A yard period near Athens is the moment to prove the yacht’s technology system, not just install it. Before departure for the Aegean or wider Mediterranean season, the captain, owner’s representative, and management company should know which systems were changed, what still depends on legacy infrastructure, how WAN failover behaves, and what the crew can actually troubleshoot without a technician onboard.
This checklist is written for vessels working through Olympic Marine, Perama, Piraeus, Lavrion, or other Athens-area refit locations. It does not claim Cave Group has completed work at any specific Greek yard. It is a practical acceptance framework for the technology scope Cave Group handles on superyachts and custom vessels: Crestron control, marine lighting, AV, Starlink Maritime, Peplink multi-WAN, UniFi networking, cameras, and support documentation.
Lock The Scope Before The Yard Window Closes
The first acceptance question is simple: what must be true before the yacht leaves the dock?
Athens-area refit windows can involve interior work, engineering work, exterior access, and guest-facing finish decisions at the same time. BOAT International has covered a 47-meter Admiral yacht undergoing an interior renovation at Perama Shipyard, a useful reminder that Greek yard periods can include substantial interior changes, not only mechanical work. Technology teams should use that access carefully, because open joinery, ceiling access, rack access, and mast access may not return once the boat is released.
Before technology work begins, define the exact acceptance list:
- Which Crestron processors, touchpanels, lighting modules, or interfaces are being replaced or retained
- Which audio zones and video displays are in scope
- Which spaces need owner-facing control and which need crew-facing service pages
- Which WAN paths are active: Starlink Maritime, cellular, marina Wi-Fi, VSAT, or another connection
- Which networks are separated for owner, guest, crew, AV, security, and management traffic
- Which camera views matter for boarding, dockside awareness, tender areas, and technical spaces
- Which documents must be handed over before departure
A yard-period checklist should not become a generic wish list. If a guest cabin display is retained, document it. If a salon source path is rebuilt, test it. If Starlink is added but cellular failover is not commissioned, mark that as a limitation before the yacht leaves Greece.
Prove Control, Lighting, And AV Room By Room
On yacht projects, Cave Group standardizes marine lighting and control around Crestron. That matters during acceptance because the crew should not be left with one beautiful demo scene and a stack of undocumented exceptions.
Room-by-room testing should cover:
- Cabin lighting scenes, including night, reading, cleaning, and wake modes
- Exterior deck lighting in real darkness, not just afternoon dock light
- Touchpanel and keypad behavior in owner, guest, and crew areas
- AV source routing to every intended display
- Audio zone grouping, volume limits, and source selection
- Hidden displays, lifts, or motorized hardware tied into the control system
- Crew-only pages for system status and basic recovery steps
For video distribution, Crestron DM NVX can be appropriate when the network is designed for it, but acceptance should be based on actual routing behavior. Confirm which sources are available in the main salon, skylounge, master suite, guest cabins, and crew mess. Verify that labels in the interface match the physical system. A button labeled “Cinema” should not depend on someone remembering which rack input was repurposed during refit.
The same discipline applies to audio. A sundeck system, beach club zone, main saloon, and quiet guest cabin do not have the same job. Acceptance should include listening at normal use levels, checking independent zone control, and confirming that the crew can adjust or shut down exterior zones quickly when operational conditions change.
Validate Starlink, Cellular, And WAN Failover
Connectivity acceptance should be more than a speed test. Peplink’s maritime materials describe onboard connectivity as a mix of available links such as LTE, Wi-Fi, and satellite, with network availability and speed changing by location. Its Starlink solution materials also describe bonding multiple Starlink connections and using SpeedFusion for packet-level bonding and sub-second failover between links.
For a yacht leaving an Athens-area yard, the practical question is not “Is the internet fast today?” It is “What happens when the preferred path changes?”
Before departure, test and document:
- Starlink status, mounting assumptions, and cable paths
- Cellular or 5G carrier behavior at the dock and, where possible, during movement
- Marina Wi-Fi behavior if it is part of the WAN policy
- WAN priority rules for owner traffic, crew operations, cameras, cloud services, and guest internet
- Failover between Starlink, cellular, marina Wi-Fi, VSAT, or other active paths
- Whether critical remote support tools remain reachable after a WAN change
- Which traffic is allowed on guest networks and which management services are isolated
Peplink notes that cellular and Starlink have complementary strengths: Starlink can provide wide coverage and high throughput, while cellular may provide more consistent low-latency service where coverage exists. That makes acceptance testing especially important near Greece, where the yacht may move from marina connectivity to coastal cellular to open-water satellite service in a short span.
Deliver Documentation The Crew Can Use
A yacht technology refit is not complete until the operating team has usable documentation. The captain and engineer do not need a sales binder. They need enough information to operate the system, explain it to rotating crew, and support a remote troubleshooting call after the boat has left the yard.
The handover package should include:
- Rack elevations and device inventory
- Network diagram with VLANs, SSIDs, WAN paths, and management access notes
- Crestron processor, lighting panel, keypad, and touchpanel locations
- AV source-to-display map
- Audio zone map
- Camera map with recorder location and retention assumptions
- Approved remote support method
- Configuration backup locations
- Spare parts list, if spares are carried onboard
- Crew-facing reset and escalation procedure
Cave Group’s Cave Watch 24/7 managed support and remote monitoring can support installed systems when the required connectivity and remote-access arrangements are in place. That is separate from Cave Watch Central alarm monitoring on Alarm.com through a UL-listed central station, and separate again from Deep Sentinel live video monitoring. For a yacht acceptance package, keep those services distinct so the crew knows which layer applies to support, alarm response, or live video intervention.
Run Dockside And Sea-Trial Acceptance Before Release
Final acceptance should include both dockside testing and underway validation when the project scope depends on vessel movement, changing WAN paths, or exterior systems.
Dockside acceptance should confirm:
- Every lighting scene in the spaces that were touched
- Every guest-facing keypad and touchpanel
- Every intended AV source and display route
- Every audio zone at practical listening levels
- Wi-Fi coverage in owner, guest, crew, bridge, exterior, and service areas
- Camera views, recording, playback, and crew access
- UPS recovery and rack power behavior where included
- Remote support visibility through approved access paths
Sea-trial or movement-based acceptance should confirm:
- WAN transition behavior as marina Wi-Fi, cellular, and Starlink conditions change
- Crew access to diagnostics while underway
- Exterior audio and lighting behavior outside the controlled dock environment
- Bridge, captain’s office, and crew interfaces under real operating conditions
- Any punch-list items that only appear once the yacht is no longer static
The goal is not to make the yacht technologically complicated. The goal is to leave the yard with fewer unknowns. If a limitation remains, document it clearly. If a system depends on a specific WAN path, label that dependency. If a future refit phase is needed, define it before the season begins.