Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard further increases capacity in 2021

Most of the world started the year on a bit of an unsure foot. Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard (GCCM) was no different. They forged on, preparing as best they could for what 2021 might throw at them. With the lobbying to keep shipyards open as an essential service from the Marina Industry Association (MIA) back in 2020, GCCM and their 90 plus on-site marine businesses were fortunate to keep their doors open to a steadily increasing Australian marine industry.

While the year began on a tentative foot, GCCM quickly snapped to attention. Welcoming M/Y Lady Christine (68-meter Feadship) in March, the GCCM crew quickly went to work preparing for the largest onwater refit to take place in Australia. Since previously completing the simultaneous onwater refits of M/Y SuRi and M/Y Dragonfly in 2020, GCCM welcomed the challenge M/Y Lady Christine brought to the yard. The Environmental Authority (EA) granted to GCCM by local and state governments after the completion of the tandem refits established the Gold Coast based shipyard as the leader in onwater refit standards and helped simplify the extensive refit planned for M/Y Lady Christine.  The encapsulation of the 68-meter vessel took 13 days to complete and utilized over 100 tonnes of scaffolding setting a record for the largest encapsulation in Australia.

While M/Y Lady Christine underwent her extensive 6-month refit, the GCCM ASCOM mobile boat hoist was undergoing an upgrade to further support the growing Superyacht industry. Complementing the current on-water service berths for vessels up to 75-metres, the Italian-built lift has been upgraded to accommodate vessels up to 300-tonnes while still offering the widest boat lift on the Gold Coast to better assist larger beam vessels and catamarans.

M/Y Oceana (55-metre Oceanfast) was the first official vessel to take advantage of the added haul out capacity. This historic lift, weighing in at nearly 290 Tonnes and 55 meters in length, has now set the pace for future refit, repair, and maintenance opportunities on the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast yachting industry is currently flourishing as facilities and infrastructure are rapidly expanding to meet a remarkable increase in demand from domestic and international yachts.  GCCM continues to forge ahead with plans for their Stage 2 facility which will further accommodate the growing size of the domestic superyacht fleet in Australian and those coming to the South Pacific region.  These ground breaking new facilities include a 1400-tonne capacity lift and state of the art undercover refit, repair, and refinishing factories.