Monaco Marine opens Marseille shipyard

Monaco Marine recently welcomed the first client, M/Y Madame Kate, to its new facility in Marseille. With a total 320m of dock, the new shipyard will act as a convenient base close to the French Riviera for yachts up to 160m to make last minute stops for technical work and maintenance. Two additional workshops of 250sqm complete the 8700sqm area.

The 61m Madame Kate’s two-week technical ‘pit stop’ in Marseille included a Lloyd’s hull survey, hull valve replacement, paint touch-ups on several places of the vessel, hydraulic works on the steering system and stabilizer system, among other modifications and repairs. This is exactly the kind of works that Monaco Marine hopes to enable clients to undertake with its new offering.

“More and more superyachts want to minimise downtime and our customers have requested that we supply a very fast technical solution to ensure that maintenance time is minimised and the shortest transition between guest turnover,” explains François Vila, marketing and communications manager at Monaco Marine. “Thanks to this new installation, Monaco Marine can now prepare and welcome short maintenance periods with an adaptable capability on its facility corresponding to the specific needs of each client.”

"We wanted to provide a solution for the market that did not otherwise exist for yachts over 100m..."

The facility will also act as an operating base for shipbuilders, particularly those located in northern Europe with limited access to new build clients once they have left the yard. “After delivery of a new yacht, there are still works to be done and shipbuilders need to support deliveries by following their yachts during the first year,” continues Vila. “To respond to this need, Monaco Marine Marseille provides a solution to help them offer a better after-sales service: a technical facility and dock close to the French Riviera.”

Monaco Marine Marseille, therefore, is unlike any of the company’s other superyacht operations, which include locations in La Ciotat, Antibes, Beaulieu sur Mer, Monaco and recently Toulon. Until now, the company had the ability to work on yachts up to 100m afloat, and up to 80m on the hard.

“We wanted to find a dock area that offered a convenient base in the Med for ‘gigayachts’ to come and make last-minute stops between charters or boss trips to do technical work, maintenance and repairs,” concludes Vila. “Yachts this size would typically need to go to an industrial port far away from the hubs to do this. We wanted to provide a solution for the market that did not otherwise exist for yachts over 100m, thus helping captains with the difficulty of running a yacht of this size.” 

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