Most refit budgets are not consumed by repairs; they are consumed by reaching the repairs and putting everything back. Access, reinstatement, discovery and rework routinely outweigh the headline items. A budget built only from a list of repairs is a budget that will be wrong in one direction.
The four real cost drivers
Access and reinstatement
Removing and replacing joinery, sole, ceiling, tanks and sometimes machinery to reach the work. Frequently the largest single line.
Discovery
What the opened hull reveals. Unavoidable on timber, and the reason staged pricing exists.
Materials and lead time
Specific timber in specific sections is not always available; waiting has a cost in yard time as well as in delay.
Rework
Work done out of sequence and then disturbed. Almost entirely preventable, and almost universally present.
Why sequence is a financial decision
Structure before systems, systems before joinery, joinery before finish. Every deviation from that order creates rework, and rework is paid for twice: once when the work was done and again when it is disturbed. The most expensive version is a hull whose interior was completed before the structure beneath it was signed off — a mistake that can consume an entire second refit’s budget. The reasoning is set out under refit and restoration.
Group work by access, not by trade
If three separate jobs all require the same sole to come up, they are one job for budgeting purposes. Owners who approve them in separate years pay for that sole three times.
Building a contingency that survives
A contingency is not a reserve for upgrades. It exists specifically to absorb discovery, and it should be ring-fenced against the temptation to spend it on a better fit-out while the hull is open. The discipline that protects it is simple: variations arising from discovery are charged to contingency; variations arising from owner preference are charged to the owner as additional scope, and are recorded separately in the change register.
Keeping those two categories apart in the paperwork is what allows an honest conversation at week eight about whether the project is on budget. Where they are mixed, nobody can tell whether the overrun came from the hull or from the choices.
What a staged pricing structure looks like
| Stage | Pricing basis | Owner decision at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Haul, wash, open, inspect | Firm price — the work is defined | Proceed, revise scope, or relaunch and think |
| Structural repair | Priced from findings, with rates agreed in advance | Approve full scope or stage it across two windows |
| Systems | Firm per system, once access is confirmed | Prioritise by operating need |
| Joinery and finish | Firm against a defined standard | Scope to budget, since this is the compressible stage |
Where owners most often mis-budget
- Omitting reinstatement. The repair is quoted; putting the interior back is not.
- Ignoring yard time. Days on the hard accumulate whether or not work is progressing, including while waiting for materials.
- Underestimating the ends. Bow and stern work is slow, awkward and disproportionately expensive per metre.
- Treating the survey as the full scope. A survey lists what could be seen; opening reveals what could not.
- Funding cosmetics first. Discussed at length in planning a liveaboard refit, and the most expensive error of all.
Reducing cost without cutting corners
There are legitimate savings. Splitting a programme across two windows so structural work happens in the dry season avoids weather losses. Ordering long-lead timber at scope stage avoids paid idle time. Doing a thorough inspection before the main programme means materials arrive with the vessel rather than after it. Choosing a finish standard appropriate to the vessel’s use — working liveaboard rather than show boat — is a real and honest economy. What does not save money is deferring structure, and any budget balanced by doing so is balanced on paper only.
Currency and payment
Quotations from this desk are issued in USD, after scope and inspection. Payments are tied to inspectable milestones rather than to elapsed time, so a stage is paid when it is complete. The reasoning behind reading each quotation line carefully is set out in reading a yard quotation line by line.
Tracking spend against the plan
A budget is only useful if it is compared to reality while there is still time to act. The practical mechanism is a running reconciliation: original scope value, approved variations charged to contingency, approved variations charged to owner preference, and committed-but-not-yet-invoiced costs. Reviewed weekly, that single table answers the only question that matters mid-programme — is this project still affordable, and if not, what is the earliest point at which scope can be reduced?
Owners who see this weekly rarely get a bad surprise at the end. Owners who receive a lump-sum invoice at handover frequently do, not because anyone behaved badly but because nobody was counting out loud. The reporting rhythm described under yard project management exists precisely to keep that count visible.