Osmosis treatment, composite and GRP repair, paint, joinery and full refit project management.
Written by Daniel Mercer, Boating & Yacht Ownership EditorLast updated
A refit yard is judged on three things: whether it can physically handle your boat, whether it can project-manage trades under one roof, and whether it finishes when it said it would. The physical side is simple to check and frequently gets missed — hoist or travel-lift capacity in tonnes, beam and draught limits, air draught to get under a bridge or crane, covered undercover space long enough for the mast, and hardstanding that will take the boat all winter.
The management side is what separates a yard from a collection of contractors. Serious repair work — a grounding repair with structural laminate, osmosis treatment and re-epoxy, a teak deck replacement, a spray re-paint in polyurethane, engine removal and re-bed, steel plating on a narrowboat bottom — needs sequencing, dust and temperature control, and someone answering for the whole job rather than each trade blaming the last.
Insurance repairs bring a fourth party. If the work is covered by a claim, the yard will be quoting to a loss adjuster, and the scope is what the adjuster accepts rather than what you would like. Yards that handle claims regularly are worth the premium: they know how to document the damage, price to the schedule and get authorisation without a month of correspondence.
Confirm hoist tonnage, keel-and-cradle arrangements, maximum beam and draught, and whether undercover space is available for the months you need it. A yard that can lift you but not store you is only half a solution.
Ask which work is done by the yard's own staff — laminating, spray, joinery, engineering, electrics — and which is bought in. Subcontracting is normal, but you want one contract and one person accountable for the programme.
For paint and structural work, ask which systems they are approved to apply. Warranty on an Awlgrip or International topcoat, or an epoxy osmosis treatment, usually depends on an approved applicator following the specification.
Refits overrun because the scope grows. Get the initial work fixed-priced, agree an hourly rate for extras, and insist that anything beyond the scope is quoted and signed off before it is started.
For grounding, fire, storm or collision damage, choose a yard that regularly works with loss adjusters and can evidence the damage properly. It shortens the claim and reduces what you end up paying yourself.
Ask for two recent projects like yours and go and see them. Photographs at each stage, a written progress update routine and a realistic completion date are all reasonable to demand before you hand over a deposit.
The heavyweight refit capability sits on the South Coast — the Solent, Poole, Portsmouth and the South West — where you will find the largest travel-lifts, undercover paint bays and superyacht-adjacent trades. The East Coast has excellent traditional and timber expertise, often in smaller tidal yards. Scotland and the Clyde serve the West Coast cruising fleet and the commercial sector, and the Midlands and North are where steel narrowboat over-plating and blacking is a routine, well-priced trade rather than a specialism.
Winter is refit season, and that is not a coincidence: paint and epoxy need temperature and humidity within specification, which in a UK yard means a heated undercover bay from November to March. Book the slot in the autumn — the good covered space in southern yards is committed months in advance.
Yard labour typically runs £55 to £95 an hour plus VAT, so scope drives everything. As rough bands: osmosis treatment on a 35-footer £8,000 to £15,000, a full topside spray £6,000 to £20,000 depending on size and system, a teak deck replacement well into five figures. Always price lift-out and storage separately.
More than the yard's first estimate. A straightforward winter list is six to ten weeks with the boat ashore; anything involving paint, structural laminate or engine removal is a full October-to-April programme, because curing and drying time cannot be compressed.
Many yards allow owner labour, some restrict it, and a few ban it outright for insurance reasons. Ask before you book, and check whether DIY antifouling and hot-work rules apply — they usually do.
You normally can, but the insurer's loss adjuster has to accept the quote and scope. Get your preferred yard to quote early and send it in; a yard used to dealing with adjusters will handle most of that conversation for you.
For structural repairs or a significant refit, yes. An independent survey gives you a defect list to quote against and a baseline to check the finished work, rather than relying on the yard both to diagnose the problem and to price the cure.
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