Yacht Sanitization in Cannes
A show town and a charter base, where the calendar is set months ahead.
Cannes runs on events. The yachting show, the festival, the charter weeks — they decide when a yacht is full, when she is empty, and when nothing at all can be moved on the quay. Working here means working to that calendar.
Presentation is the job, and smell is part of it
A yacht on display is judged in the first thirty seconds aboard, and quite a lot of that judgement is made by the nose.
Before a show, the list that matters is the one nobody can see: the shower that smells of sulphur in the morning, the cabin that smells stale when the air conditioning kicks in, the saloon that carries last night’s cooking. Brokers notice all three.
None of them are fixed by cleaning. The water smell comes from a branch of the system, the cabin smell from a coil inside the unit, the cooking smell from grease in the extraction duct. Air freshener buys about an hour.
Done properly, two weeks before the show, all three are gone and stay gone through it.
Everything we can treat while you are in Cannes
The same six jobs make up almost every visit. On most yachts more than one of them is needed at the same time, which is why we survey first and then plan them into a single stop.
Fresh water system
Tanks, distribution lines and every outlet treated as one network, then checked.
Read more
Legionella testing and remediation
A sampling plan, accredited lab analysis, and treatment across the whole network if a sample comes back positive.
Read more
HVAC and air ducts
Ducts and air handling units opened, cleaned and checked, cabin by cabin.
Read more
Fan coils and air conditioning
Units opened, coils and filters cleaned, condensate trays checked — where the smell on start-up usually comes from.
Read moreGalley hoods and extraction
Filters, hood and the duct run behind it degreased, right up to the fan.
Read more
Odour and mould investigation
Finding where a smell or a damp patch actually starts, instead of covering it.
Read moreSee the full list of services if you are looking for something more specific, such as water sampling, post-refit or charter turnaround work.
Book against the event calendar, not the weather
In Cannes the constraint is never the season. It is which week the port is closed to work.
Aim to finish a fortnight before a show rather than the week of it: if a water sample comes back wrong there has to be time to act on it.
The weeks immediately after the big events are the quietest of the year on the quay, and the easiest to get a proper job done.
From the first call to the report
The sequence is the same whichever berth you are on in Cannes. What changes is the timing, and that is planned around the yacht rather than around us.
We look before we quote
A technician goes through the yacht with the crew: which outlets are used daily and which almost never, where the air handling units sit, what the crew has actually noticed.
The visit is planned around you
We fit the work into the window you have — between charters, during a yard period, or over a quiet weekend alongside.
We work alongside
No yard move and no lift. The heavy equipment stays on the quay; only hoses and a small dosing unit come aboard, on protected decks.
You get it in writing
Sampling points, what was done, and the laboratory report where water was analysed. That document is what closes the job.
A clean system is easy to prove when every step is written down. That is what we hand to the captain.
Francesco Colombo
CEO · AirBio Marine, a division of AirBio (Ekonore S.r.l.)
Book a survey at this port
Our own technicians, certified processes
Every intervention is carried out by AirBio technicians employed and trained in house, never subcontracted. We work under certified management systems and close each job with a technical report the captain can file on board.
- ISO 9001Quality
- ISO 14001Environment
- ISO 45001Health & safety
- ISO 16636Pest management
Verified reviews on Trustpilot
What a visit looks like
A few moments from the jobs we do on yachts every season: the equipment on the quay, the systems we open and the checks we close with. The same way of working applies in Cannes.
Other ports on the same run
If the yacht moves before we get to you, or you are berthed one harbour along, these are the pages for the ports next door.
Antibes
Just east along the bay.
Open
Nice
Further east.
Open
Saint-Tropez
West along the coast.
Open
Monaco
East, past Nice.
OpenThe complete list is on the ports page.
Working in Cannes: frequently asked questions
We have a show in three weeks. What is realistic?
The water system, the sampling and the galley extraction, comfortably. Fan coils across every cabin depends on how many there are — tell us and we will say yes or no rather than start and run out of time.
Can this be done without the yacht being out of presentation?
Yes for the water and galley side. Cabin work means panels off, so that has to sit outside the days the yacht is being shown.
What causes the smell brokers always mention?
Usually the air conditioning. A coil that stays damp between runs produces a stale smell in the first minutes after start-up, which is exactly when someone walks aboard.
Showing in Cannes?
Tell us the yacht, the dates and what you need gone before the doors open. A technician calls you back within 24 hours.
Tell us about the yacht
Yacht length, marina, systems and what you have noticed on board. A technician reads the message and calls you back to plan the survey.
"*" indicates required fields
Where we work
Italian Riviera and Tuscany marinas and yards — Viareggio, La Spezia, Portofino, Genoa, Sanremo, Livorno, Argentario — and other Mediterranean ports on request.
Documented work
Every job ends with a technical report and photos for the yacht's records.