About 60 tenders of all stripes and sizes were on display at last month’s Monaco Yacht Show, from Novamarine’s Black Shiver 160, stretching 56 feet in length (too large for most superyachts to carry on board) to the small 26-foot Lanéva Dayboat, built for performance with a responsive, electric drivetrain.
These days, most superyachts over 120 feet carry at least two tenders on board. Twenty years ago, when the average superyacht size was closer to 80 feet, that would’ve meant a RIB for the crew and a Boston Whaler for guests. Today, it’s not uncommon for gigayachts over 250 feet to have much larger, elaborate limousine tenders with a roof that slides over the cabin, an open sports tender for convenience, and even a Zodiac for heading into remote regions.
The 303-foot Tatoosh, built by Nobiskrug in 2000, was among the first yachts with a deck that carries two 39-foot tenders: a Hinckley motoryacht and a Frers daysailer. It also holds three other tenders, a safety boat and four Sea-Doos. Meanwhile, the 296-foot classic yacht Nero, also on display last month at the Monaco show, brings glamor to any occasion with its custom-built wooden Corsair tender. At the futuristic end, America’s Cup Emirates Team New Zealand last year launched a hydrogen-fuel-celled tender, Chase 0, to show that emissions-free hydrogen fuel cells could be a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
“Many superyacht owners and project managers are looking to tender manufacturers to bridge the gap between performance and ocean preservation,” Mark Pascoe, founder of Falcon Tenders, told Robb Report, noting the company uses the latest hybrid and electric propulsion in its tenders. Sustainability is indeed a big theme for tender manufacturers, and many new electric runabout builders are out to convince yacht owners that they can offer the same performance and comfort as a conventional tender, but without the emissions.
In the end, however, there are really just two types of tenders: Those designed to fit into a yacht’s garage, or those that serve as shuttles from the owner’s home port to the mothership.
That means styles and sizes are very much up to the owners. Here are 10 of our favorites, from the Tyde electric hydro-foiler to Riva’s iconic mahogany Aquarama.
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Hodgdon Limousine
Image Credit: Hodgdon Tenders Heading for a shipyard in Northern Europe to be paired with a superyacht, Hodgdon’s new Limousine has accommodations for up 15, with both forward and aft outside seating areas, a wetbar, climate-controlled interior and a T-top that lowers for when the tender is stowed in the yacht’s garage. It also has gyro stabilizers to minimize motion sickness. The Michael Peters’ design looks more like a Downeast express cruiser than a traditional limo. The deep-V hull is fast and designed for stability in rough water, while the twin Volvo D4-320 engines deliver speed when necessary. The Maine shipyard’s dedication to quality is seen throughout the yacht, including the stainless on the exterior and custom upholstery inside. Even the Hodgdon signature flush anchor is custom fabricated.
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Compass Limousine for Oceanco ‘H3’
Image Credit: Compass Limousines Custom-built for the 344-foot Oceanco H3 (ex-Al Mirqab and listed among the 25 largest yachts in the world) this 36-foot limousine bears subtle styling characteristics taken from the mothership’s exterior design, including the window shape and hard-top detailing. The cabin features custom leather seating, stainless-steel trim, leather paneling, and a geometric teak floor. There is also an integrated AV system, ambient lighting and forward-facing cameras that display the tender’s journey on twin screens. Access to the cabin is through sliding glass doors fore and aft, while an electric sliding-glass roof opens the interior to the outdoors.
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Falcon Project KD
Image Credit: Falcon Tenders Making its world debut in Monaco last month was Project KD from British builder Falcon Tenders. The custom 32-foot limousine tender was commissioned by the owner of a 210-foot Sanlorenzo yacht due to deliver next year. The fully finished exterior has fiber-optic light lines by Fibr8, powered by lasers to evenly emit light over long distances. The interior design remains under wraps until the unveiling next year. But if Falcon’s recent tenders, the Miss Wonderly and Miss Le Blanc, are anything to go by, the quality of build as well as features like the leather upholstery with its intricate hand-stitched seams, will make Project KD a tender worth waiting to see.
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Brabus Shadow 300
Image Credit: Brabus Marine Available in two models—a Cross-Bow or Cross-Top—the Brabus Shadow 300 is designed with powerboat enthusiasts in mind. Agile and easy to handle, the 25-foot sportster makes a good superyacht tender. The top speed of 50 knots, thanks to a Mercury 300R V8 racing engine, assures swift passage from the yacht to port. It’s also a great boat for watersports since it’s fitted with a pole for water-skiing, inflatable towing and wakeboarding. Not big enough? Its 38-foot Shadow 900 Black Ops Boat certainly provides a larger and very different look.
