Antibes

Antibes sits at the centre of the Mediterranean superyacht industry, and for tender programmes it is the single most useful port on the coast. Port Vauban holds the largest concentration of large yachts in Europe, and the town's IYCA quarter packs the densest cluster of crew agencies, brokers, surveyors, and technical suppliers between Monaco and Marseille into a few streets. When a captain needs a new limousine tender sea-trialled, a damaged sterndrive sourced overnight, or a chase boat surveyed before purchase, the supply chain is walkable.

The market here works to a fixed annual rhythm. Most Med-based fleets stage spring commissioning out of Antibes from March through May, then return for autumn winterisation from October. The two pinch points are the Cannes Yachting Festival in early September and the Monaco Yacht Show prep that follows within a fortnight; Port Vauban and Golfe-Juan fill with boats being detailed, re-canvased, and re-fendered for both. Brokers see used inventory peak in this same autumn window as fleets rotate stock before lay-up.

Local demand skews to limousine tenders and chase boats serving the 50m-plus charter fleet. Side-launching Williams and Pascoe units dominate guest movements; Wajer and Pardo chase boats are now common alongside the older Sacs and Cantieri delle Marche stock. Garage-launched limousines and davit-launched RIBs both turn over here, and the two-to-five-year-old pre-owned boats that fall out of short replacement cycles on the 60m-plus fleet usually surface through the IYCA brokers first.

• Monaco Marine La Ciotat and Monaco Marine Vauban handle most warranty work and minor refit on tenders alongside the mothership; the Vauban service centre keeps light jobs in town.
• MB92 La Ciotat (45 minutes west) is the regional heavyweight for full repaint, structural, and systems work; tender packages are usually folded into the mothership lift to share the dock and scaffolding window.
• Composite Works (La Ciotat) for laminate repair and carbon fabrication, including hull and hardtop work on damaged guest tenders.
• IMS Shipyard (Port Vauban) for smaller-tender mechanical and finishing work without leaving Antibes, which keeps a boat in the water and on-programme.

Tender refit is almost always timed to the mothership's own yard period, so the practical refit window for Antibes-based boats is the November-to-March lay-up. Booking a La Ciotat slot for that window is competitive and should be locked before the autumn shows.

France applies standard EU VAT at 20% on tender sales delivered locally to a private buyer. Commercial-flagged yachts can land tenders under temporary admission for crew use without triggering import VAT, but charter operations carry French social charges (ENIM) for crew aboard tenders flagged commercially. Côte d'Azur fiscal stops should be coordinated with the yacht's fiscal representative; do not rely on a verbal nod from the marina office. The mechanics of paid-status versus temporary admission are set out in our tender import VAT note, and any show-season purchase at Cannes or Monaco should be structured before signature, not after.