The Hermes Class Close Support Tender was designed as a replenishing vessel, but one that has a fair amount of close defence ability so that it can support a fleet while in hostile territory.
The Colonials certainly did not mind sending out their fleets on long range missions for sometimes yahrens at a time, and while as formidable as they might be, even Battlestars need fuel and supplies for their ship and crew. The smaller cruisers and destroyers would run out supplies long before their larger brethren. It was for this duty that the Hermes was designed to fulfil. In friendly territory, normal bulk tankers could be relied on to replenish the fleet, but on a mission, the normal tanker could be cut to pieces by even a single raider.
The Hermes therefore, had to be armed with defensive weaponry, carry a defence force, and also carry enough supplies to make the class worthwhile. While never intended to be unescorted by (usually) a couple of light cruisers (usually 2 CVL's or 1 CVL and 1 CLE), and certainly not meant for front line combat, the ship had to be able to defend it is precious cargo.
To aid in the re-supply of other ships, the class is equipped with a large amount of shuttles which are designed to work in conjunction with the ship under service to get the work done as quickly as possible.

In the end, seven separate classes of the ship were produced - TF-F fuel carrier, TF-C cargo carrier, TF-D dromedary joint fuel and cargo carrier (designed for the smaller fleets where a single ship of either class is deemed excessive), TF-R fleet repair cruiser, TF-T troop transport, which takes advantage of the classes bulky shape to cram troops, combat vehicles and additional shuttles into the cavernous cargo hold, and the TF-P power ship, used to supply vital power to ships in need and to help create camouflage fields. The other major design was the hospital ship used to ferry the wounded back to bases or to act as large mobile hospitals. These ships had slightly better command and control facilities than their standard brethren as the Cylons liked to single them out for destruction early on in combat, especially full capacity ships. As a result, they always had an escort, usually 2 CVL's and 1 CLE.

Later on, an additional class of ship was introduced, the TF-PF patrol ship tender. Indended to supplement the PFL light cruiser, the TF-PF was a larger ship able to hold eight patrol boats with greater resupply and repair facilities. In addition, the TF-PF did not sacrifice its fighter carrying ability making it better able to defend itself in combat.

As a class, the Hermes was the backbone of the Colonial supply chain and operated in all circumstances right up to the end of the war. Their captains were usually known as either courageous or crazy in their dedication to the war effort.

The Hermes was designed and SSD's drawn by me.

Hermes Class Tenders have two large shuttle bays, but may not conduct transfers via (J1.593). Each bay has a launch tube ([J1.54] which will propel a fighter flight to speed 12 and will launch in direction 1) and a standard shuttle hatch (launching and landing from direction 4 for both bays).
The shuttle bays are large enough to accept yachts.

The TF-PF is a true PF tender and can operate yachts. The full rules for yacht operations can be found here. The Hermes has a hyperspeed multiplier of x1.

Hermes Class boarding diagram:

Master Ship Chart Extract:

Annex #7B: Ships able to land on planets

This ship may not land on a planet.

Annex #7G: Carrier information & Annex #7N: Missile reloads