Floating money sails in

The luxury yacht Helios 2 plies the waters after its $40m refit. Photo / Supplied

It's becoming a summer of floating money, as one Hollywood-linked superyacht sails into Kiwi waters and other yachts arrive for multimillion-dollar refits.

The 50m-long Helios2 - which featured in the George Clooney movie Syriana - is expected to dock in Auckland this morning.

The yacht joins a cluster of expensive vessels between the Bay of Islands and Auckland, including James Packer's ArcticP, moored in Auckland until March as it is refitted.

The identity of Helios2's owner is not known, though he is believed to be an American millionaire with a family.

The yacht was bought from financier Steve Rattner, then went through a $40 million remodelling to make it more "child-friendly". Even before the refit, the yacht was valued at $40m.

Among other superyachts due in Auckland this summer is Eos, believed to be the world's largest sailing yacht.

Due in February, Eos is 93m long and worth about $110m. It is owned by US internet company boss Barry Diller, and has been sighted most recently in Australia.

There have been reports that former US presidential candidate John Kerry has been sighted in Whangarei, after the completion of an $8m yacht by a local boatbuilding firm. The company says the yacht has been bought by a North American client, but the sightings of Kerry are unconfirmed and conflict with US reports.

Those who own such superyachts spare no expense in building and refurbishing their floating mansions.

Allan Jouning, director of Auckland yacht fitting company Thirty Seven South, says: "If you have a 50m yacht in a yard for six months you would probably end up looking at the $8 million to $10 million mark, depending what you're doing." Some refits can cost $500,000 per week.

One recent project the company completed was the 35m yacht Surprise.

The project took about four months, Jouning says.

The owner required all the wooden furnishings to be changed from a light walnut to a dark mahogany.

Because space is at a premium in these vessels, there have to be novel ways of fitting televisions.

On Surprise, Jouning installed some televisions that looked like mirrors until switched on, another in which the large screen folded out from the ceiling.

Well-equipped gyms are also an important part of any half-decent superyacht.

"And I don't mean just a bike," Jouning said.

"They have weights, rowing machines, treadmills, and some have a sauna and spa attached to the gym area."

Larry Ellison, as a huge basketball fan, has a basketball court on the deck of one of his yachts.

Jouning also knows of a golf-putting green on one yacht, and a golf range driving floating golf balls, with "one crew member out there catching them".

Jouning said New Zealand was "pretty well-known" around the world for refits, and there were other companies around the country that did similar work.

In Whangarei, Specialist Marine Interiors has just started work on a 70m "megayacht".

SMI manager Grant Willis would not disclose details of the job or the owner.