High-End Tenders: The Tender Touch

There are few more exciting (and competitive) sectors of the yachting market today than high-end tenders.

This article was written by Kevin Koenig. Photography courtesy of the manufacturers.

I’ll admit I’ve been a little bit obsessed with tenders as of late. Ever since the Swedish builder JCraft invited me out to Shelter Island last summer to join a sea trial of its lovely little 42 Torpedo, my interest in this market segment has spiked.

I’m not an overtly flashy person but I do appreciate high-quality things, so there is something so tantalizingly right to me about having mega-yacht finishes, engineering, and customizations on a small boat. And the flip side of that is that as my marine journalism career has progressed, there has been a natural inclination to cover bigger and bigger yachts. So, more often than not, I find myself writing about mega-yacht interiors, while my heart lies with the fast, open boats of my youth. Here are a few that have caught my eye in recent months.

JCRAFT 42 TORPEDO

If you’ve cracked open a marine publication, gone on yachting social media, or even just had a waterside drink in South Florida or the Hamptons in the past year, you’ve almost certainly seen the 42 Torpedo. This boat seems to be all places at all times thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign driven by the builder’s ambitious CEO Radenko Milakovic.

The Torpedo is less a boat than a little jewel box of a thing. She can rightfully be thought of as a resto-mod, with immediately recognizable classic styling from the Dolce Vita era, but matched with a hull and engineering built with Viking know-how on the island of Gotland, just of Sweden’s mainland in the Baltic Sea.

I helmed this boat last summer and was very pleased with what I found. The distinct tumblehome af is mainly for show, but the fare up front is for go and she sliced ably through a two-foot chop in the Peconic Bay on test day. She has a variety of engine packages, can hit a sizzling 47-knot top hop, and carves through tight turns with a delicious amount of heel enough that you can reach out and touch the spray with your hand when sitting in the cockpit. This combination of style and performance is rare and points to why you’ll find JCraft nestled in the holds of some of the world’s most famous mega yachts.

WAJER 44

If the JCraft can be thought of as a fully refurbished Jaguar E-Type, the Wajer 44 has always reminded me of the Audi RS 7 a car that exudes power and grace but in a tamped-down way that speaks to the “stealth wealth” trend that has become so en vogue in certain circles.

Wajer has become a dominant player in the tender and dayboat game thanks to its Dutch engineering and partnerships with design titans like Amsterdam’s Sinot. The builder currently offers a 38, 44, 55, and 77, though company execs will tell you that the 44 is the best-looking of the bunch. And I concur completely. The proportions on this sleek little boat are just right not too pointy, not too stubby and she really is rather beautiful. At the helm, the 44 is remarkably quiet underway thanks to a focus on sound dampening during construction. I shot a video while helming this boat off Cannes last fall for my Instagram (@theyachtfella, if you’re not already following) and I didn’t even need to talk loudly while at the wheel. Cocooned in a pocket of air, I was able to speak with my normal voice at a 38-knot clip. The 44 is also in a sweet spot size-wise. I do believe that the choppy twos and threes in Cannes would have bounced the 38 around a bit, while a later sea trial of the 55 in similar conditions was almost a little boring. The 44, however, exhibited a good mix of action and control.

VANQUISH VQ55

Another popular Dutch builder known for high levels of customization, sporty performance, and its relatively eco-friendly aluminum construction is Vanquish. The builder debuted a VQ55 at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show that created quite a stir thanks to its very American power package quintuple 600-horsepower Mercury outboards. I saw it in person it was really jaw-dropping. That boat is said to be able to hit a blistering 61 knots on the pins. That’s borderline go-fast territory for a vessel that is more than capable of hosting a large party thanks to massive sun pads at the transom and an open-bow layout.

Vanquishes have become a staple on the Hamptons scene, where dayboaters want fast boats that can carry a lot of people to trendy waterside eateries (while avoiding that famous stop-dead East End traffic). To my eye, Vanquishes aren’t quite as stylish as the JCraf or the Wajer, but they’re also arguably more practical because of the maximized onboard space.

SAY 42

One of the most visually arresting boats I’ve seen in recent memory is the German-built SAY 42, an all-carbon-fber vessel that looks like it fell out of a science-fiction movie. The boat draws heavily from CEO Karl Wagner’s motorcycle-racing past, and its construction puts heavy emphasis on being light and fast. When I did a sea trial for this boat off of Fort Lauderdale, I saw 43 knots with the hammer down, though the builder says she can do closer to 50 in the right conditions thanks to twin 430-horsepower Volvo Pentas.

Onboard styling for the SAY is in line with its sleek and modern profile. Everything is angular and brutalistic. It’s a very cool aesthetic, and one that I think will play well with a bachelor in the Miami scene looking to make a splash zipping across Biscayne Bay for brunch at Seaspice or Kiki on the River.

RIVA ISEO

Riva practically invented the Dolce Vita aesthetic that has become so iconic in the world of upper-echelon leisure. The Iseo is the natural standard bearer for the wooden runabouts of the past with its low-slung and incredibly sleek lines that practically beg to be taken for a quick jaunt on Lake Como or other similarly chic cruising grounds. Of course, this boat is built with more durable and easy-to-maintain fiberglass, so it offers the same dose of romanticism as the woodies without the wallop of upkeep. The spritely 27-footer comes with multiple Volvo Penta propulsion options and tops out at 40 knots while cruising happily at around 25 knots. Unsurprisingly for a Riva, the Iseo is said to have a remarkably sporty and responsive feel at the helm, while an af sun pad and comfortable seating in the cockpit make for excellent places to enjoy a cold drink underway or rafted up at your favorite sandbar.

HACKERCRAFT SPECIAL SPORT

Hackercraft is one of the world’s most legendary wooden-boat builders. For over a century, the New York State company has staked its claim on turning out extraordinarily beautiful runabouts that harken to a bygone era of specific American class and taste. But this nostalgia-driven brand with its ancient building materials is not allergic to futuristic tech. In fact, with the Special Sport, it has embraced it. This model is fully electric and has a respectable top end of 30 knots. A range of about 30 nautical miles is enough for short trips from the yacht to port, or from the dock to your favorite waterside restaurant. And she runs in near silence, thanks to propulsion units built by Ingenity Electrics. That leaves just you and the sound of the wind and the waves as you slice through the chop, leaving the marine environment as pristine as you found it.

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