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Shipwrights, refit and repairMarine electrical, engineering and riggingCharter, dive and tour operatorsAustralia wide

Booked before the season starts.

Marine work is seasonal and decided early. A refit is booked before the boat comes out. A marina contract renews on a date nobody advertises. The corporate charter calendar is filled months before summer. We watch vessel movements, shipyard and marina expansions, contract expiries and event calendars every day, and pitch on your behalf while the decision is open.

A marina from above, boats in every berth

Three buyers, one calendar, and almost nobody working it.

A shipyard refit manager, a marina operations manager and a corporate event planner are three different rooms. The vocabulary is the same in all of them, from haul out and antifoul to bareboat and shoulder season. The person who lets the work is not.

The problem

1. Seasonal, and decided early

Refits are booked before the boat comes out of the water, and corporate charter is booked months before summer. The trades and operators who grow are in the room in the off season.

The opportunity

2. Refit, expansion and midweek

Brisbane’s $200 million Rivergate expansion adds a 3,000 tonne shiplift aimed at the superyacht refit market. Every expansion is recurring scopes for marine trades, and every corporate calendar is midweek charter days.

The window

3. The off season

April to September for the refit and maintenance calendar, and the same months for corporate charter bookings for the following summer. That is when we put your business in front of the people deciding.

What we look for

4. Vessels, expansions, expiries, events

New vessels in the water and base changes, shipyard and marina expansions and approvals, marina and fleet contract expiries, and corporate event calendars that name a planner.

A boat hull out of the water for a refit

Is this you?

Marine trades, marine industry suppliers and marine tourism operators who win work from vessel owners, shipyards, marinas and the corporate market. If most of this reads like your business, this page is written for you. If it does not, the market size check says so in two minutes.

Shipwrights, refit and repairMarine electrical, engineering and riggingAntifoul, detailing and slipway servicesMarine manufacturing and supplyCharter, dive and tour operatorsMarina and shipyard services
Size

Owner run, a shed or a fleet, and the owner or operations manager still prices the refit, the contract or the charter.

Who gives out the work

The refit or project manager inside a shipyard, the marina or fleet operations manager, the vessel owner or captain, and the planner who books the corporate calendar.

Deal shape

Refit and maintenance scopes from $10,000 to seven figures, recurring marina and fleet contracts, and whole boat corporate charter days planned months ahead.

Where

Australia wide, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Whitsundays, Cairns, Sydney Harbour, Pittwater and Newcastle.

Not a fit

Retail chandlery, one off private boat sales, and operators whose calendar is already full through the selling season.

A ship hull in dry dock

A few of the signs we watch for in marine

A few of the signs we track. The full list, and what we do with each one, stays with our clients.

Shipyard and marina expansions and approvals
A new shiplift, hardstand or berth is recurring scopes for shipwrights, marine electrical, antifoul and detailing. The trades lined up early are the ones who keep that work.
New vessels in the water and operator base changes
A new vessel needs fit out, maintenance and a home berth. An operator moving base needs every local trade again. Both are public, and both name the person deciding.
Corporate event and incentive calendars
Conferences, incentive programmes and end of year functions are planned months ahead by a named planner. The calendar is usually full before summer arrives.

Nothing hidden, in your name.

Every yard, marina, operator and planner we approach lives in a shared tracker with the vessel, the expansion or the event beside it, the exact message sent, and where it sits.

A city marina full of boats
Off seasonApril to September is when the calendar is set

The marine businesses that keep the fleet in the water rarely have anyone finding the next scope.

Shipwrights, marine electricians, riggers, detailers and charter operators keep Australia’s boats moving and its coast working. Almost none of them have a person whose job is the next refit, the next marina contract or the next corporate day. We pitch on behalf of your business to help you win it.

A worker in a hard hat reading a tablet

Before you book.

The questions that come up on nearly every first call, answered the same way we answer them on the call.

We get all our work from referrals. Is this for us?
That is exactly who this is for. Word of mouth comes in waves, and you can’t choose when. We find more of the same kind of client, so the quiet months get smaller.
We tried cold email and it did not work.
Mass email doesn’t work. A bought list, a generic message, sent at the wrong time and dropped after one or two tries. We write to one named person about something real happening in their business, and we follow up long after a busy owner would have stopped.
What do we have to provide?
Sign off on the wording once at the start, a thirty minute catch up each week, and your time for the meetings. We set up the outreach email, the tracker and the list.
I don’t want to sound spammy.
Neither do we. You approve every word before anything is sent, nobody on your do not contact list is ever approached, and we never say anything about your business you can’t stand behind. Every email is business to business, with an easy way to opt out, in line with the Spam Act 2003.

Two minutes to size up the yards and calendars in your area.

Four questions about what you do, where you work and who you sell to. You get a plain answer on whether your market is worth it.

Reading a market list on a laptop
Check your market size