Cut to the chase: Are chase boats becoming essential to the modern superyacht?

Once considered little more than fast support craft, chase boats are fast becoming strategic extensions of the superyacht itself. From greater range and autonomy to enhanced guest comfort and operational efficiency, Risa Merl explores why owners, captains and builders are rethinking their role at sea.

For years, chase boats have floated on the fringes of superyachting – fast, practical and occasionally stylish, but hardly essential. Yet their role may be starting to change. As yachts grow larger and itineraries more ambitious, owners are seeking more freedom, captains more efficiency, and builders are responding with vessels that provide greater range, comfort and crew capability than a typical tender. 

Designers, too, are rethinking what these boats can be, experimenting with carbon hulls, foil assistance, modular decks and liveaboard crew quarters. It raises an intriguing question: is this once-utilitarian support craft evolving into a more versatile, personalised extension of the yacht itself that owners simply can’t do without?

“The role of chase boats is shifting,” says Dries Wajer, managing director of Wajer Yachts. “Superyacht owners today are looking for more than just functionality. Modern chase boats enhance the yachting experience with performance and style.”

An appetite for autonomy is one owner craving that a chase boat can quench. “More and more yacht owners are looking for adventure, and they want to go places their main yacht simply can’t reach,” says Carlos Vassallo, global head of sales for SAY Carbon Yachts. The German builder known for its ultra-light carbon-fibre craft, offering models – including the SAY 52, 42 and an upcoming 32 – that pair supercar-level performance with low emissions and high-end customisation. 

“They offer the freedom to explore off the beaten path, while providing added privacy.” A chase boat could certainly provide privacy to escape from the bustle of crew and other guests on the big boat and afford access to shallow or crowded waters the mothership can’t enter.  “We build our boats using 100 per cent carbon fibre, making them faster, more agile and more fuel efficient – it’s perfect for spontaneous trips without relying on the mothership,” says Vassallo.

Larger than a tender and more agile than the mothership, chase boats allow guests to zip down the coast for lunch or a day trip, possibly with the owner at the helm. It takes time to weigh anchor and reposition the mothership, but a chase boat can get up and out quickly, running at 30 to 35 knots while the yacht follows. 

“In a way, the superyacht then becomes the chase,” says Ernest Menten, co-founder of Tenderworks, whose boats escort some of the world’s most recognisable yachts, including 80-metre Feadship Faith, for which the company made a custom 16.5-metre chase boat.

“We see that owners sometimes get bored on the big boat after a few days,” says Menten. “As the owner of the superyacht, you’re not really involved in the operations. But on the chase boat, you can drive it yourself.” For clients who are accustomed to driving their own supercars, the ability to take the helm is a perk that gives a welcome sense of freedom and exhilaration.

This autonomy also adds to the anchorage choices available and reshapes itinerary planning, says Captain Nicola Junior Belardo, captain of the chase boat to Faith. “It allows the mothership to sit in the optimal location for comfort and experience, rather than being constrained by tender limitations,” he says. 

“The chase boat handles shallow bays, tight harbours and challenging sea conditions with ease, effectively extending the operational reach of the programme,” all while the mothership stays comfortably positioned.  By scouting anchorages, pre-clearing ports and handling guest transfers, it adds flexibility to the schedule, giving the large yacht far greater operational freedom.

A chase boat can also enhance life on board. For Captain Belardo, a chase boat’s real value lies in how it expands options for the yacht’s cruising programme, providing “flexibility, efficiency and accessibility, allowing us to respond in real time to guest needs and operational requirements,” he says.

“Without a dedicated chase boat, we would miss the ability to maintain simultaneous operations in guest and crew transfers, provisioning, reconnaissance and shore access, which all compete with the mothership’s guest-facing schedule.” A chase boat provides the freedom to execute multiple plans without compromising service on board Faith. It turns operations, Belardo says, “from reactive to proactive”.

A full-custom chase, like the one Tenderworks created for Faith, mirrors the mothership’s aesthetic in addition to meeting the yacht’s exacting operational demands. Technical adaptations are tailored to the yacht’s programme, from enhanced protection from the elements with a long roof overhang to optimised toy and equipment storage. 

Rather than taking crew away from the mothership, Captain Belardo and a deckhand live on board the chase. “Being a guardian of the chase boat is paramount; living on board ensures the vessel is continuously monitored, protected and ready to operate at a moment’s notice,” he says.

