What do you need to look at a refit scope?

Vessel basics (length, build year, class and flag), current and planned location, your target dates, the work you're thinking about, and any drawings, photos or recent survey reports. Even a rough scope is enough for a useful first read.

How early should a yard period be planned?

The bigger the job, the earlier. For a survey and paint period in the October to April window, opening the scope review during the summer season usually works. For a major refit with structural work or long-lead equipment, established yards, including ours, are often booked 12 to 18 months out, and a year ahead is not too early.

Can you work with our captain, owner's rep or management company?

Yes. Projects come through all of those structures. We set up the reporting line around the team you already have, rather than forcing one model on every job.

How do you keep open items from slipping into redelivery?

Close-out runs through the job. Testing, inspection, documentation and the snag list are tracked as the work goes.

How does an enquiry usually start?

Usually with a scope review: the vessel, the likely work and the dates, and how the yard period would run to handover. From there we can put a quotation together. To start one, send the vessel details and your target dates through our quote form.

How do you run a full repaint in the winter window?

Full repaints run under cover in controlled temperature and humidity, so the Istanbul winter does not sit on the critical path of a paint programme.

Superyacht Refit and Repair with In-House Yard Control

Q: What does a superyacht refit cost?

It depends on scope, but across our recent projects the structure is consistent: labour is usually 30-40% of the total, materials 20-30%, yard fees 15-25% and project management 8-12%. We also recommend a 10-15% contingency. The biggest variables are fairing extent on a repaint and what the survey finds once panels come off. We price it once we have surveyed the yacht and locked the scope. If you send the vessel details and a rough scope, we can give you a useful first read before any survey.

Q: How long will my yacht be in the yard?

It depends on the package. Recent yard periods here have run from 12 weeks for a guest-area refresh with paint repairs, to 24 weeks for a full exterior repaint with a class survey, up to 9 months for a large interior and paint programme. The longest item sets the date, usually paint or long-lead equipment.

Q: Do you work with class, flag and third-party surveyors?

Yes. Where the package carries class survey items, flag requirements or third-party approvals, we build them into the plan and work with the surveyors attending the yard period. Recent yard periods have run survey items with Lloyd's Register, ABS, RINA and Bureau Veritas attending surveyors.

Q: How do customs and temporary importation work for a foreign-flagged yacht?

Temporary importation of the yacht itself is handled by the yacht's own agent, as is standard practice in Türkiye. Once the yacht is in the yard, customs clearance for parts and materials arriving under ship in transit status is handled by our team as part of the yard period.

Q: What insurance does the yard hold?

The yard carries ship repairer's liability cover, and policy details are available on request. Health and safety runs under our LRQA-certified ISO 45001 system, and our safety records are available to owners' teams on request.

KRM Yacht is a superyacht refit and rebuild shipyard in the Eastern Mediterranean, based in Tuzla, Istanbul. Refit and rebuild is all we do. Our yard takes yachts from 30 to 110 metres. A yard period here can be a five-year class survey, a full repaint, a systems overhaul, a structural job, or all of them at once.

The hard part of a big refit is not any single trade. It is the points where the trades meet: a late survey finding, a drawing waiting for approval, a long-lead item not yet on order. We plan for those before she arrives. One schedule covers the survey items, the workshop jobs and the work on board through to redelivery. Where the worklist goes into her hull structure or her length, the job is a rebuild, and our superyacht rebuild page covers that work.

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300+

MARINE
PROFESSIONALS

92%

RETURNING
CLIENT RATE

200+

DELIVERED
PROJECTS

400+ m

TOTAL YACHT LENGTH
DELIVERED LAST YEAR

Planning a Yard Period Around the Mediterranean Season

Most yachts we work on run a Mediterranean season and lay up afterwards. That sets the yard calendar: work starts once the season ends in September or October, and she has to be back in service before the next one begins.

Coming from the western Mediterranean

For a yacht finishing the season around Monaco, Antibes, Palma or the Italian coast, the run to Istanbul is planned as the end-of-season passage. Crews fold it into the lay-up move, and she arrives as the yard period opens.

