Bad Company Support 175: The Mothership Is the Boat

A support yacht usually exists so the main yacht does not have to carry the toys. Anthony Hsieh turned that arrangement inside out. His Bad Company fleet hunts marlin around the world, and its largest vessel is the base the whole programme runs from, with no primary superyacht behind it.

The boat is Damen Yachting's YS 5301, delivered as Bad Company Support 175: 53 metres, 175 feet, the first hull in the YS 53 series. Damen designed her in-house and built her in Antalya, Turkey. Hsieh bought the project in May 2022, watched her launch on May 25, 2023, and took delivery in May 2024. She replaced an earlier Damen support vessel of the same name — a 46-metre YS 4508, built in 2019 and bought by Hsieh in 2021 — and the replacement steps up carrying capacity rather than polish.

Damen's delivery account describes a technical base for equipment and dedicated programmes across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, with living space for the owner and his specialist crew. The custom work was specified by a man who intended to live the programme, not visit it: accommodation for a game boat, a helicopter hangar, a custom jacuzzi, a main deck lounge converted into a strategy meeting room, and a Starlink antenna for connectivity far offshore.

The cargo tells the story better than the amenities do. On board goes a 43-foot Release game boat and a 32-foot Blackfin — the Blackfin carrying real weight here, because it was Hsieh's first game fishing boat, bought more than thirty years ago and repurchased and refurbished for the new mothership. A 15-tonne deck crane does the heavy lifting. Twin engines push her to 19 knots, range is 5,000 nautical miles at 12 knots, and she is fully IMO Tier III compliant, a standard Damen says cuts harmful emissions by 70 percent. Damen records the stated purpose plainly: an ocean-going deep-sea fishing and conservation programme. Keep it labelled that way — a programme announced is not the same thing as results measured.

What Hsieh bought is range with a roof on it. A fleet that wants remote water has two choices: come home every night, or bring home with it. Fuel, gear, specialists, spare everything — the weight that decides how long a fleet can stay out — lives on this one hull, which is why the fleet's schedule can be written in oceans rather than marina bookings.

Photographs: Damen Yachting · Damen Yachting · Damen Yachting / Yacht Support