Announcing the Refit Advisory Group
The mission of the Refit Advisory Group is to identify how refit centers can better serve the Superyacht Owner. IMM is driving this initiative, with the guidance and advice being provided primarily by experienced large yacht Captains, with other central stakeholders also having a voice.
In its first year, the Refit Advisory Group has investigated how the global large yacht refit & repair offer can be improved. The results of this initial phase will be privately presented to a group of Captains and Owners Representatives in Monaco.
The Refit Advisory Group 2024 Report will look at both facilities and services. The Captains interviewed in this first phase have provided insight into key factors that affect yard selection, as well as the technical facilities deemed essential onsite. The report will detail thoughts on haul-out options, the evolving demand of security and the importance of crew facilities.
The Refit Advisory Group intends to make its findings, conclusions and recommendations open to the industry for the betterment of all stakeholders, with the ultimate aim of better catering to the Owner.
Norina Edelman, IMM CEO, explained: “As superyacht professionals, we have a duty to always put the Owner first and to work towards making our offer more tailored to the Owner’s true needs in the changing market. It is an interesting and important exercise to circle back to the Captains of large yachts and ask how we are doing collectively as Refit Centers around the world and where we need to improve”
We look forward to future phases of the Refit Advisory Group, where we continue to delve into a variety of questions about large-yacht refit and how we can do better.
Introducing our Redesigned Website
IMM has grown significantly in recent years, and we thought it important to have a fresh online presence that more accurately represents IMM today. The new website allows easy navigation across our multiple locations and services.
Since the inception of IMM, our goal has always been to provide service to superyacht owners, offering something different, somewhere different. Of course, we can only bring this service to those who know where we are, what we do, and how we do it. Our hope is that the new site gives you easy access to this information.
When you browse our different locations, you’ll find services provided in each location as well as projects associated with each facility. And you will also discover our values – values that infuse everything we do and how we have grown.
The founders of IMM, Fabrice Maitre and Norina Edelman, are well-known faces to many in the superyacht industry. Our new website will allow you to get to know more people in our highly-skilled team.
Finally, our news section will allow you to stay informed on all the latest and greatest news and developments.
We hope you find this new website accessible and helpful.
Olivier Vigoureux, IMM Guadeloupe Site Director
Olivier has been based in Guadeloupe overseeing the IMM Guadeloupe refit facility for 8 years. Prior to joining IMM, Olivier was an America’s Cup boat captain as well as a talented skipper of multihull race boats. Having trained in La Ciotat, he is technically proficient and is recognized as a hardware and rig specialist.
Oliver is originally from Brittany, France. Sailing is such an integral part of his life, he can’t recall a time in his life before sailing. By age 5, he was sailing and windsurfing on his own; and by 22, Olivier was an established, professional. Olivier noted that the most valuable insight he was offered was that there were plenty of good sailors in the world, but not many that also had strong technical skills.
So, having become a respected sailor, Olivier went to work in La Ciotat, France, where he had the opportunity to learn the shipyard side of sailing. Two years later, the sea called Olivier back, and he had the opportunity to race with Team China in the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain.
Fast forward to 2014: Olivier is the Captain of SY Paradox and opted to undertake maintenance at IMM’s facility in Guadeloupe. Fabrice and Olivier met at this time, and the rest is history!
Captain Brendan O’Shannassy and the Octopus Refit
Back in 2008, Fabrice Maître, founder and COO at IMM, embarked on the significant refit of Octopus in a commercial dry dock on the Atlantic Coast of France. This project broke the mold and, even still, remains an important job in the world of superyacht refit. We caught up with Captain Brendan O’Shannassy about this iconic project undertaken16 years ago at the genesis of IMM.
Firstly, can you please set the scene – tell us a bit about Octopus, your command and the refit that was required.
It was a five-year survey/refit, significant in time and investment and included a full bridge build, full hull paint, full servicing on diesel generators and removal and replacement of a 90-ton fixed fitting to the hull.
When the other captain and I were told that the consideration was to go to literally a dry dock on the west coast of Atlantic France with shipping containers next to it instead of one of the major yachting hubs, the two of us were not supporters! The project conclusion, however, proved our indignation misguided.
All said and done, it awakened me to a different way of undertaking large projects. It finished on time, on budget and with top quality and it was an amazing time for everyone involved.
What was your experience working with Fabrice and his team?
Fabrice and his team quickly changed my mind about this as a refit strategy. Firstly, they were nimble, able to respond quickly, they did not have the legacy infrastructure and operating behaviors of an established shipyard. This was reflected not only in time, but also cost.
In addition, by working away from the hub, our project received the full attention from the labor force. When you go to a large facility, you find you’ll get a good project manager on the first few days and then they will be taken away to other projects. We did not have that problem.
Furthermore, because it was a team put together for a project, they brought in diversity. It wasn’t a Dutch team or a Northern German team or an Italian team. There was a New Zealander responsible for paint, a German doing engineering, Fabrice the Frenchman, and another French engineer. So they brought different shipyard knowledge to the project management.
It was a bit like having a fantasy football team of project management. You get the best from each environment.
You do need to have the conductor of the orchestra and that was Fabrice because all of that good energy requires stronger leadership than your usual, big department-led approach.
Fabrice’s leadership of a highly skilled 10-person team that oversaw the works of 46-companies and up to 700-site workers helped make the refit a success across all the key metrics of time, quality, and cost. Indeed, whilst I was not responsible for the performance, it remains a highlight of my career to have been associated with such an achievement.
What lessons did you learn from this refit?
Keep your mind open.
It has guided me in future periods where we lifted in Sembawang, Singapore. That’s a long way from yachting, but with clever project management we did a very efficient refit.
To use an analogy here. Don’t go into the hospital ER with a cut finger. If you’re not being wheeled in on a trolley, don’t go there. Don’t go to a large refit hub unless you really need to.
Things can easily get done a long way from the refit hub. Keep things light and nimble. Don’t put infrastructure where it is not needed. If I could get three containers on an alongside dock and put a Fabrice Maître in one of them, I will get a lot more done than I would with 60 people in a large facility
So, my lesson is to keep your eyes open for other options. It really taught me that you don’t need to go to the department store all the time. You can go to the boutique specialist.
Any parting words about Fabrice/IMM or refit in general?
Fabrice is still in the game so that tells me everything!
Our conversation here is about a refit a long time ago that is still measured by today’s standards – complicated, successful and audacious in its scope. Fabrice has only improved since then with more experience and more depth of knowledge. So, all of what I experienced, if I went and did it again with that similar team, it would just be better.
I’ve not made it there yet, but I would love to check out his set up in the Caribbean!
