Seabob Delivery to Antibes, Palma & Monaco | 5-Day Mediterranean Logistics

Eight Ports, One Phone Number, Five Days

Most Seabob buyers in the Mediterranean charter market don’t need a Seabob at their home address. They need it on board a specific yacht, in a specific marina, by a specific Friday afternoon ahead of a guest week. The question is rarely where can I buy one? — it’s how does it actually get on the swim platform without the captain having to absorb a customs nightmare?

That’s the question this guide answers. Mercer Yachting delivers Seabob units, batteries, accessories and spares from our Marsaskala warehouse in Malta to eight regularly-served Mediterranean superyacht ports on a standard five-day lead time. We handle the paperwork end-to-end — including Monaco, the trickiest of the eight. Crew briefing is included as standard. There are no surprise import duties because under the relevant EU VAT directive there shouldn’t be any.

Below is the operational picture: the lead time and what it covers, the standard handover point in each port, the VAT and customs framework, and what we need from you to issue a quote in the same business day.

At-a-Glance: The Eight Ports

Each handover point is confirmed at quote stage based on your vessel’s actual berth assignment. If your yacht is in transit between two of the eight, we hold the in-country dispatch until 24 hours before final-mile delivery and confirm against the captain’s WhatsApp.

How the Five-Day Timeline Breaks Down

The five-day standard isn’t a freight-only figure. It’s the door-to-passerelle window from order confirmation to crew briefing complete. The sequence:

1. Day 1 — Order & export paperwork. Once the order is confirmed and the destination vessel/marina is fixed, our Malta team files the Maltese export-side documentation: the commercial invoice issued VAT-free under Article 138 of Directive 2006/112/EC for intra-EU B2B sales, the EC Sales List entry, and the destination paperwork the recipient needs for reverse-charge accounting. For Monaco we issue the invoice using the recipient’s French TVA number per Article 7(2) of the VAT Directive.
2. Day 2 — Outbound dispatch. The board, batteries and accessories leave the Marsaskala warehouse on the appropriate freight route — sea-air combination for Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Tropez and Monaco via mainland France; sea-direct or sea-air to Palma for Mallorca; sea-air to Porto Cervo via Olbia; sea-air via Athens for Mykonos. Lithium batteries ship under IATA UN3480/UN3481 packing regulations or maritime IMDG equivalents.
3. Day 3 — Transit and in-country clearance. Goods clear customs only at non-EU destinations — which in practice means none of our eight, since Monaco is inside the EU customs territory by treaty. Sea-direct freight reaches Mallorca on this leg; air-freighted boards reach Nice, Marseille, Olbia or Athens.
4. Day 4 — Final-mile to the marina. Ground transport from the arrival hub to the named marina. The destination yacht agent (Catalano in Antibes and Saint-Tropez, IGY concierge in Cannes and Porto Cervo, or our coordinating partner elsewhere) takes physical receipt at the quay. We confirm dispatch against the captain’s contact 24 hours before this leg.
5. Day 5 — Onboard handover and crew briefing. A technician meets the board at the passerelle, runs the 60–90 minute crew briefing, pairs the Seabob piezo controller to the chief officer’s phone, demonstrates the start sequence, the cut-off and lanyard, and the Cayago app ride configuration. Lithium charging and storage protocols per MGN 681 (M) Amendment 1 are walked through. Handover signed off, board on the swim platform.

The window can compress where it must. Pre-charter handovers around July changeover weeks regularly run on a three- or four-day clock when crews flag the deadline at quote stage. The five-day standard exists because it accommodates customs, freight and crew availability without any one of them needing to be expedited.

The Three Hero Ports: Antibes, Palma, Monaco

Antibes — Port Vauban / Quai des Milliardaires

Port Vauban is Europe’s largest yacht harbour with around 1,642 berths total and a 19-berth superyacht basin on the Quai des Milliardaires for yachts in the 70–165 m LOA range with 5–8 m draft. The recent IYCA refurbishment reopened the on-quay yacht club, crew centre and bar, and the area remains the Mediterranean’s densest agglomeration of crew agencies and chandleries within a five-minute radius. The quay is a gated concession with vehicle access controlled by Vauban 21, the marina operator.

