Service category
Marine and Vessel Integration, Gold Coast
DC and ELV electrical work for vessels at the client's home, driveway, dry storage, or on-trailer. Three connected services that share one engineering approach: 24V and 48V battery upgrades with Victron, remote vessel monitoring through VRM, and unified home-and-vessel dashboards for owners with both. We don't service vessels at marina berths. That's deliberately outside our scope, not an oversight. The work happens where the boat is stored at home and the owner has time outside the dockside grind.
Which service fits your situation
Marine projects start in different places depending on what's already installed and what you're trying to fix. The three sub-services connect: most owners eventually buy at least two of them. The right starting point depends on where you are now.
Start with Marine 24V/48V DC if:
Your existing battery bank is at end of life and the replacement decision is whether to like-for-like AGM or step up to LiFePO4. Or your house loads have grown (induction cooktop, watermaker, larger inverter) and the existing 12V system can't keep up, meaning a voltage step-up to 24V or 48V. Or you've inherited a vessel with a budget LiFePO4 install and the BMS isn't talking to the inverter properly. The DC bank work is the foundation everything else builds on.
Start with Vessel Monitoring if:
Your DC system is fine but you've got no remote oversight. The boat sits at home or in dry storage for weeks at a time and you've come back to a flat house bank, a tripped breaker after a storm, or a bilge pump that ran for three days. Or your existing Cerbo GX is fitted but VRM was never properly commissioned, so you can see the system locally but not from your phone when you're 500km away. Adding the monitoring layer over an existing working system is straightforward.
Start with Vessel-to-Villa if:
You own both a home and a vessel, both running Victron, and you want them as one system rather than two apps. The home already runs Home Assistant or is going to. The vessel is properly commissioned with a Cerbo. You spend time away from the boat and want oversight that's seamless: one dashboard, one alert profile, no app-juggling. This is the narrowest service, with specific prerequisites that have to be in place first.
Most marine projects start with one of the first two and add Vessel-to-Villa later once both ends are mature. The Combined Estate Audit covers the full picture if you have both a home and a vessel. The audit identifies the right starting service and the right order for whatever comes after.
The home-storage scope, explained
The home-storage constraint is the single most important thing to understand about Iron and Air's marine work. It's a deliberate choice, not a limitation. Three reasons:
Marina work is a different trade
Marina-based marine electricians do dockside service work: short visits, fast turnaround, working around tide and weather, often on multiple vessels per day. The work is real and skilled, and there are specialists who do it well. We're not those specialists. Our work needs longer time blocks, controlled access, and the ability to leave the vessel partially apart between visits, none of which fits dockside service.
The work we do takes longer than dockside allows
A LiFePO4 voltage step-up is a five to seven day project. A Cerbo recommissioning with full alarm rebuild is one to two days. A Vessel-to-Villa integration involves both ends. None of these fit the dockside model. Boats stored at home, in dry storage, or on a trailer give us the access we need to do the work properly.
Owner schedules suit home work better
Most of our marine clients aren't full-time liveaboards. They're owners who use the vessel on weekends and during holidays. The boat sits at home for weeks at a time. Working on it during evenings and weekends suits the owner's schedule, suits ours, and avoids competing with the dockside specialists who'd be doing the same work for higher cost on tighter timelines.
If your vessel lives permanently at a marina berth and never comes home, we're not the right contractor for you. The right answer is a marina-based marine electrician who can work dockside. We'll happily refer to one if you contact us. The marine specialist community on the Gold Coast is small and the good ones know each other.
The same engineering approach across all three
The three marine services aren't independent products. They share an engineering foundation that distinguishes the work from generic battery installs and dockside service.
Victron as the system platform
Strong warranty support in Australia. The broadest managed-system ecosystem (VRM remote monitoring, Cerbo GX as system controller, MultiPlus inverter/chargers as the system core, full Modbus and CAN integration). Excellent local distribution. Open enough to integrate with Home Assistant, Node-RED, MQTT brokers, and third-party BMSes when needed. The hardware is competitively priced once you factor in the integrated ecosystem. Other brands work. We'll work on Mastervolt or Magnum installs when present, but for new work, Victron is the default for sound reasons.
Local-first monitoring with optional cloud overlay
The Cerbo GX runs locally on the vessel. Battery state-of-charge, AC and DC measurements, charge control, alarm logic: all of it runs on the local controller, independent of internet. VRM (Victron's cloud portal) is the optional overlay for remote oversight. The cloud is a feature, not a dependency. When the boat is offline, the local system keeps working perfectly.
Documented handover at every install
Every marine install ends with a documentation pack: bank specifications, charge profile settings, BMS configuration, VRM access credentials, wiring diagrams as installed, alarm threshold list, and a written maintenance schedule. You own the system documentation. Any qualified Victron technician can pick up the work later if you want to change providers or need someone closer to where you've moved the boat.
Physical fail-safe
Marine systems get installed with manual fallback paths everywhere. Battery isolators that can be operated by hand if the BMS trips. Manual generator start as backup to auto-start. Manual shore power changeover if the MultiPlus dies. The smart layer adds capability without removing the dumb-mode fallback. When something fails, the boat is still operable.
From audit to commissioned vessel
Most marine projects follow the same shape. Specifics vary by scope, but the structure is consistent.
1. Combined Estate Audit, or vessel-only scoped audit
$900 if home and vessel are both in scope. Custom-quoted ($600–$1,200 typically) if it's vessel-only. Three to four hours on the vessel for the marine portion. Written report within five business days covering DC bank state, Victron components, BMS integration, monitoring state, and recommended scope.
2. Design and quote review
Most clients want a follow-up call after reading the report. Marine projects often have more decisions than home projects (LiFePO4 vs AGM, voltage choice, hardware brand selection within the Victron ecosystem) so the review call usually runs longer. 45 to 60 minutes is common.
3. Hardware ordering
Marine Victron components have variable lead times. Standard MultiPlus II and Cerbo GX usually in stock locally. Larger Lynx components, MPPT controllers above 250V, and some specialty items can take 2 to 6 weeks. The audit considers lead times in the project plan.
4. Install scheduling
Most marine installs scheduled within four to six weeks of quote acceptance. Installs run in two to seven day blocks depending on scope. Most work is scheduled weekday evenings and weekends. Predictable hours, predictable progress.
5. Commissioning
Last day of the install is dedicated commissioning. Charge profiles set for the actual bank, BMS comms verified, alarm thresholds configured for your use case, VRM activated, dashboards configured. Owner walkthrough included.
6. Handover and documentation
Documentation pack delivered, training session covering daily use of the new system, the VRM mobile app, what each alert means, and what to do when something fires. The first three months are covered by labour warranty.
Common questions across the marine category
▸ Where do you do the work?
▸ Why Victron specifically and not Mastervolt or Magnum?
▸ Can you handle a home and vessel project together?
▸ What about commercial vessels or charter boats?
▸ Do I need a Cerbo GX if I just want better batteries?
▸ How long does the work typically take?
▸ Can the work be done in stages?
▸ What if I sell the boat partway through a project?
Book the audit
Marine work starts with the audit. The Combined Estate Audit covers home and vessel together if both are in scope, or we'll quote a vessel-only audit if you don't need the home side. Most enquiries get a response within four business hours.