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J-Craft Torpedo ‘BaBeBi’
Image Credit: J-Craft Turning heads at both Cannes and Monaco this year was J-Craft’s 42-foot Torpedo BaBeBi. The Swedish builder’s first Torpedo with a metallic-colored hull sports a beautiful brass and off-white interior enhanced by diamond stitching. It’s twinned with serious functionality, capable of sailing in open water and certified to withstand 13-foot waves. Taking over 9,000 man-hours to build and fitted with two Volvo Penta IPS 650s, BaBeBi delivers a top speed of 47 knots. Equipped with lithium batteries for a full day on the water with the engines off, it has a 280-nautical mile range, a convertible open cockpit with two sundecks, and sleeps up to four guests for weekend retreats.
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Cockwells ‘Titian ‘Tender
Image Credit: Cockwells The custom 34-foot Titian tender built by U.K.-based Cockwells is equipped with old-school features like specially cast stainless-steel fittings on the exterior and a Corian and copper galley belowdecks. Its advanced electronics include a virtual anchor and touchscreen digital switching system. Powered by a highly maneuverable twin jet drive, the Titian played a starring role in fashion brand Michael Kors’s 2022 advertising campaign called ‘The Thrill of the Chase’, which saw Bella Hadid aboard the tender on London’s River Thames with Alton Mason in hot pursuit. Finished to superyacht quality standards, Titian won the “Pre-1980s” category of the Concours d’Elégance at last year’s Cannes Yachting Festival. Cockwells also has other mutliple designs under its sleeve. It recently showed a 39-foot hydrofoil limousine that can theoretically cruise at 40 knots.
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Riva Aquarama
Image Credit: Riva Yachts No tender round-up is complete without mentioning the Riva Aquarama—the most famous of all Carlo Riva’s designs. The Italian builder’s iconic luxury wooden runabout saw a limited run of 281 Aquarama Normals and Supers between 1962 and 1972, when Riva still owned the shipyard, and then 277 more, called the Special, were built in the next two decades. The Aquarama’s speed, grace, and craftsmanship make it a much-desired primary boat, not to mention the world’s most stylish tender. Prices for historically correct can range between $400,000 and $800,000, but much will depend on the actual model and number within the series.
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Williams DieselJet 565
Image Credit: Williams Jet Tenders Williams is one of the perennial names in RIB tenders, with multiple yacht builders designing their garages around specific models. The DieselJet 565 has several advantages over competitors. First, it’s a jet drive so driving is reliable and maneuverability is excellent. Secondly, it runs on diesel, the preferred fuel for many owners who don’t want to carry the more flammable gasoline on the yacht if they don’t have to. Finally, this nine-passenger design should be able to carry owners and guests in one trip, two in a pinch. Williams paid attention to the details that matter, like ergonomic seating, decent storage, grab rails, and even an optional plate on the yacht’s stern that illuminates the name of the mothership.
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Lanéva Dayboat
Image Credit: Lanéva The Lanéva all-electric dayboat is equipped with a lithium polymer battery designed for military operations, while the two axial-flow motors are used in aviation. It has a wood structure, a deck comprised of sustainable flax and volcanic fibers, a cork floor and a 100 percent recyclable leatherette upholstery. Sporting a cobalt-blue hull, the 26-foot boat brings performance to electric tender design.
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Tyde Icon
Image Credit: Tyde Marine The Tyde Icon is a wild-looking 43-footer, a wedge-shaped electric boat that foils to 30 knots. It’s definitely not designed to be loaded into a superyacht garage. But it can make a head-turning tender between an owner’s home and the mothership. Designed in collaboration with BMW, the yacht has large windows for vewing the water as well as lounge chairs across the enclosed cabin. A pair of 100 kW electric motors convert the 240 kWh of energy supplied by six batteries from the BMW i3 for a range of more than 50 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 24 knots.
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Sacs Rebel 47
Image Credit: Sacs RIBS The Sacs Rebel 47 is a great example of a large rigid-hulled inflatable that can serve as both a tender and primary day boat for the owner. It has multiple seating areas across the exterior and a generous cabin below-decks for cooking or taking a nap. The boat’s offshore hull is designed to run at speed in rough water, and of course, the inflatable collar adds an element of buoyancy to the design. With two 440 hp Volvo D6 sterndrives, the boat has a top end of 38 knots. But with three Yamaha 425 hp XTO outboards, that jumps to 50 knots.