Planning a Refit Between Dive Seasons: A Timeline That Works
A refit that must fit between dive seasons works backwards from one immovable date — the first charter of the new season — and succeeds or fails on what happened before the vessel ever reached the yard: survey early, order long-lead items first, book the slip against the calendar, and hold ruthless discipline about what belongs in this refit versus the next one. This is the timeline that works for liveaboards operating the Raja Ampat calendar, laid out month by month.
The shape of the window
Most Raja Ampat operators concentrate their charters in the roughly October-to-April sweet season and take maintenance time in the quieter months. Call the usable refit window three to four months in a good year — and then subtract passage time to the yard, contingency for weather, and the recommissioning weeks at the end that every crew forgets to draw on the calendar. What remains for actual yard work is shorter than it looks, which is why refits planned as “we have all off-season” routinely deliver late. Treat the window as twelve weeks of work in fourteen weeks of calendar, and plan to that.
Three months before the window: know the vessel
The planning refit begins while the season is still running. A pre-refit survey — condition assessment, machinery hours review, and thickness gauging where steel or fastening age warrants it — converts the work list from folklore to fact. Crew defect lists from the season get consolidated, priced and triaged. And the decision that shapes everything gets made now: what is essential (safety, class, charter-readiness), what is valuable (reliability and guest experience), and what is deferrable to a future long yard period. Rebuild-scale ambitions — re-engining, major structural renewal, full interior replacement — belong in a different planning universe with the build-supervision network behind new phinisi and steel hulls, not squeezed into a between-seasons window where they will hold the boat hostage into the charter calendar.
Two months out: commit the long-lead items
Everything with freight time gets ordered before the refit starts, because in eastern Indonesia the schedule-killer is not labour — it is a component sitting in customs while the vessel sits on the slip. Paint schemes, anodes, shaft seals, engine parts, electronics, upholstery fabrics: ordered against the survey findings, consolidated where possible, and moving toward Sorong while the boat is still earning. The slot itself gets booked now too, matched to tide windows and to surveyor availability where a class or insurance survey shares the docking. The booking mechanics and facility matching are the province of the docking coordination desk, and the freight mechanics are set out in the spares shipping guide for Sorong.
The yard weeks: sequence beats speed
A between-seasons refit runs on dependency order, not enthusiasm. The classic sequence: haul and wash; open and inspect (this is when the surprises surface — budget days for them); structural and hull work first, because everything else waits on it; machinery and systems while coatings cure; paint in the weather windows the schedule allows; then reassembly, sea trials and snagging. Two disciplines keep the sequence honest. First, decision speed: when the opened stern gland or gauged plate presents options, the owner’s answer must come in hours, not weeks — every idle day on the hard is charter revenue converted to storage. Second, scope lock: additions discovered on the hard go onto next season’s list unless they are safety-critical, a rule easier to hold when an owner’s representative enforces it, as described in the owner’s representative guide.
Crew planning: the workforce the budget forgets
The off-season is also the crew’s season, and the refit plan has to say so explicitly. Decide early who stays through the yard period — an engineer and a capable deckhand at minimum, because crew knowledge of the vessel is worth trades-rate money on the hard — and who takes leave in blocks that return them rested for recommissioning, not arriving jet-lagged the week guests do. Budget the yard-period crew honestly: accommodation ashore if the vessel is uninhabitable on the cradle, meals, and the quiet costs of a team living next to a dusty hardstand for two months. A refit that burns out the crew before the season starts has failed at its actual job, which is delivering a vessel and a team ready to work.
The forgotten phase: recommissioning
The refit is not finished at splash-down. Watermakers want membranes recommissioned and water tested; dive compressors want filter stacks renewed and air-quality tests passed; new systems want crew familiarisation; and the first sea trial always produces a snag list. Draw two full weeks between yard completion and the first charter, use them deliberately — trials, drills, provisioning, the shakedown cruise — and the season opens smoothly. Skip them and the first guests of the season become the sea trial. The whole arc, from pre-survey through recommissioning, is exactly what the refit planning and project management desk runs for owners who would rather buy the outcome than live the process; budget behaviour across that arc is covered in the refit budget overrun guide.
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Frequently asked questions
How long a window does a between-seasons refit really need?
Plan twelve working weeks inside a fourteen-week calendar window for a substantial refit, including passage and recommissioning. Smaller scopes compress; rebuild-scale work does not belong in a seasonal window at all.
When should refit parts be ordered?
Before the refit starts — ideally two months before the yard date, driven by the pre-refit survey. Freight and customs lead time, not labour, is the usual schedule-killer in eastern Indonesia.
What gets deferred when time runs short?
Cosmetic and comfort scope defers; safety, class and charter-readiness scope does not. The triage is made in planning, written down, and enforced during the yard period — not improvised on the hard.
Why reserve two weeks after the yard before the first charter?
Sea trials, system recommissioning, air and water quality tests, crew familiarisation and the inevitable snag list all live in that fortnight. Without it, the season’s first guests inherit the shakedown.