Coming from the eastern Mediterranean

For a yacht cruising the Greek islands, the Aegean or the Adriatic, the passage to Tuzla is the lay-up move itself. From Greece, Croatia or Montenegro, she leaves the cruising grounds and arrives at the yard on one trip.

Opening the scope review

Through the winter we keep room on the hard and at the quays for technical, paint and survey periods. The October to April weeks fill up during the summer, so the best time to open a scope review is while she is still cruising. Send us her dates and the worklist now and we will come back with the weeks that are open.

If your next yard period falls in that window, you can open a scope review now.

Yard Control, Workshop Capability and Redelivery Discipline

One controlled project across the yard period

A yard period runs as one sequence: technical definition, workshop production, on-board work, commissioning and close-out. Most delays start in the handover between trades, so we run those handovers ourselves.

Variation and procurement control

As scope widens, the pressure moves to variations, supplier timing and procurement. We keep cost, time and decisions on one route, so the commercial picture stays readable while items are still open.

Class, flag and approvals managed early

Class survey items, flag requirements and third-party approvals go into the plan before they can block fabrication, installation or redelivery. We deal with the surveyors attending the yard period directly.

Reporting lines and decision control

Captains, owner's representatives and management teams get clear approval paths and a live view of what is still open. When a decision is needed, it is clear who makes it and what it affects.

In-house workshop execution under one structure

The core trades sit inside the yard, so package boundaries, loading and the joins between trades stay under our control. Specialist subcontractors work inside our sequence and report to the same project manager.

Commissioning and redelivery as part of the job

Testing, documentation, close-out lists and delivery readiness run through the whole project. That is how open items stay out of redelivery.

Commercial Value on Larger Scopes

On a larger refit, keeping most of the work under one yard means fewer interfaces to manage and fewer gaps for cost to slip through. That is where the value sits. A day rate on its own is not a reliable basis for comparison.

900-ton Travel Lift

Haul out and alongside capability. Travel lift: 900 t, the largest in Türkiye. Yachts above the lifting displacement are refitted alongside at our repair quays, which take yachts up to 110 m. Tell us your LOA, beam, draught and displacement and our dock team will confirm haul out feasibility.

LRQA-Certified Standards

LRQA-certified across ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 14001 for the environment and ISO 45001 for health and safety. All three run under one audited management system.

Comprehensive In-House Workshops

40,000 m² of working area and a 110 m quay, with 3,500 m² of workshops and 800 m² of storage. Room to stage heavy packages ashore and alongside within the same yard period.

ICOMIA Refit Group Member

The first Turkish member of the ICOMIA Superyacht Refit Group, and still the only one as of 2026, alongside the established refit names and on the industry's standard contract framework.

Istanbul Supply Access

Tuzla is a working marine production zone. Steel, equipment, specialist trades and survey support are minutes from the yard, so a late finding doesn't cost a week waiting on delivery.

Crew & Visiting Team Support

Long yard periods put people on site for weeks. The yard is about 15 minutes from Sabiha Gökçen airport, with hotels and the city close by, so crew, surveyors and owner's teams can attend without it becoming a second project.

Capability for Complex Projects

Some packages cross hull, paint, machinery, electrical, interior and compliance at the same time. Recent examples of that kind of scope are listed below, with delivery times.

Full Project Visibility

Through "View Your Yacht", owners, captains and managers follow progress remotely, around the clock.

Recent Yard Periods

The work changes with the worklist. A topside repaint, a systems-led refit and a mixed technical and interior period put different loads on access, scaffolding and protection. The yard has to carry them without losing the date. Yachts to 70 metres come out on the 900-ton lift. Larger yachts run the yard period afloat at the repair quays, with the same workshops behind them.

