“Refit: 2024” on a spec sheet can mean new fabrics on the cushions or a complete rebuild of the vessel, and the sheet will not always tell you which. There are four levels of refit, and each one tells you something different about the yacht you are about to book. Know which one you are looking at and an older yacht stops being a gamble and starts being the best value on the list.
We inspect these boats at the shows and step aboard before we recommend them, so the examples below are yachts we sell, with what was actually done to them. Prices are the low-season weekly rate; July and August run higher.
Expert insight
Originally built as a French navy vessel, this mahogany-hulled classic has real character and a great story, and a major refit has her in excellent shape.
Klara Braga Jakobsen
Yacht Reviewer & Content Lead
Level one: the yearly touch-up that keeps a yacht honest
Every well-run charter yacht goes into a yard each winter. Antifoul, varnish, a service on the engines and generators, new cushions where the sun got them, carpets if the crew are fussy. None of it shows on a walkthrough, and all of it is the reason a boat from 2009 can still look sharp.
On the spec sheet it shows up as a refit year that moves forward every season. HAKUNA MATATA, a 37 m Couach from 2009, is refit every year to stay in top condition, and it shows. NELA, a 42 m Benetti, does the same, and on one of those winters the owner swapped the saloon furniture so it turns into a cinema. That is level one done well.
Do not read level one as the one that does not matter. A yacht that goes into the yard every winter and does a little each time is usually the yacht that never needs the big refit, because nothing aboard is ever allowed to get tired. The ones that skip it are the ones we see run themselves down, and when the refit finally comes it is everything at once: decks, systems, interior, tenders, in one long winter. Between those two there is every variation, which is why the year on the sheet means so little on its own.
What it tells you: the crew and owner care, and the boat is probably not carrying a backlog. What it does not tell you: anything about the hull, the layout or the machinery. A 2005 boat with “refit 2025” on the sheet and nothing else behind it is a coat of varnish.
Level two: the full refit, where the boat you sleep on is new
This is the one that matters most to a charter guest, because it touches everything you feel and hear. New teak decks, a new air-conditioning plant, generators overhauled and silenced, new bathrooms, new mattresses, repainted exterior, and often a new tender and toys. The hull and layout stay; the experience is rebuilt.
LA PELLEGRINA I is the clearest example we sell, because her central agent publishes the whole ladder. 2020 was cosmetic: carpets, curtains, cushions, a new sundeck table. 2022 was the Lloyd’s ten-year survey. 2024 was the real one: new teak on the main deck, a new central air-conditioning unit, both generators overhauled with catalytic converters and extra silencing, new carpets and fabrics, new smart TVs, a new tender launching system and a refit of the tender itself. 2025 added a full engine rebuild. Four different kinds of “refit” on one 50 m boat, and only the last two are why she sleeps quietly at anchor with the AC running in August.
TITIAN PEARL, a 42 m CRN from 2001, came out of a five-year refit in what we can only call mint, brand-new condition throughout. EVEREAST had a major refit that brightened the whole interior, and annual touch-ups since keep her looking fresh, which is level one layered on top of level two, the pattern you want.
What changes for you: silence at anchor, cold cabins in August, decks and bathrooms that feel new, toys that work. What never changes: the hull shape, the ceiling heights, the bed heights, the cabin count, and the engine noise underway if the engines were not touched.
Level three: the rebuild, where the yacht comes out a different product
Sometimes the owner does not restore the boat, they change it. Cabins are merged or split, a beach club is cut into the transom, metres are added to the stern, a deck is added on top, a jacuzzi goes in where a sunpad was. The yacht that comes out of the yard is not the one that went in, and the spec sheet will show the new numbers with no hint of the old ones.
CASABLANCA, a 53 m built in 2017 for the Adriatic, sleeps 36 guests in 18 cabins today. Her winter 2026 to 2027 refit reconfigures her to 11 cabins for 22 guests, with a gentleman’s club, a piano lounge and a panoramic restaurant where the extra cabins were. Same hull, half the cabins, a completely different charter. If you are looking at her for summer 2027, the sheet you see now describes a boat that will not exist.
CHRISTINA O did a smaller version in 2022: four forward main-deck cabins became two larger junior suites, a spa shower room was fitted, the pool deck was re-teaked and a new jacuzzi bar went in. Fewer cabins, better cabins.
What it tells you: the owner is investing in the charter product, not just maintaining it. What to check: which layout the sheet is describing, and whether the season you want falls before or after the yard.