Our default handover route is through Catalano Shipping Services, who maintain an office inside IYCA. The board is signed off at the agent’s office, then walked to the passerelle. Port Camille Rayon at Golfe-Juan absorbs overflow for 40–70 m yachts during peak weeks (Monaco Grand Prix, Cannes Yachting Festival). For yachts in shorter stays at Port Gallice or beyond, the technician travels to the vessel rather than the vessel to the agent.

Palma de Mallorca — STP Shipyard / Club de Mar

Palma is the Mediterranean’s refit capital. STP Shipyard expanded to 162,000 m² in 2024 and runs 53 berths to 120 m LOA / 7.5 m draft alongside Europe’s largest 1,000-tonne travelift. Club de Mar offers 543 berths with 40+ superyacht-suitable spaces to 170 m LOA. Around 700 yachts wintering in Palma make it the only Med port where surface handover access — van directly to passerelle — runs comfortably year-round.

Our default handover at STP is via the shipyard’s open vehicle access, with the technician meeting the board at the vessel directly. For charter-season deliveries when boards belong on Club de Mar or one of the southern marinas (Port Adriano, Puerto Portals), we route to those marinas’ receiving offices. The Balearics are inside the EU VAT area, so the intra-EU reverse-charge treatment applies as standard at 21% Spanish IVA self-accounted by the recipient.

Monaco — Port Hercule

Port Hercule has 700 berths total, of which roughly 110 take vessels >24 m, with the largest superyacht slot at 130 m LOA and depths between 5 and 40 m. The Yacht Club de Monaco runs the prestige programme. Berth requests should be submitted well in advance — at minimum two weeks for general weeks — and turn-up berthing is essentially impossible during the Grand Prix (5–7 June in 2026; historically late May or early June) and the Monaco Yacht Show (last week of September) — both fully booked 12+ months ahead. Port Fontvieille handles the smaller second-marina demand to a 30 m max LOA and 3 m draft, but is largely resident-allocated.

Monaco is the only port of the eight where the paperwork question carries any weight at all. Here’s the practical answer: treat it as France. Monaco has been inside the EU customs territory since 1968 via the Franco-Monegasque Customs Convention of 1963 — goods circulate freely from Malta with no import declaration and no customs duty. For VAT, Article 7(2) of Directive 2006/112/EC requires Member States to treat transactions destined for Monaco as transactions destined for France. The Maltese invoice issues VAT-free under Article 138; the Monegasque business self-accounts using its French TVA number at 20%. Operational difference versus a delivery to Antibes: the postal address.

Also Serving: Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Porto Cervo, Bonifacio, Mykonos

The other five ports run on the same five-day clock but with port-specific operational notes worth flagging.

Cannes — IGY Vieux Port / Port Pierre Canto

IGY Vieux Port has 635 berths with the Cruising Yachts Quay (Jetée Albert Édouard) taking up to 140 m LOA on special arrangement and standard berths to 65 m. Port Pierre Canto on the east side of the Croisette adds 598 berths to 80 m LOA / 7 m draft, with full chandlery and concierge on site. The Cannes Film Festival every mid-May essentially closes Vieux Port to non-event traffic; we route those weeks to Pierre Canto. Both quays accept van traffic; IGY runs concierge handover at Vieux Port reception.

Saint-Tropez — Port de Saint-Tropez / Les Marines de Cogolin

Saint-Tropez’s 734 berths concentrate around the Môle Jean Réveille and the breakwater Môle d’Estienne d’Orves, the latter taking superyachts to 90 m LOA / 4 m draft. Yachts >90 m anchor in the Gulf and tender in. The village quays are pedestrianised through the day in season — physical handovers run via the back-of-port access through the Régie, or via agent runner. Les Marines de Cogolin, ~3 km across the Gulf, handles up to 50 m and offers van-to-passerelle access without the village-centre congestion.

