Cannes Yachting Festival 2026: 174 Yachts, and a Market Worth Exploring

From a €32.5 million Heesen to the latest generation of explorer yachts, performance cruisers, catamarans and new-build projects, Cannes offers buyers an unusually broad view of today’s yacht market.

The Cannes Yachting Festival returns to the Vieux Port and Port Canto from 8 to 13 September 2026, bringing together more than 710 boats and yachts and over 680 exhibitors in the heart of the French Riviera. For a prospective owner, however, sheer numbers are not necessarily helpful. Walking kilometres of pontoons, talking to builders and brokers, and collecting brochures can quickly become an exercise in information overload.

The more interesting question is what is actually worth looking at. Lomond Yachts has reviewed a selection of yachts being presented at Cannes and created a buyer-focused collection of 174 yachts and new-build opportunities, covering 54 yachts for sale, five available for charter and 115 new-build models and opportunities. They range from major superyachts to explorer yachts, performance cruisers, sailing yachts and multihulls, with established names including Feadship, Benetti, Sanlorenzo, Azimut, Sunseeker, Princess, Bering, Numarine and Sunreef represented across the selection.

That breadth is what makes Cannes particularly useful. A buyer is not simply looking at one yacht market, but several different ownership propositions in one place, from immediate brokerage opportunities to customisable new builds and charter yachts that can offer a useful test of how a particular size or layout actually works in practice.

At the top of the brokerage market

The largest yacht in the sale selection is AFTER YOU, the 55-metre Heesen delivered in 2011 and offered at €32.5 million. At almost 50 metres, FLYING DAGGER III, built in 2018, is offered at €23.5 million, while the 49.85-metre RENEGADE, dating from 1992, is listed at €8.95 million.

Those three yachts alone show why headline length is a poor way to compare buying opportunities. Age, shipyard, specification, refit history, machinery, interior, condition and intended use can produce enormous differences in value between yachts of broadly similar dimensions. That becomes even clearer further down the list. CONSTANCE, a 46.4-metre Feadship from 1986, is offered at €13.5 million, while the much newer 40.54-metre Baglietto ATTITUDE, delivered in 2022, carries an asking price of €23.5 million.

For the buyer, the question is therefore rarely simply what is the biggest yacht available within a given budget. A better starting point is what kind of ownership experience the yacht needs to deliver, because two similarly sized yachts can represent completely different propositions once age, operating profile, crew requirements and future capital expenditure are taken into account.

Benetti, Sanlorenzo and the modern Mediterranean yacht

Cannes is particularly strong territory for the Italian yards, and the sale selection contains some interesting comparisons. The 2025 Benetti JULES, at 36.92 metres, is offered at €24.9 million. The 2019 Benetti ALEGRE, at 40.24 metres, is listed at €13.9 million, while NECHIDA, also a 40.24-metre Benetti from 2019, is offered at €12.9 million. The 36.6-metre BUNTY, built by Benetti in 2009, is offered at €4.9 million.

That is a remarkable price spread within one builder and roughly the same broad size category, and it underlines how much more there is to compare than length and brand alone. Sanlorenzo provides another useful cross-section. The 46-metre PICK UP, built in 2011, is offered at €13.5 million; the 34.1-metre NAYA 7, from 2016, at €7.29 million; the 31.1-metre MAREA, from 2021, at €8.35 million; and the 29.06-metre JICJ, from 2023, at €7.7 million.

For somebody considering a Sanlorenzo, Cannes therefore provides the chance to look beyond a single yacht and compare different generations, layouts and ownership profiles. That is where a boat show becomes genuinely useful, because the value lies less in seeing one attractive yacht and more in understanding how it sits against the alternatives.

Explorer thinking moves into the mainstream

One of the more obvious trends running through the Cannes selection is the continuing influence of explorer-yacht thinking. Bering is represented at several levels, including the Bering 88, while Numarine is similarly prominent. The 32-metre OM, built by Numarine in 2019, is offered at €8.85 million, alongside new-build opportunities from the yard including the 40MXP and 27XP.

The significance is not that every owner suddenly wants to cross the Southern Ocean. Rather, many of the characteristics traditionally associated with explorer yachts, including range, storage, usable exterior space, robustness and a less formal relationship with the water, have become attractive even to owners whose cruising remains firmly Mediterranean. As a result, the boundaries between explorer, crossover and conventional motor yacht continue to blur, and Cannes provides a useful place to compare where different builders now sit along that spectrum.

The new-build market may be the bigger story

The 54 brokerage yachts naturally attract attention because they have asking prices and can represent relatively immediate acquisition opportunities, but numerically the largest part of the Lomond Yachts Cannes selection is the 115 new-build models and opportunities.

