Tankoa Launches the TX450, a Fully Custom 405 GT Explorer

Why did Tankoa keep the TX450 under 500 GT?

Staying at 405 GT keeps the TX450 inside the lighter manning and survey bracket that applies below the 500 GT line, letting a fully custom 45-metre run with a smaller certified crew than a yacht carrying similar volume above that threshold.

The 500 GT mark is not a design preference, it is a regulatory wall. Below it, a yacht can be crewed and surveyed under a lighter regime; above it, SOLAS, MARPOL and the ISM Code come into full force, and manning rules step up toward a master holding an unlimited STCW certificate and an engineer certified under STCW III/3 once installed power passes 750 kW, according to BOAT International's own reporting on what it calls the 500 GT dilemma. Builders have known the arithmetic for years: a hull that sits at 405 or 499 GT rather than 520 GT can carry nearly the same volume for a meaningfully smaller crew list and a simpler survey cycle, and that gap shows up directly in an owner's annual running cost.

Tankoa's brief for the TX450 pushed that arithmetic as far as it goes. Claudio Corvino, the yard's sales and business development manager, described the design when the sale was first announced as one where "Cassetta came up with a very balanced design that we define as a crossover style, matching perfectly the proportions of an explorer with the elegant touch typical of all Tankoa yachts." The result, Tankoa says, gives the owner the living areas and space distribution typically found on a much larger vessel while the certificate of registry reads 405 GT, comfortably clear of the 500 GT line and its heavier obligations.

What does 'fully custom' actually mean on the TX450?

Every line of the TX450, from her crossover proportions to her interior layout, was reworked from the standard T450 platform for one owner, and Tankoa itself says the shared design DNA is one of the few things the two yachts have in common.

The TX450 started life as a version of Tankoa's existing T450 series, the platform behind the yard's already-delivered M/Y Go, but the yard's own account of the project makes clear how far it moved from that starting point. Giorgio Cassetta, who styled and designed the interior of both, reworked the layout, added a full extra deck compared with the standard T450, and widened the beam, though Tankoa has not released the exact new beam figure. Construction was confirmed underway in 2023, three years before the christening, and Megayacht News, reporting from the launch itself, said the shared styling is one of the few things the TX450 still has in common with the series boat it grew from.

Inside, the layout puts the owner's suite and the guest cabins on the main deck, ten guests across five staterooms in the standard configuration, with a convertible room below decks that can add a sixth cabin when needed. Social space is pushed up and out rather than kept low: an enclosed, terrace-like space on the bridge deck, a gym, a spa area and, per Tankoa's initial details, fold-down platforms at the stern for an unusually large open-air beach club. It is a family-focused arrangement, the yard says, built around an owner who wanted the physical footprint of a 45-metre yacht with the onboard living space of something considerably larger.

How was the TX450 engineered to run efficiently, and how fast is she?

The TX450 runs on a diesel-electric hybrid system, combining electric motors, a battery bank and conventional diesels, and Tankoa is quoting a projected 15-knot top speed and 14-knot cruise that the yard says upcoming sea trials should confirm.

Tankoa has disclosed the architecture of the driveline without disclosing its components: electric motors, a battery bank and conventional diesel engines each do part of the work, according to the yard's own launch materials reported by Megayacht News. The combination allows electric-only cruising at low speed and lets the yacht draw hotel loads, lighting, air conditioning and the rest of the house systems, from the batteries overnight at anchor rather than running a generator. Tankoa has not named the engine make, model or horsepower for this hull, and has not published a range figure, an unusual gap to leave open at a public launch and one worth asking about directly if the TX450's specification is being compared with a rival yard's fully-quoted build.

What Tankoa has put a number on is speed: a top speed of 15 knots at half load and a 14-knot cruise. Both are explicitly framed by the yard, in Megayacht News's account of the christening, as figures that upcoming sea trials should confirm rather than results already logged, since the TX450 has only just touched water and has not yet run trials. That caveat matters more than it might elsewhere: a yacht built around a bespoke hybrid driveline is exactly the kind of project where projected and trialled numbers can diverge, and neither this desk nor any outlet at the launch has an independent figure to check Tankoa's projection against.

Who is the TX450 built for, and when does she arrive?

The TX450 was commissioned by an experienced Middle Eastern owner who has cruised aboard several yachts before, and her build ran roughly three years from the first sale announcement to launch, with no delivery date yet given for handover.

Tankoa and Yacht Harbour, reporting the sale in May 2023, described the buyer as a Middle Eastern owner and his family, an experienced yachtsman who had cruised aboard several yachts before commissioning the TX450 as a full-custom project rather than buying a platform hull unmodified. Construction was confirmed underway later that year. The owner and his family attended the christening in Genoa on 31 August 2026 alongside Tankoa's executives and craftspeople, roughly three years after the project was first announced, a normal span for a heavily modified full-custom hull of this size but a longer wait than the yard's semi-custom T-series builds typically take.

Three things about the TX450 remain open, and a reader comparing her against a rival yard's build should treat the gaps as open rather than assume they favour the yacht: no price has been disclosed at any point in the sale or the launch reporting; no engine make, horsepower or range figure has been published, only the hybrid architecture and a projected top speed and cruise; and no sea trial or independent owner account exists yet, since the yacht was only just launched. Tankoa has also not given a confirmed handover date for when the owner actually takes delivery following trials. None of that is unusual for a fully custom yacht at the moment of her launch, but it is exactly the specification gap a prospective buyer of a similar custom project should push a yard to close before signing, rather than after.