Owners and captains ask this question early in almost every new build project. The boats look similar at a marina pontoon, but they answer different briefs. A tender is sized to fit the mothership. A chase boat is sized to do a job the mothership cannot. Get the choice wrong and you either commit garage space to the wrong hull, or you spend on a chase boat to solve a problem a better tender would have covered.
We mirror this comparison from the tender side so the two pages are consistent.
The defining test
Apply the garage test first.
- If it lives inside the mothership, it is a tender. See the tenders pillar and tender garage sizing.
- If it lives in its own berth or runs alongside the mothership, it is a chase boat. See what is a chase boat.
Everything else - hull form, driveline, classification, crewing - flows from that single decision.
Side-by-side specification
| Parameter | Tender | Chase boat |
|---|---|---|
| Typical length | 5 to 12 m | 10 to 20 m |
| Stowage | Mothership garage or davit | Independent berth or towed |
| Cruise speed | 25 to 35 kn | 30 to 40 kn |
| Top speed | 35 to 45 kn | 45 to 60 kn |
| Range at cruise | 100 to 250 nm | 400 to 850 nm |
| Driveline | Diesel jet, sterndrive, outboard | Twin or triple diesel shaft, surface drive, outboard quad |
| Crew | Deckhand operated | Dedicated chase-boat crew common above 14 m |
| Classification | Under mothership certificate, MCA tender code or LY3 | Independently coded, often MCA or RCD |
| Day capacity | 8 to 14 guests | 12 to 20 guests |
| Overnight capacity | None typical | One or two cabins on hulls 14 m and up |
| Typical new-build price | 250 k to 2.5 m euros | 600 k to 7 m euros |
| Brokerage depreciation | 40 to 50 per cent at 5 years | 30 to 40 per cent at 5 years |
Specs in the table are typical bands not absolutes. We see outliers in both directions every season.
What a tender does well
A tender exists to move the mothership's people and stores between yacht and shore. The brief is short range, low fuss, predictable launch and recovery, and a finish that matches the parent hull. The right tender disappears into the operation. Owners notice it only when it is wrong: too tall for the garage, too noisy on launch, too wet on a beach run.
The full taxonomy lives across limousine tenders, open tenders, SOLAS rescue tenders, beachlanders, sport tenders, crew tenders, and RIB tenders. Most yachts carry two: a guest tender plus a crew or rescue tender.
What a chase boat does well
A chase boat exists to extend the operating envelope. It runs further, faster, and with more of its own stores than any tender can. The brief is real range, real top end, and a deck plan that supports the day programme without compromising for garage geometry.
We see four recurring jobs.
- Sport-fishing. Tower, outriggers, live wells, fighting chair. Covered at sport-fishing chase boats.
- Coastal scouting and provisioning. A 14 metre chase boat can clear a customs run while the mothership stays at anchor.
- Charter overflow. Two parallel programmes from one charter. The principal day-trips on the chase boat, guests stay aboard.
- Toy logistics. Towing the wakeboard boat, dive RIB, or jet-ski raft so the mothership keeps a cleaner aft deck.
Where the categories blur
Two boundary cases come up often.
A 9 to 10 metre Wajer or Pascoe sport tender that lives in the garage but is specced like a small chase boat. It is still a tender by the garage test, but the operating profile is closer to a chase boat. We log these as sport tenders when stowed, chase boats when berthed independently.
A 22 to 28 metre support yacht that runs at chase-boat speeds. Here the test is whether it is coded for crew accommodation and dedicated toy stowage. If yes, it is a shadow yacht or expedition support yacht, not a chase boat.
The full chase-boat versus shadow-vessel distinction sits at chase boat vs shadow vessel.
Choosing for your programme
Three questions sort most decisions.
- Will the mothership ever leave port without it? If yes, you want a tender. A chase boat is no use sitting on a swing mooring 800 nm behind the yacht.
- Does the day programme need 35 to 60 knots and 200 plus nm of range? If yes, no tender will do the job. Specify a chase boat.
- Is there budget and crew headroom for a separate boat with its own captain, fuel bill, and berth? If no, push the brief back into a larger or better-specced tender. Our how to choose and cost of a superyacht tender pages cover that path.
Combined fleets
The largest programmes carry both, plus a shadow vessel. Typical pattern on a 70 metre yacht: one limousine guest tender in the garage, one SOLAS rescue tender in the second garage, one 15 metre chase boat berthed independently, and a shadow vessel for the rest. Below 50 metres, owners pick two of those four. Below 35 metres, the choice usually collapses to one tender plus an outsourced chase boat hired locally for the season.
For market data on current new and used inventory in both categories, see tenders for sale and the chase-boats filter. For specification work on the chase-boat side, the entry point is chase boat specifications.