Six recent yard periods, by worklist:

M/Y Newal, 31.8 m, 1988 Heesen: a rebuild, not a refit. New aluminium transom taking her from 28 m to 31.8 m, about 180 m² of new teak, the whole interior rebuilt, electrical and seawater systems renewed, both main engines overhauled. Redelivered in 15 months.
52 m motor yacht, 2003 build: five-year class survey, stabiliser overhaul, HVAC upgrades, teak deck repairs and complete exterior repaint. Redelivered in 24 weeks.
42 m motor yacht, 2016 build: guest-area refurbishment, navigation and AV/IT upgrades, galley improvements and exterior paint repairs. Redelivered in 12 weeks.
49.2 m motor yacht, 2011 build: generator replacement, bridge electronics upgrade, hydraulic-system overhaul and complete hull and superstructure repaint. Redelivered in 24 weeks.
52 m motor yacht, 2023 build: owner-requested interior modifications, noise and vibration improvements, beach-club refurbishment and electrical-system optimisation. Redelivered in 14 weeks.
65 m motor yacht, 2011 build: interior refurbishment, complete repaint, HVAC renewal, power-management upgrades and five-year class survey. Redelivered in 9 months.

The full list is on our Completed Projects page.

For a similar yard period, send us her details and the worklist. Request a Refit Quote

Yacht refit technical drawing – engineering plan for luxury yacht refurbishment

How a Yard Period Runs

1. Scope review and survey

We start on board: her class and flag status, her condition, the worklist you have and the dates. An early survey, with tanks and panels opened up where needed, fixes the real worklist before we quote. See our refit planning guide.

2. Engineering, procurement and approvals

Drawings, long-lead orders, workshop loading and the class and flag submissions. Stabilisers, generators and coating systems with long lead times go on order at this stage, while there is still room to work around them.

3. Yard production

Hull, paint, machinery, electrical, piping, interior and structural work run on one schedule. Most of the planning is keeping two trades out of the same space in the same week, so nobody sands a deck after the topcoat has gone on.

4. Commissioning, documentation and redelivery

Systems are tested, the class items are presented to the surveyor for sign-off, the snag list is cleared and sea trials run where the worklist calls for them. Then she is redelivered with her documentation.

Who You Deal With

Projects come to us through the owner, the captain, an owner's representative or a management company. Before she arrives we agree with your side who approves a variation, who signs off a drawing and who receives the reports. On a big yard period that matters as much as the work itself. When a tank is opened up and the surveyor finds wastage, the cost of that finding depends on who decides and how quickly the answer comes back. One project manager answers for the date and the price from arrival to redelivery, and your side has one weekly report with photographs.

Project manager reviewing luxury yacht interior refit using digital tablet – KRM Yacht

What We Do and Who Does It

More than 300 marine professionals work in our own workshops and on board. That is how we hold the date and the finish when several trades work the same yacht in the same week. When a job needs a specialist we do not keep in-house, that subcontractor works to our schedule and reports to our project team.

Technical

Machinery overhauls and renewals, generator changes, electrical and automation upgrades, piping and HVAC. This work runs through our own mechanical, electrical and piping workshops.

Exterior and structural

Repaint and fairing, teak deck work, structural repairs and modifications. Paint runs under cover, and steel and aluminium work is done in our own metalwork shop.

Interior

Accommodation and guest-area refits, layout changes and the systems behind the finish. Panels, furniture and fitted joinery are made in our own interior workshop.

Class and Flag

Survey-driven worklists where inspection, approvals and documentation set the pace. Survey items are opened up and presented to the attending surveyor on site, so they are dealt with at the yard.

Each workshop has its own page under in-house workshop services.

Carpentry & Joinery

Painting

Interior & Redesign

Metalwork

Mechanical & Hydraulic

Electrical & Electronics

Piping & Plumbing

Engineering & Design

Composite & GRP

Glazing & Acrylic

Insulation

Machinery & Equipment

Testing & Surveying

Fire & Safety

Lifting Day at KRM Yacht

Crew and Visiting Teams

A long yard period puts people on site for weeks: the captain, the crew, a surveyor, an owner's representative, an OEM technician. The yard is about 15 minutes by road from Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Whether the crew live aboard depends on the worklist.

Around Tuzla: hotels, restaurants and local transport for the working week.

