Much has been made in recent years about the need for refit yards to develop their infrastructure in order to keep pace with the growing superyacht fleet both in terms of size and complexity. This phenomenon, however, is of equal importance to the wider servicing community, which is equally required to adapt its models for a growing fleet. SuperyachtNews speaks with DYT about its new yacht transport vessel, Yacht Servant, and how the transport market is changing. Once completed, Yacht Servant, a semi-submersible carrier, will be the largest vessel of its kind dedicated to the transportation of yachts.

“The Yacht Servant is a newer, larger and improved version of the Yacht Express. We’ve upgraded the technology and taken all our experiences with the Yacht Express and applied a number of changes,” starts Laura Tempest, general manager at DYT. “Feedback from both our clients and our own teams have been involved in the process and we will be revealing a numbers of details about her technological advancements as the project continues. What we are able to say at the moment, however, is that she is quite a bit larger than her predecessor, as well as being greener.”

According to The Superyacht Agency, over the last 20 years, the average delivered LOA of a superyacht has increased by 5.7m since 2000 and the average beam has increased by 0.5m over the same period. What is of particular note for the yacht transport community is that even superyachts that are around 40m LOA typically have beams around the nine-metre mark, which can prove to be a logistical challenge.

“One of the biggest trends that we have seen in recent years is that superyachts are getting bigger. The sweet spot for superyachts on board our carriers tends to be around 50m LOA, which ordinarily have a beam of nine-metres or higher. When we started 30 years ago, an eight-metre beam on a yacht was considered to be substantial. It is true that yachts were smaller on average then, but today we are regularly seeing nine-metres-plus beams on superyachts that are below 50m. Yacht Servant, therefore, has been designed to cater to more vessels of this size.”

According to Tempest, a typical high season voyage from Genoa to Martinique would see between 20-25 boats board a DYT carrier. However, with additional capacity of Yacht Servant, DYT will able to transport around 35 vessels per journey.

Speaking about how the yacht transport market has changed over the years, Tempest comments: “There is a lot more competition in the market today, regardless of the method. We have some extremely aggressive competitors that are providing a service, schedule and route that we have been doing for 25 years and this has been a challenge. In the same vein, there was also been a growth in bargain hunting. It seems today that customers are more focussed on cost than they are on potential delays. This has proved to be a hurdle that we are working to overcome without simply cutting our prices.”

As superyachts continue to grow in size and complexity, it is of paramount importance that the servicing market grows with them.

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