Porto Cervo — Marina di Porto Cervo

The de-facto Costa Smeralda superyacht stop. IGY-operated, 700 berths with 100 megayacht spaces to 160 m LOA / 8 m draft. The New Marina runs 24/7 year-round; the Old Port operates only between 1 June and 30 September. Outside that window, winter handovers route through New Marina or alternatively through Olbia, 30 km away. The peak fortnight (15 July to 25 August) sees the marina effectively full to Ferragosto and YCCS regatta traffic — deliveries in that window are booked early.

Bonifacio — Port de Plaisance

France’s busiest Mediterranean port of call by stopover count (~10,000 a year). 450 berths with 160 visitor spaces; the Honour Dock at the head of the inlet takes up to 86 m LOA, while the commercial quay accommodates up to 142 m LOA / 5.5 m draft. Two things to know: the fjord entrance has no visual line-up and is narrow enough that recent superyacht groundings have made the news; and pricing is by surface area (LOA × beam) rather than LOA alone — beamy yachts pay disproportionately. The quay itself is fully road-accessible and the Capitainerie handles crew formalities directly.

Mykonos — Tender Handover from Old Port

The exception of the eight. There are no superyacht-suitable berths on Mykonos. Tourlos Marina takes vessels only to 25 m LOA / 3 m draft. Yachts >25 m anchor out at Ornos, Platis Gialos, Psarou or Korfos and run tenders. Our handover is tender-based from the Old Port jetty, or from the floating piers at Nammos / Scorpios / Psarou in season — coordinated through a Mykonos yacht agent who meets the courier and runs the tender shuttle to the vessel. The lead time stays at five days; the final mile is by tender, not by van.

VAT & Customs: How We Handle It

For a B2B Mediterranean delivery the paperwork follows the same shape at all eight destinations — we just file the Maltese export side and supply the recipient with what they need to self-account.

The legal mechanism: a Maltese supply to a VAT-registered business in another EU Member State is an exempt intra-Community supply under Article 138 of Directive 2006/112/EC. Malta charges no VAT on the invoice; the recipient self-accounts local VAT at the destination rate via the reverse-charge mechanism (Articles 196 and 200, same Directive). No customs declaration is needed within the EU customs territory — the goods are already in free circulation. Mercer Yachting files the EC Sales List (Recapitulative Statement) from Malta as the EU mechanism for tracking these supplies.

The standard VAT rate self-accounted by the recipient varies by destination:

None of this becomes the captain’s problem. We supply the invoice in the correct form for the recipient’s accountant to plug straight into the local VAT return.

Article 148: When the Seabob Ships VAT-Free

There is one path to a fully zero-rated invoice with no local VAT to self-account. Where the Seabob is delivered onto a qualifying commercial yacht as ship’s equipment, the supply falls under Article 148 of Directive 2006/112/EC and is exempt from VAT regardless of destination port. The European Court of Justice has interpreted the exemption narrowly — as a derogation from the general VAT regime, it is construed strictly — and limited it to supplies made at the final stage to the operator of the qualifying sea-going vessel itself (cases C-33/16 A Oy and joined cases C-181/04 to C-183/04 Elmeka).

Three conditions must all be met:

• The vessel is used for navigation on the high seas.
• The vessel carries passengers for reward, or is used commercially.
• In France specifically, a stricter four-part test applies: ≥15 m LOA, commercial registration, owning company’s object is commercial maritime use, and demonstrable high-seas operation.

For a charter-yacht-owning company invoicing the toy inventory of a qualifying commercial yacht, Mercer can structure the invoice for Article 148 ship’s-stores treatment subject to receiving a captain or owner declaration confirming the criteria. The exemption does not extend to privately-used yachts, however large.

What’s Included in Every Delivery

Standard scope for the five-day delivery to any of the eight ports:

• Door-to-passerelle freight — sea-air or sea-direct as appropriate, including lithium-battery packaging and labelling under IATA UN3480/UN3481 or IMDG.
• Full Maltese export documentation — commercial invoice, packing list, EC Sales List filing, customs clearance for non-EU destinations (in practice limited to specific shipping routes through non-EU airspace; Monaco itself is inside the EU customs territory).
• Destination-country paperwork — the recipient’s accountant gets a reverse-charge-ready invoice; for Article 148 deliveries the ship’s-stores declaration template.
• Final-mile delivery to the named marina, with on-quay agent or concierge handover where the marina requires it (Antibes Quai des Milliardaires, Cannes Vieux Port, Porto Cervo).
• 60–90 minute crew briefing with a Mercer Yachting technician — Seabob piezo controller pairing, Cayago app ride-mode configuration, start and shutdown sequence, safety cut-off and lanyard, lithium charging and storage protocol under MGN 681 (M) Amendment 1, transport and stowage between guest weeks, service interval and warranty notes.
• Captain WhatsApp coordination — we hold direct contact throughout transit and confirm dispatch 24 hours before final-mile.

