Support Vessels | Superyacht Tenders

A separate, commercially classed yacht, usually 35 to 80 metres, that carries the tenders, toys, helicopters, submarines and crew that no longer fit on the mothership. Unlike a chase boat it is built and crewed for ocean transits; unlike a tender it never lives in a garage.

Distance and crewing. A chase boat day-runs from coastal bases (200 to 600nm, one to four crew). A support vessel repositions across oceans (4,000nm and up, 8 to 28 crew) in convoy with the mothership. The decision collapses to whether the programme needs trans-ocean repositioning.

35 to 50m converted shadow 8,000,000 to 25,000,000 EUR; 50 to 70m new-build or major conversion 25,000,000 to 70,000,000 EUR; 70 to 90m purpose-built expedition 70,000,000 EUR and up. A yacht-plus-support-vessel programme typically costs 1.4 to 1.7 times the yacht alone.

Four sub-categories: shadow yachts (general-purpose, often converted offshore supply vessels with deck cranes and large aft decks), helicopter support vessels (certified helideck and fuel), submarine support vessels (rated launch and recovery system), and expedition support yachts (ice class, extended range).

Scaling the mothership to around 110m absorbs everything into one hull but moves you into a different cost band and a different berthing-availability conversation. The support-vessel route is usually cheaper to operate and far more flexible, because the support vessel can travel ahead and set up an anchorage before guests arrive.