Prestige 500 Retrofit

This Prestige 500 Retrofit was a 2015 project for PR Nautica in Southern France. The order for the craft was placed without the optional Crew Cabin and the factory were unable to accommodate the request late in its build.

PR Nautica were challenged with converting the aft storage space in to a high quality, build specification Crew Cabin including a toilet, shower and full air-conditioning. Two technicians were sent down to the South of France and completed the fit-out within just 7-days. We were also asked to complete various other modifications and upgrades to the vessel.

Our Prestige 500 Retrofit project started with a visit to the Jeanneau factory in Nantes, France. We were fortunate enough to be offered a tour of the impressive factory facilities and the production line of the Prestige 500. This visit allowed us to gather all of the information we would require for our retrofit.

The vessel left Nantes by road and headed down to Port Napoleon where it was met by our team. The vessel was unwrapped and all of the equipment that was stripped for it’s road transport was rebuilt. With a thorough plan in place and racing against the clock, our men set to work on the upgrades.

Crew Cabin

Our given objective for the Crew Cabin fit out was to convert the aft storage area in to a single berth cabin with the same layout as a Crew Cabin specification Prestige 500.

This was to include a toilet, shower, sink and bunk.  Having been given the opportunity to visit the Jeanneau(Prestige) factory we had drawn up the layout of the cabin with all of the dimensions to replicate the standard layout.

We also recommended and agreed taking advantage of an area on the port side of the Crew Cabin by shelving the area of a storage space.

Air-Conditioning

As the final destination for this vessel was East Asia, getting the air-conditioning right in the Crew Cabin was important. We opted to fit a Dometic 6000BTU tropical air-conditioning system. Due to the layout of the engine room it was necessary for the Crew Cabin air-conditioning to have it’s own fan with just the water feed taken from the Engine Room.

Flybridge Rebuild

Due to limitations with the road transport the Jeanneau (Prestige) factory had to strip down the Flybridge to limit the height of the vessel on the trailer. Our first task upon meeting the boat at Port Napoleon was to rebuild the Flybridge to the same high standard.

This involved refitting the forward screens, helm console, wetbar, radar arch and mast.

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List of extra tasks:

  • Supply and fit a Ribeye TS 280 tender with a Yamaha F9.9JES.
  • Supply and fit a Davit system for secure fixing of tender on platform and for easy launch and retrieval.
  • Fit a watermaker skin fitting in the Engine Room for the later fitting of a watermaker.
  • Replace the existing gas hob in the Galley with an electric induction hob.
  • Supply and fit a mesh screen for the Aft Cockpit.
  • Supply of Life Saving Equipment
  • Supply of Director Chairs