Out of scope: special permits required by individual flag states for lithium battery transport above standard limits; tender hire for vessels anchored out (priced through the local yacht agent); field-service technician deployment for in-place repairs after handover (priced separately).

What We Need to Quote

Five pieces of information get a quote back to you the same business day:

1. Model and battery configuration. F9, F9 S or SE63 Lamborghini, with Battery Capacity Plus / Driving Stability / colour options as needed. If you’re still sizing the order, our 2026 pricing guide walks through model selection.
2. Destination port. One of the eight named ports above. If you’re ranging across multiple ports we’ll set up a re-route protocol at quote stage.
3. Specific marina or berth if known. If not yet confirmed, the city is enough — we’ll lock the marina 24 hours before final-mile.
4. Needed-by date. Typically the start of a charter week, a guest arrival, or a yacht-show window. We work back five days from there.
5. Recipient entity name, VAT number and vessel name/flag. The VAT number sets the intra-EU reverse-charge mechanism; the vessel flag determines whether Article 148 ship’s-stores treatment is available.

Quotes go out from rfq@merceryachting.com on the same business day during Maltese hours (Mon–Sat, 05:00–21:00 CET). For weekend or out-of-hours enquiries, WhatsApp delivers the fastest acknowledgement.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does Seabob delivery from Malta to a Mediterranean port take?

Five days from the Mercer Yachting warehouse in Malta to any of our eight regularly-served Mediterranean ports — Antibes, Palma, Monaco, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Porto Cervo, Bonifacio and Mykonos. The timeline includes export-side paperwork, freight transit, in-country clearance for non-EU destinations such as Monaco, and the final mile to the agreed handover marina.

Do you handle the VAT and customs paperwork yourselves?

Yes — end-to-end for every destination port including Monaco. For intra-EU destinations we invoice VAT-free as an exempt intra-Community supply under Article 138 of Directive 2006/112/EC, and the recipient business self-accounts local VAT via reverse charge. Where the recipient vessel qualifies as a commercial yacht under Article 148, the invoice can be structured for ship’s-stores zero-rating subject to captain or owner declaration.

Is Monaco treated as inside or outside the EU for the Seabob delivery?

Monaco is in the EU customs territory via the 1963 Franco-Monegasque Customs Convention — goods circulate freely from Malta, no import declaration, no customs duty. For VAT, Article 7(2) of the Directive treats transactions destined for Monaco as transactions destined for France. The Monegasque business self-accounts using its French TVA number at 20%.

Is crew briefing included with delivery?

Yes — included as standard, no additional charge. The briefing covers Seabob piezo controller pairing, Cayago app setup, start and shutdown sequence, safety cut-off and lanyard, lithium charging per MGN 681 (M) Amendment 1, transport and stowage between guest weeks, and the 24-month Cayago manufacturer warranty (clause 8 discretion for heavy charter use).

What happens if our yacht moves between ports while the Seabob is in transit?

Standard for Mediterranean charter operations. We confirm the destination 24 hours before departure from Malta and again 24 hours before final-mile dispatch. Within those windows we can re-route within the same country at no surcharge, and across borders for the difference in freight rate. Captain WhatsApp contact is held throughout transit.

Do you deliver Seabob accessories and spares as well as complete Seabobs?

Yes — same five-day Mediterranean logistics covers Seabob battery spares, charger replacements, propellers, prop protection rings, anodes, chargers, batteries and Seabob piezo controllers. Smaller spares often qualify for Article 148 ship’s-stores treatment when delivered to a qualifying commercial yacht.