Level four: the conversion, where the boat was never a yacht
At the top of the scale the refit is the whole story. Warships, patrol boats, ferries and working ships have been turned into some of the most characterful charter yachts afloat, and a few of them are ours.
CHRISTINA O was launched in 1943 by Canadian Vickers as a frigate and was at the D-Day landings before Aristotle Onassis turned her into the most photographed yacht of the century. Eighty years and several refits later she sleeps 34 guests in 17 suites, the mosaic pool still converts into a dance floor, and she carries more deck space than most yachts built today. At €700,000 a week nobody is chartering the hull. They are chartering the conversion.
TEMPEST WS is the same idea at 32 m. Built in 1963 as a French coast guard patrol vessel with a triple-planked mahogany hull, designed to patrol at over 20 knots in bad weather, she was converted by the architect André Mauric in 2002 and has been upgraded since. Eight guests, a full-beam master with windows all round, stabilizers at anchor, and the sea-keeping of a boat that was built to go out when others stayed in. From €37,000 a week.
SEAGULL II was built in 1952 at the Uljanik yard in Pula, a shipyard better known for commercial vessels, and rebuilt as a yacht with a 2005 refit that gave her an Art Nouveau interior by DE Wave and a gentleman’s bar. 50 m, 12 guests, from €85,000 a week, which is a 50 m yacht for the price of a new 30 m.
What it tells you: the hull was built to a heavier standard than any yacht yard uses, which is why these boats sit so well in a swell. What to accept: the layout answers to the original ship. Corridors, ceiling heights and cabin shapes are what the conversion could make of them.
What a refit is worth to you: pay for the level, not the build year
Here is the arithmetic that makes refitted yachts the best money above €100,000 a week. LA PELLEGRINA I, 50 m, built 2012, three refits and rebuilt engines, is €180,000 a week in low season and €235,000 in July and August. A new-build 40 m from 2018 in the same waters starts around €145,000. For €35,000 more you get ten metres, a sixth cabin, a crew of twelve instead of nine, and a full-beam master with its own deck. What you do not get is the newest hull design, and on a charter you will not notice.
The same logic runs down the scale. SEAGULL II at €85,000 is a 50 m for a 30 m price. TEMPEST WS at €37,000 is a 32 m with a patrol boat’s sea-keeping for the price of a 25 m production yacht. In each case you are paying for space, crew and a hull built to a higher standard, and the refit is what makes the interior match.
The rule we use: a level two or level three refit inside the last three years, on a hull from any decade, usually beats a ten-year-old boat with only level one behind it. The build year on the spec sheet is the least useful number on it. The refit level is the one that predicts your week.
How to read a refit line on a spec sheet: three questions
1. What was done? Ask for the scope. A serious refit has a list, and a central agent who has one will send it. “Cosmetic refit” and “full refit” are not the same sentence, and the sheet uses one word for both.
2. Was the engine room touched? Generators, air conditioning and stabilizers are what decide whether you sleep at anchor in August. New carpets do not.
3. Did the layout change, and which layout is on the card? After a level three refit the cabin count moves. Confirm the configuration for your dates, not the one in the photos.
If the answer to all three is good, the age of the hull is a reason to book, not a reason to hesitate. For how this plays out in one destination, our Greek team has written up whether yacht age matters on a charter with the local fleet.
People also ask
Does a refit make an older yacht as good as new?
A level two refit makes the parts you live in as good as new: decks, bathrooms, air conditioning, generators, mattresses, toys. It does not change the hull, the layout or the ceiling heights, and it does not quiet the engines underway unless they were rebuilt. Ask for the scope and you will know exactly which parts are new.
How often are charter yachts refitted?
Every winter for the light work, which is why a refit year on a spec sheet often moves forward each season. A full refit that touches machinery and interiors happens roughly every five to ten years on a well-owned yacht, and the ten-year class survey is usually the trigger.
Is a refitted yacht cheaper to charter than a new one?
Per metre, almost always. A refitted 50 m from the 2010s typically charters for what a new 40 m costs, and the money goes to space, crew and a heavier hull rather than to the newest design. Above €100,000 a week that is where the best value on the market sits.
What is the difference between a refit and a conversion?
A refit changes a yacht. A conversion turns something that was never a yacht into one: a frigate, a patrol boat, a ferry. CHRISTINA O and TEMPEST WS are conversions; LA PELLEGRINA I is a refit. Conversions keep the working ship’s hull and sea-keeping and take their layout from what the original structure allowed.
