BEST BOATS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
The year after Carl Allen sold his company, he gifted his wife, Gigi, a 50-metre Westport-naturally named Gigi – on her birthday. But he wasn’t done shopping. He then went to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and spotted a 55-metre Damen support vessel. “I didn’t even get on it,” says Allen. “I just said, ‘That’s the one; that’s what we want.’”
Allen personifies the down-to-earth, boatloving, adventurous owner that gravitates towards tandem superyachting. “I never thought I would sell my company, but my wife and I looked at [the deal] and decided this gives us the opportunity to do some pretty wild stuff,” he says. Adding the support boat, which he named Axis, to his cruising programme has made the wild stuff possible. “It has become the platform of everything we do, from Hurricane Dorian relief, pandemic relief, building Walker’s Cay (in the Bahamas), treasure hunting, recreational diving, fishing... The Axis has become the centre of the universe.”
Superyacht owners are increasingly seeing the benefits of augmenting their fleets with a vessel that takes the bulk of tenders and toys off of the mothership while also carrying extra stores, parts and fuel. It’s a solution that
