Yacht Support Supporting Purposeful Ownership
Boldy claiming ‘Unlimited Possibilities’, the Yacht Support is a mission-ready platform that dares you to challenge it. Where a superyacht stops, the Yacht Support starts, and it’s changed the way many Owners engage with the ocean. Learn how a Yacht Support makes exploration, scientific research, ocean conservation and community engagement possible.
Today’s yacht Owners seek more than luxury. Yacht Support vessels are increasingly customised and adapted throughout their lifecycle to enable truly borderless cruising. Designed to conquer the world’s most demanding expeditions, this is where untamed ambition meets real capability.
As a versatile and highly adaptable platform, a Yacht Support not only extends leisure capability through extensive stowage of toys and tenders, and supplementary guest and crew accommodation, but it can transform an Owner’s vision into tangible ocean impact.
Supporting Science
With a 5,000nm range, Yacht Support extends access to the further corners of the planet, and the depths of the ocean.
Many Yacht Support Owners have utilised their vessels for scientific and marine research programmes. In an elevated form of ‘citizen science’, with an Owner personally leading the charge or lending their vessel to the cause, the Yacht Support’s autonomy, infrastructure and capability can enable professional research to be undertaken.
For Tommy Allen, Founder and Director of Five Oceans Global Solutions, previous Owner of YS53 FIVE OCEANS, ownership was as much about exploring the deep blue sea as it was protecting the marine environment. The operation used cutting-edge technology to facilitate ground-breaking research. Equipped with a scuba diving centre, an Icon A5 aircraft, a Triton 3300 Pro submersible, and multiple RIBs, the Yacht Support platform allowed Allen’s research team to access and study environments that would otherwise remain out of reach.
With a powerful 15-tonne crane and optional A-frame, the Yacht Support platform offers exceptional lifting capacity for even the heaviest and most delicate loads. These heavy-duty tools ensure precise handling for tenders, submersibles, or specialised vehicles.
“Many Owners perceive being able to facilitate such research and further our understanding of the planet as forming part of their legacy,” explains Rose Damen, Managing Director at Damen Yachting. “It’s a way to ‘give back’, a key to changing the story for future generations.”
Marine archaeology and historic research have become defining aspects of AXIS’ (YS5009) operation. Searching for shipwrecks and hunting for treasure - often in challenging conditions and sometimes as sharks circle the dive team - AXIS’ archaeology programme has recovered around 14,000 artefacts in the last four years and they recently opened a museum in Port Lucaya, Freeport, to showcase their finds.
And Yacht Support GENE CHASER (YS5009), perhaps most famously, literally took science to the seas when she was refitted to serve as a floating laboratory for molecular biology.
Yacht Support for Conservation and Humanitarian Engagement
The programme for YS53 FIVE OCEANS also extended to coastal impact and included re-thinking waste management for South African coastal communities, empowering those who rely on the ocean with sustainable fishing practices, addressing habitat degradation worldwide, and improving education around marine biodiversity and its preservation.
AXIS (YS5009) has also played a significant role in conservation and humanitarian efforts, jumping into action when back-to-back hurricanes devastated the island of Little Grand, which was home to 700 residents.
Over three months, AXIS (YS5009) completed 11 relief trips:
“We went to West End, to Little Grand, to Freeport, with everything you can imagine,” tells Owner Carl Allen. “We cleared the decks to bring relief supplies and as it evolved, we started bringing more equipment, roofing materials, and wiring.”
The mission-ready ability of a Yacht Support is made possible by enhanced crane capacity, flexible stowage, and extensive deck strength. Speed, efficiency, and adaptability allow a Yacht Support to respond rapidly when help is needed.
In many cases, however, the pivotal role a Yacht Support plays and the true impact made is understated. Driven by Owners with a clear sense of purpose, these missions are often undertaken for quite personal reasons as they strive to make change, to help, and to protect.
Enabling Your Ambition
Built for challenging expeditions and ambitious lifestyles, a Yacht Support offers unparalleled capability and versatility. Yacht Support is the platform that turns ambition into operational reality, providing the infrastructure behind purposeful Ownership.
“Any yacht is an asset,” says Sarah Flavell, Marketing Manager at Damen Yachting, “but with a Yacht Support that asset becomes a platform for possibility. The way our current Owners are using their vessels – whether independently or in tandem with another superyacht – is incredibly inspiring and its appealing to a new generation of Owner, one that wants to rule the waves for all the right reasons.”
Across the Damen Yachting fleet, Yacht Support vessels are frequently used to enhance the capability of an Amels, assist the more adventurous itineraries of an Xplorer, and integrate seamlessly with other superyachts and extended fleets.
LOVE OUR OCEANS
At Damen Yachting, we believe the ocean connects us all. It inspires joy, fuels adventure, and reminds us of our shared responsibility. With #LOVEOUROCEANS, we celebrate this connection and take action to protect its future. More than a campaign, Love Our Oceans is a movement. A platform where awareness becomes interaction, and interaction becomes action. It connects our community, partners and stakeholders to celebrate the beauty of the sea while supporting initiatives that deliver real and lasting impact.
By joining our community, you stay close to these moments and to the positive energy of a network that chooses both joy and responsibility. Want to join? Sign up for our community and stay updated on the latest events, challenges, and news.