Using the term ‘essential’ in the context of buying a superyacht of any size is somewhat debateable – especially to those outside our industry. Therefore, questioning whether someone needs a second purpose-built support vessel or would be better off going bigger with a new custom-build yacht could be construed as pushing the boundaries of necessity. But that’s exactly the point. Supporting an evolving yachting lifestyle has become a necessity, and looking at how best to do that is a genuine issue faced by many owners at some point.

My own view comes from a unique standpoint. At Damen Yachting, we’ve delivered more than 15 purpose-built yachts supports over the past 10 years to clients looking to extend their fleet operations, but we also have clients who have opted instead to build a bigger Amels and even those who have built a custom solutions. Different platforms for varying motivations and requirements are united by one key element: finding the yachting solution that works to an owner’s exact needs.

I’m always drawn back to a remark once made by one of our Amels captains when he said, “I never understood the purpose of a support vessel until I experienced it first-hand. Once you’ve had one, you can’t understand why you never did.” I suspect this observation is based on the emotion of the experience delivered rather than any financial benefit of taking on the ‘smart stretch’, as we like to call it, which made me think: if you take the emotion out of the equation, where does the real value lie?

Sarah Flavell, communications specialist, Damen Yachting

To give some context, let’s start with a hypothetical owner of a 60-metre yacht looking to either add a 55-metre yacht support vessel or sell the 60-metre and build an 80-metre-plus. Why? They want more capability, capacity, facility and service – all things a larger build can certainly deliver. So can the support option achieve this more efficiently and economically or does it fall short?

Let’s start with size alone. Bigger isn’t always better. Go for the 80-metre and you’re entering lengthy full-custom build times. Also, those extra 20 metres can come at quite a cost. The running expense alone can be significantly more than it would be by doubling your fleet and meterage with a support yacht. Depending on…