“It’s important that a chase boat accommodates two crew minimum who live on board so you don’t ‘steal’ crew from the mothership,” agrees Cyril Le Sourd of SPARK Marine Projects and a BOAT International Design & Innovation Awards judge. Le Sourd refitted the chase boat to the legendary Octopus.

As far as he is concerned, any good chase boat, whether new or refitted, should be designed with its intended purpose at the fore. “Logistical support, crew accommodations, making the yacht’s programme more efficient – this is why a chase boat has to be designed from the mission outward.” He says one of the biggest assets of a chase boat versus a tender is guest comfort, noting that while “on paper”, a limo tender might be able to carry all the guests, it can often feel quite packed in.

Choosing a chase boat can be almost as nuanced as commissioning a yacht itself, with owners weighing the benefits of full-custom, semi-custom or production platforms. Full-custom builds deliver total creative freedom, but production platforms often provide proven engineering, faster delivery and more predictable pricing. 

Vassallo notes that requests to optimise their semi-custom boats often go well beyond aesthetics, extending to specialised storage for toys and gear and an interior styled to echo the mothership. Increasingly, owners are also exploring hybrid or electric propulsion as sustainability becomes part of the brief.

Whichever end of the market, there is a chorus of a fresh interest in chase boats. At Wajer Yachts, the surge is quantifiable. “Around 35 per cent of our new-build sales in 2025 YTD (33 per cent in 2024) are directly linked to superyachts,” says Wajer. “A notable difference we see between our tenders and chase boats is in configuration,” he adds.

“Whereas our tenders often come as open or walkaround models, chase boats are more frequently hardtops, allowing them to operate comfortably over longer distances and in a wider range of conditions.” And, unlike a tender, there isn’t a concern about fitting the hardtop in a garage. “Traditional tenders are typically designed like limousines, featuring a low profile that allows them to be integrated into a superyacht. In contrast, chase boats are not limited by these design constraints,” Wajer says.

A sign of how quickly the segment is expanding came at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show, where MED Group unveiled TYKUN – a new aluminium chase boat series offering 8.5-, 10.5- and 12.5-metre models capable of 55-plus-knot speeds and drawing directly on the company’s defence-sector pedigree.

“This is a chase boat built as a chase boat,” says Marco Galimberti, CEO of MED Group, rejecting the idea of repurposing dayboats and instead applying a military approach of designing around the “mission” – guest access, beach landings, fast transfers and offshore performance.

While many production builders now market their dayboats as chase boats, naval architects caution that not all are engineered for the realities of yacht operations. “Many boats promoted as chase boats are more suited to day trips or weekend coastal cruising,” Le Sourd says, not the multi-day, offshore, all-weather demands required to keep pace with a mothership. 

He adds that the increasing trend of towing tenders has “become not a very safe operation,” particularly as tender sizes grow. “Safety is not often talked about in tender operations, but if you can make the crew’s life safer and easier, the service goes higher and higher,” he says.

Le Sourd’s answer in chase boat form is the Synthesis S.60 – an 18.3-metre foil-assisted catamaran developed with Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders in New Zealand – which specifically addresses these operational gaps. Based on market research, Le Sourd discovered that owners wanted versatility, crew wanted efficiency and everyone wanted climate-controlled interiors, standing headroom and large guest capacity. 

The S.60 was designed around those non-negotiables, plus long range, boarding at multiple heights, modular aft-deck configurations and the ability to operate “in sea states up to 4 to 5” – conditions in which many dayboats would retire to port.

Yet for all the enthusiasm, chase boats introduce their own challenges: more crew, more maintenance and the complexities of operating a second high-performance vessel alongside the mothership. As Menten notes, “Captains might say, ‘I have enough hassle already.’” But he argues that the logistical hurdles are manageable when approached with the same professionalism as a yacht’s main programme. The reward, captains say, is the freedom and flexibility that transform day-to-day operations.

It seems the chase boat is at the start of its evolution from a functional shuttle into something far more intrinsic to the yachting experience – part lifestyle enhancer, part logistical backbone, part escape vehicle for when guests want to peel away and reclaim the joy of simply being at sea. 

Captains increasingly regard them as essential tools, extending a yacht’s reach, flexibility and personality in ways a tender cannot. As designer Le Sourd puts it, “The chase boat should work in 90 per cent of situations – and for the remaining 10 per cent, you have a smaller tender on board.” In the end, the rise of the chase boat is about redefining the boundaries of the modern superyacht.

First published in the February 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.