Some of the most rewarding projects begin not with a formal brief, but with a phone call from a trusted friend. This tender came out of exactly that kind of relationship — a long-standing captain friend with a very specific problem and the confidence to bring it to me knowing it would be solved thoughtfully.

The challenge was genuinely complex. The vessel needed to serve as a high-performance tender for a 54-meter yacht, capable of carrying 12 to 14 guests in comfort while also being able to handle herself in rough open-water conditions at speed. A fold-down landing craft door in the bow added an entirely different operational dimension — allowing guests to be transferred directly to the yacht's stern or brought ashore on a beach with ease and dignity, regardless of conditions. The hull also had to be built with integrated reinforcement for trans-oceanic towing, and the entire propulsion system was specified around diesel outboards to allow refueling directly from the mothership in remote locations far from any marina.

Every element of the brief existed for a reason, and the design had to honor all of them simultaneously — performance, capacity, seakeeping, versatility, and operational independence. The result is a vessel that looks purpose-built because it is — shaped entirely by how it would actually be used, in the real world, far from shore.