The Boat Works

About the marina

The Boat Works is what happens when a boat-obsessed racing family decides to spend nine figures on a shipyard. Owner Tony Longhurst, a former Australian champion offshore powerboat racer and touring car driver, has invested more than $100 million transforming 55 acres of Coomera River frontage into the largest shipyard facility in the southern hemisphere, a two-yard complex that hauls out around 50 vessels a week. The original southern boatyard serves the general fleet, while the northern Superyacht Yard, built in a nine-month sprint and opened in February 2020, was Australia's first purpose-built superyacht refit precinct, reaching capacity within a year and spawning successive expansion stages. The facility's 300-tonne travel lift is the largest on the Gold Coast, and its mix of six haul-out machines, seventy-plus refit sheds and more than 80 marine trades on site has drawn comparisons with the great Florida yards. The 5 Gold Anchor rated marina component, constructed by local specialist Superior Jetties, includes a Superyacht Basin welcoming vessels to 65 metres, with alongside berthing for yachts to 70 metres. What surprises first-time visitors is the tone: despite the industrial capability, the grounds are landscaped and fastidiously clean, with a Captain's and Crew's Lounge, restaurants, bars and even a car museum, prompting the yard's own description of itself as a resort for your boat. Yachts such as the 41-metre Batavia have chosen Coomera over Asian yards for major refits, a shift that says plenty about where this facility now sits in the Asia-Pacific hierarchy. Demand has never really slowed since.

Berthing & shoreside services

Haul-out capacity is the headline: a 300-tonne travel lift in the Superyacht Yard backed by 100-tonne and 70-tonne lifts and a 45-tonne hydraulic submersible Sealift configured for wide-bodied catamarans, multihulls and houseboats, six machines in all. Once out, vessels go onto expansive hardstand, over 50,000 square metres in the superyacht yard alone, with covered hardstand options, shade, workbenches and more than 70 individual refit sheds taking vessels to 50 metres; the superyacht sheds offer 20-metre air draft, double-sheeted screened walls, private offices, workshops, storage and ensuites, and dedicated crane pads and sandblast sheds. Stage 4 added 50-metre refinishing sheds for respray work, and two 100-metre covered on-water chutes provide weatherproof working environments afloat. In the water, the marina offers a Superyacht Basin for vessels to 65 metres with berths from 24 metres up to a single 75-metre berth, more than 100 work berths on a 4-metre basin, and minimum berth depths of 2.5 metres. Fuel is arranged via truck delivery to the dock. DIY is explicitly welcomed alongside full project management, and more than 80 marine trade businesses, chandlery superstores and a boat sales precinct trade on site, so competitive quoting happens across the driveway. Crew amenities are unusually complete: the Captain's and Crew's Lounge open daily, three food and beverage outlets, free laundries, ensuites, barbecue areas, a gym, courtesy cars, onsite helipad and 24-hour CCTV with resident caretakers. The yard is a port of entry clearance point, holds 5 Gold Anchor accreditation, and runs water filtration and recycling, solar arrays and bio-gardens that underwrite its claim to be Australia's cleanest yard.

Local context in YouSail

This is directory context, not navigation advice. Check current charts, notices and official boating resources before passage.

The yard sits in the heart of the 250-hectare Gold Coast Marine Precinct on the Coomera River, with a minimum channel depth of about 3.7 metres down to the Broadwater and no bridges in the way; the river is dredged and well marked, but stay in the leads on the bends. Geography is part of the business model: Coomera sits outside the cyclone belt yet within easy striking distance of the Whitsundays, so the yard's year follows the fleet, filling as yachts return south after winter cruising and emptying as they head north again. The Sanctuary Cove resort and its restaurants lie just downstream at the river mouth, the Seaway gives ocean access, and Brisbane is under an hour by road with the airport about 45 minutes away for crew movements. Provisioning and retail are close at Coomera's shopping centres, about four kilometres off, and the marine precinct around the yard supplies anything the onsite trades do not. Crews on long refits exploit the Gold Coast lifestyle hard: surf beaches twenty minutes east, hinterland rainforest and wineries an hour west. Summer storm season brings short, violent cells, so shed scheduling matters for paint work, and the yard's water containment rules are strict, part of why it keeps winning environmental plaudits. For skippers planning a first visit, book the lift well ahead; both yards have run at or near capacity since 2021, and the booking queue for the 300-tonne machine is the best gauge of how busy the season is. Arrive with your insurance and survey paperwork ready for smooth induction.