trials are scheduled with you, usually in the last weeks before the passage north, so you see the systems run before she leaves.
The return passage is planned around the weather and the state of the vessel, not a date on the calendar. If the works are still running in April, the passage moves. If the weather in the north has not settled, it waits. You are told at each decision, in writing.
On her own bottom with our delivery skipper and crew, in legs down the coast via Townsville, Mackay and Bundaberg, with the reef and the weather windows in the plan and a pre-departure engineering inspection before she leaves. We have brought a 75-foot motor yacht down from Port Douglas this way. Or you run her down yourself and we meet you at the berth.
The yard's painters do the antifoul and topsides; we coordinate them with the haul-out so the running gear work and the paint happen in one lift. On the shaft seals job the anodes and antifoul were done by Harbour Force around our work on the shafts.
Didn’t find your answer? Call 07 5612 7161 (Mon to Fri 8am-4pm) or contact us. We’re happy to talk it through.
Tell us the vessel, where she winters now and what is on the list. We will come back with a plan for the season, a timeline and a written quote.
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