Practical guide / the yard period
Plan your yacht refit before filling the calendar.
For a project manager, captain or shipyard coordinator, refit planning means clarifying decisions before they become urgent. A calendar is useful when every date connects to a defined job, a responsible person and the conditions needed to start. This approach helps you prepare that context and keep it current throughout the yard period.
Dates in Sailify’s planning view
In the demo workspace, AURORA 44’s work items are grouped by area. The animation shows work item #10 being moved manually from 9–18 to 11–20 September 2026.
Briefing exercise
A yard-period daybook
- Day01
Access and protection
Yard coordinator
- Day02
Open access panel
Outfitting contractor
- Day03
Inspect wiring
Electrical contractor
- Day04
Reinstall panel
Outfitting contractor
- Day05
Internal review
Technical manager
- Day06
Departure review
Yard + captain
Illustrative six-day sequence, not an estimate of a real refit. Activities and durations must be agreed for the particular yacht.
Define the scope before arrival
Collect the requested jobs and separate agreed work from requests that still need inspection or a decision. For each request, describe the expected outcome and exclusions. “Check the door” is less useful than a description of the defect and the check needed to accept the result.
Bring photographs, available drawings and owner constraints to the yard discussion. Identify who can decide on additional work. Open requests should remain visible without appearing to belong to the approved scope.
Break work down by area and outcome
Split a broad intervention into recognisable jobs, each with a yacht, deck, area and stable reference. Location also helps expose clashes: two contractors may need the same passageway or access panel.
Avoid creating rows for their own sake. A separate responsibility or acceptance check may justify a separate work item. A detail of the same job may only need a clear note within its existing record.
Clarify contractors, materials and sequence
For each job, identify the contractor performing it and the internal contact following up the result. Ask what needs to be ready first: access, protection, available materials or completion of another job. A proposed date without those conditions remains an assumption.
Record the sequence in the briefing and discuss it with the people involved. Material availability, work coordination and access rules require human technical judgement; a work list does not determine them by itself.
Agree the reference dates
Set planned start and finish dates after discussing them with contractors. Keep the agreed initial plan distinguishable from the current forecast so a shift has a clear meaning. Allow for review and the tasks needed before departure.
The sequence above is a briefing exercise: it makes clear who hands an area over to whom. A real project needs duration, access and operating conditions assessed with the yard. Six days is not a standard estimate.
Review the work every day
Use a short discussion built around three questions: what was carried out, what prevents the next step and which decision is needed today? Open the relevant work items instead of discussing only an overall completion percentage. A photograph and a precise note make the discussion concrete.
Give each open decision a named contact and a date for a response. Confirm the plan for jobs progressing without changes; focus the meeting on exceptions and shared working areas.
Make each change explicit
When additional work emerges, describe why it is needed and ask which jobs, quotations and dates it affects. A technical change and acceptance of the associated commercial proposal are decisions to clarify, even when they concern the same work item.
Retain the initial reference in the agreed planning document and record the new decision with its date and owner. Inform the people affected: moving a calendar bar does not demonstrate that the next contractor has confirmed availability.
Prepare verification and departure
Completion reported by a contractor and internal team verification are separate steps. Before departure, check the required evidence, identify who reviews the outcome and arrange any relevant tests with the appropriate technicians.
Collect outstanding items with a contact and a next action. The final summary should make clear what has been verified and what continues after the yard period, without allowing an unfinished job to disappear behind an administrative closure.
Sailify
Where Sailify fits into this approach
Sailify links work items to their yacht and location, with photographs, contractors, statuses and dates. Its planning view shows work across a period and groups it by yacht, supplier, area or type; authorised users can also change dates by dragging activities.
Scope definition, sequencing and resource availability remain team decisions. This guide does not describe automatic dependency calculations, inventory management or automatic versions of the initial plan. The daybook illustrates a planning method; it is not an app screenshot.