Istanbul Within Reach: the city, the coast and the Princes' Islands on days off.

Time Off: in winter, ski resorts within driving distance.

Frequently Asked Questions

1What do you need to look at a worklist?

Her main dimensions and lifting displacement, build year, class and flag. Where she is now and where she will be at the end of the season. The weeks you want her back in service. The work you have in mind, with any drawings, photographs or recent survey reports you hold. A rough worklist is enough for a first read.

2What does a superyacht refit cost?

It depends on the worklist, but across our recent projects the split is consistent: labour 30-40% of the total, materials 20-30%, yard fees 15-25% and project management 8-12%. We also recommend a 10-15% contingency. The two biggest variables are how much fairing a repaint needs and what the survey finds once panels come off. We price the job after we have surveyed her and agreed the worklist. If you send her details and a rough worklist, we can give you a first read before any survey.

3What happens if the survey finds more work once panels come off?

That is what the 10-15% contingency is for. When a tank or a panel is opened up and the surveyor finds more, the extra work is written up as a variation. The variation shows its price and its effect on the date. Your side decides, and the schedule is updated with the answer.

4How long will my yacht be in the yard?

It depends on the worklist. Recent yard periods here have run from 12 weeks for a guest-area refresh with paint repairs, to 24 weeks for a full exterior repaint with a five-year class survey. A large interior and paint job ran to 9 months. The longest item sets the date, usually the paint or a piece of long-lead equipment. A rebuild runs longer: M/Y Newal, a 31.8 m Heesen, took 15 months.

5How long will my yacht be in the yard?

6Can you lift a 60 metre motor yacht, and what if she is too heavy?

Length is not the limit; weight is. The 900-ton lift hauls out yachts to 70 metres, within a beam of 10.3 metres and a draft of 5 metres. A 60 metre steel motor yacht with full tanks can weigh more than 900 tons, so we work from her lifting displacement, not her LOA. If she is too heavy, she stays afloat alongside at the repair quays, to 110 metres, and the same workshops do the work. Send us her lifting displacement and we tell you which way she goes before you fix dates.

7How do you run a full repaint through the winter?

Under cover. Once she is on the hard, an enclosure goes up around her, and inside it the temperature and humidity stay within the coating manufacturer's data sheet, whatever the weather outside. Environmental readings are logged before and during spraying, dry film thickness is checked as the coats build, and inspection is by FROSIO certified personnel. Rain and cold in an Istanbul winter do not stop a repaint. The method is set out on our painting page.

8Do you work with class, flag and third-party surveyors?

Yes. Where the worklist carries class survey items, flag requirements or third-party approvals, they go onto the schedule at the start and we work with the surveyors attending the yard period. Our team opens the items up and presents them to the surveyor at the yard, so they are dealt with here and not carried forward.

9Can the crew stay aboard during the yard period?

In many refit periods, yes. It depends on the worklist. Alongside, the yard supplies shore power and fresh water to her, and takes her waste off through our connection. When the worklist takes power off the yacht or brings hot work, living aboard stops for that phase. In a rebuild, where systems and interiors are stripped out, the crew stay ashore for the whole period.

10How do customs and temporary importation work for a foreign-flagged yacht?

Temporary importation of the yacht herself is handled by her own agent, as is standard practice in Türkiye. Once she is in the yard, customs clearance for parts and materials arriving under ship in transit status is handled by our team as part of the yard period.

11What insurance does the yard hold?

The yard carries ship repairer's liability cover, and the policy details are available on request. Health and safety runs under our ISO 45001 management system, certified by LRQA, and our safety records are available to owners' teams on request.

Discuss the Next Yard Period with KRM Yacht

A refit quotation starts with three things: her main dimensions and lifting displacement, the worklist as it stands today, and the weeks you want her back in service. Send those to our project team through the quote form. Our project team reads the worklist, tells you what we would want to survey on board, and comes back with a first read on the work and the weeks. The quotation and the schedule to redelivery follow once she has been surveyed and the worklist is agreed.

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