A third companion for Leviathan. Indratus, the former Game Changer, leaves Oceanco after a refit

Indratus is not a new vessel. She was built in 2017 under the name Game Changer as a yacht support vessel, a ship that sails alongside a large yacht and carries what the yacht cannot: tenders, water toys, a helicopter, extra crew. Industry records place her at the Dutch yard Damen Yachting and give her original length at around 69 metres. Oceanco now quotes 72 metres, which suggests the hull has been lengthened, though the yard has not confirmed it. What it does confirm is that the mandatory ten-year survey was combined with a wide-ranging modernisation, a new name and a new look.

Who is behind Inkfish

Inkfish is a private ocean research organisation founded by Gabe Newell, co-founder of the games company Valve. Since 2025 Newell has been the majority shareholder of Oceanco, so the yard is rebuilding yachts for its own owner. The Inkfish fleet is meant to serve scientists: in the organisation's words, the aim is to find out what researchers need to study the sea and then provide the ships, equipment and funding.

The flagship is Leviathan, delivered by Oceanco last year. She measures 4,970 gross tonnes and carries a dive centre, a laboratory, a hospital and a 3D printing workshop. A yacht equipped like that needs smaller vessels around her to carry people, equipment and fuel. That is what is called a companion yacht, and that is Indratus's new role.

Draak, a yacht with a past

Leviathan's first companion was Draak, and hers is the best-known story. Oceanco built her in 2014 as Equanimity, the first yacht in the world compliant with the Passenger Yacht Code, the standard that allows more than twelve guests on board. She became famous as the yacht of the financier at the centre of Malaysia's 1MDB corruption scandal; the Malaysian authorities seized and sold her. Under the name Tranquility she chartered for years until Newell bought her in 2023.

Draak arrived at Oceanco in 2024 as a luxury yacht and left in June this year as a support vessel, with a reworked layout, ventilation and electrical systems. Over the summer she accompanied Leviathan off Norway, and last week both yachts stood together at the Monaco Yacht Show.

Industry reports also attribute to Newell the 67-metre Damen support vessel Kalm, and Oceanco is building two new yachts for him: the 130-metre project Y727 and the 80-metre Y729. The yard does not officially confirm who the owner is.

Rebuild instead of build

Indratus and Draak show the same method. Rather than order new support vessels, which takes years, the owner buys existing ones and rebuilds them at a yard he controls. The work is done by Oceanco's Life Cycle Support division, which until recently handled routine servicing of yachts between seasons and now has two major conversions in one year to its name, making it a separate line of business for the yard.

It is also a picture of how the top of the yacht market is changing. The largest yachts increasingly sail in pairs or threes: a flagship and its companions. For a ten-year-old yacht whose owner wants to replace her with a new one, the role of companion is a second life.

Oceanco gives no exact delivery date for Indratus. When she sails, Leviathan will have two companions, and the Inkfish fleet, counting the new builds, will grow to at least six vessels.