Complete Yacht Services in Palma de Mallorca: 2026 Owner’s Guide
Palma de Mallorca is the largest yachting hub in the Western Mediterranean. Hundreds of service providers operate across its marinas, refit yards, and industrial zones — covering everything from weekly guardianage to full refits of 60-metre superyachts.
For owners new to Palma, or owners who’ve kept their yacht here for years and never mapped out what’s actually available, the picture can be confusing. This guide is a complete map of yacht services in Palma de Mallorca as of 2026 — what each service does, what it costs, and how to know what your yacht actually needs.
The eight categories of yacht service in Palma
Every yacht in Palma uses some combination of the following. Some owners coordinate all eight themselves; most absentee owners use a yacht manager to coordinate everything except berthing and insurance.
1. Yacht guardianage
Palma offers several advantages for yacht owners:
- Multiple marinas and shipyards within a short distance.
- Strong air connections with major European cities.
- An established network of engineers, electricians, riggers, painters, cleaners and surveyors.
This concentration of services means you can usually find a specialist for any problem. The flipside is that demand is high, so planning and coordination matter.
2. Yacht maintenance and repairs
Routine and reactive technical work. Engine and generator services. Electrical fault diagnosis. Plumbing, refrigeration, watermaker, air conditioning. Hull and deck repairs. Some yards do everything in-house; most service providers specialise and subcontract.
What it costs in Palma: €60–€90 per hour for skilled marine labour. Parts at full retail. Annual maintenance for a typical 15m yacht runs €4,000–€12,000 depending on age and use.
3. Antifouling and below-the-waterline work
Hull cleaning, antifouling application, anode replacement, shaft and propeller service, gel coat repair. Done at lift-out, typically annually in Mediterranean waters because growth is fast.
What it costs in Palma: €1,400–€2,500 for a 40ft yacht, €2,800–€5,000 for a 60ft. Includes haul, jet wash, antifouling, anodes, relaunch. Stern drives and prop work add €500–€2,000.
Yards in Palma: Astilleros de Mallorca, STP (Servicios Técnicos Portuarios), Marina Port de Mallorca, Mallorca Refit. Pricing varies significantly — get multiple quotes.
4. Yacht delivery
Moving a yacht between locations with a paid skipper and crew. Most common Palma routes: Palma to mainland Spain, Palma to Italy or France, Palma from northern Europe.
What it costs in Palma: €600–€1,500 per day skipper rate, plus crew, fuel, and harbour fees. A Palma to Sardinia run runs €2,500–€4,500 total. UK to Palma full delivery: €8,000–€15,000.
When you need it: when you can’t move the yacht yourself, when the passage involves serious offshore work, or when the yacht is newly purchased and you want professionals on the first long passage.
5. Refit and major works
Larger structural, mechanical, or aesthetic projects. Engine replacement, repower, rigging refit, full interior refurbishment, paint, electronics overhaul, deck recore. Typically scheduled during winter lay-up when the yacht is out of the water for weeks or months.
What it costs in Palma: anything from €15,000 for modest paint and varnish work to €500,000+ for full superyacht refits. The Palma refit industry is genuinely world-class — owners ship yachts here from across Europe to use it.
Key yards: Astilleros de Mallorca, STP, Mallorca Refit, Ocean Refit Yacht Carpentry. Each has specialties — research which fits your project.\
6. Berthing and marina services
Year-round or seasonal berthing contracts. Water, electricity, security, sewage pump-out, basic dock services. Each marina has its own contract structure and waiting list.
What it costs in Palma:
- Puerto Portals: €12,000–€18,000/year for a 15m yacht
- Club de Mar Palma: €10,000–€16,000
- Real Club Náutico Palma: €8,000–€14,000
- Port Adriano: €8,000–€14,000
- Puerto Andratx: €5,000–€10,000 (limited availability)
7. Insurance and paperwork
Marine insurance, ship registration, charter licensing, Spanish maritime paperwork (Despacho, ITP), customs and VAT documentation. Specialist brokers handle this — owners shouldn’t try to navigate Spanish maritime bureaucracy alone.
What it costs: insurance €1,500–€6,000/year depending on yacht value. Paperwork through a broker: €300–€1,500 annually depending on complexity.
Key Palma brokers: Pantaenius España, Yachtsmart, Edmiston Insurance, Mediterranean Yachting Insurance.
8. Crew, captains, and concierge
For owners using their yacht heavily or chartering: permanent or seasonal crew, day captains for individual trips, deckhand support, interior staff, provisioning services.
What it costs in Palma: day captain €350–€500/day. Permanent captain €4,000–€8,000/month plus accommodation. Crew agencies handle vetting and contracts.
How do most owners actually structure their yacht services in Palma?
Three typical patterns:
Pattern 1: Heavy DIY (low budget, high time)
Owner handles everything personally. Berths in a cheaper marina. Books each service individually. Lower cost, but each service is uncoordinated, problems get missed, and the owner spends every visit doing yacht work instead of enjoying the boat.
Pattern 2: Yacht manager + direct contractors (most common for 12–20m yachts)
Owner has a yacht manager handling guardianage, weekly checks, and coordination. The manager organises maintenance, antifouling, repairs, deliveries, and storm prep. Owner pays one monthly fee for management plus actual costs for specific work. Total visibility, predictable costs, single point of contact.
Pattern 3: Full captain-managed (yachts 20m+ or chartering)
Owner employs a permanent captain who lives in Palma or commutes. The captain manages everything: crew, maintenance, scheduling, charter operations. Significantly higher fixed cost, but justified for larger or more active yachts.
What absentee owners typically miss when choosing services?
Four mistakes we see repeatedly:
- Treating marina security as yacht oversight. Marinas watch the dock. They don’t manage yachts. Without guardianage, the yacht is unsupervised between owner visits.
- Booking maintenance reactively. Owners wait until something breaks, then pay emergency rates — 2–4x scheduled work.
- Choosing the cheapest yard for refit work. Cheap antifouling or cheap rigging on a Mediterranean yacht is false economy. Quality work pays back over years.
- No single point of contact. Owners juggle relationships with marina, maintenance contractor, surveyor, insurance broker, and refit yard. Anything that needs coordination falls through the cracks.
How we work
At Mallorca Yacht Management, we cover the first three categories directly — guardianage, maintenance coordination, and yacht delivery — for international absentee owners across Palma de Mallorca. For the other categories (refit, insurance, berthing, crew), we have established relationships with trusted providers and coordinate on the owner’s behalf.
Summary
Yacht services in Palma de Mallorca are world-class but fragmented. Eight distinct categories — guardianage, maintenance, antifouling, delivery, refit, berthing, insurance, crew — cover what most yachts need across a year.
For absentee owners, the practical question isn’t ‘which services’ but ‘who’s coordinating them.’ That’s where yacht management earns its place: one point of contact, predictable monthly cost, and continuous oversight across the entire service picture.
If you’d like an honest review of your current yacht services setup in Palma, request a free yacht assessment. We’ll review what you’re using, identify gaps, and recommend what actually fits your usage — no obligation.
Want twelve months of yacht care mapped out by month? Download our free Annual Yacht Owner’s Checklist for Mallorca.