At the larger end are yachts such as the Azimut Grande 44M, Amer Steel 42, Benetti Oasis 40M, Sanlorenzo SD132, Numarine 40MXP, ISA Viper 130, Benetti B.Yond 37M and Sanlorenzo SX120. Beyond those, the field widens considerably, with offerings from Mangusta, Horizon, Ferretti, Sunreef, Wider, Princess, Arcadia, Bluegame, Absolute, Oyster, Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot, YYachts, Grand Soleil and others.

This matters because choosing between an existing yacht and a new build is not simply a choice between used and new. A brokerage yacht offers something immensely valuable: it exists. It can be inspected, surveyed and, subject to negotiations and closing, potentially acquired relatively quickly. A new build provides a different opportunity, with greater scope for specification, personalisation, technology and layout, but with delivery schedule, contract structure, stage payments, warranties and the financial strength and track record of the yard all becoming part of the purchasing decision.

The right answer depends upon the buyer, not the brochure.

Cannes is increasingly about different ways of using a yacht

Look further through the selection and another shift becomes apparent. Alongside traditional flybridge motor yachts are power catamarans, sailing catamarans, performance yachts, long-range cruisers and crossover designs. Sunreef has both power and sailing propositions represented, Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot and Gunboat feature in the multihull field, while Oyster, Grand Soleil and YYachts point towards buyers for whom sailing performance remains fundamental.

Among the yachts in the Cannes selection are the Grand Soleil 80 Plus Long Cruise, at 26.2 metres, and the YYachts Y7, at 21.99 metres. Their presence helps illustrate how broad the ownership market has become. The modern yacht-buying conversation is no longer automatically a progression towards a larger conventional motor yacht. Some buyers are prioritising efficiency, others range, shallow-water capability, volume, sailing performance or the additional beam and living space offered by a multihull.

Cannes is valuable because many of those alternatives can be compared in the same wider environment rather than treated as separate research exercises.

Charter before buying?

There is another useful part of the Cannes selection: yachts available for charter. Five charter yachts are represented, ranging from the 49.85-metre RENEGADE, from €155,000 per week, through the 44.2-metre Bering HEEUS, from €225,000 per week, to the 34-metre Benetti AITANA, from €160,000 per week. At the smaller end are two Sunreef yachts, the 23.99-metre BOHEMIA, from €85,000 per week, and the 21.96-metre HU-LYSSE, from €90,000 per week.

For somebody contemplating ownership, charter can be more than a holiday. Spending a week aboard a yacht of approximately the size and configuration being considered can answer questions that specifications cannot. How much crew separation do you actually want? How important is the flybridge? Is the tender arrangement irritating after three days? Does the family use all those formal interior spaces? Would more exterior living space be preferable to another cabin?

Those discoveries can be considerably cheaper when made before buying the wrong yacht, and for some prospective owners a well-chosen charter can be one of the most practical forms of due diligence available.

The €5 million question

One of the most useful ways to approach Cannes is by budget rather than builder. Around the €4–5 million mark, for example, the sale selection includes very different propositions. MONACO, a 37.8-metre Feadship from 1982, is offered at €3.95 million. EPIPHANY, the 34.14-metre McMullen & Wing from 2003, is €4.35 million. The 36.6-metre Benetti BUNTY is €4.9 million, while the 23.75-metre 2025 Sanlorenzo FIREFLY is offered at €4.925 million.

Four yachts, all in broadly similar asking-price territory, but representing completely different ownership propositions. That is before operating costs enter the equation. Purchase price is only the admission ticket, and crew, berthing, insurance, maintenance, fuel, technical management and future capital expenditure can make two similarly priced yachts very different financial commitments.

The yacht that appears to offer the most metres for the money is therefore not necessarily the yacht that represents the better purchase.

At €8–10 million, the choice becomes even wider

Move towards €8–10 million and Cannes presents an especially interesting field. The 35.2-metre Sunseeker KING POWER is offered at €8.8 million. The 39.1-metre Tansu MOONSHOT is €8.95 million. The 30.5-metre MAI DIRE MAI from Filippetti is €8.9 million. ARIA, a 29.63-metre Azimut from 2024, is €8.45 million, while the 30-metre EBYSHINE is offered at €8.4 million.

At broadly similar asking prices, a buyer can therefore be comparing substantially different lengths, ages, design philosophies and brands. This is precisely where independent buyer-side advice earns its place, because the challenge is not finding a yacht for €9 million. There are plenty. The real work is narrowing the market to the yachts that genuinely fit the owner’s intended use, priorities and long-term ownership expectations.

New or pre-owned?

Cannes makes the new-versus-pre-owned question unusually tangible because new and brokerage yachts occupy the same wider event. A buyer considering a new Princess, Azimut, Sanlorenzo or Bering can therefore compare that proposition with relatively young brokerage yachts without treating them as completely separate research exercises.

There is no universally correct choice. A recent brokerage yacht may remove years from the acquisition timetable and reveal its real-world strengths and weaknesses, while a new build may provide greater personalisation and access to the latest propulsion, energy-management and onboard technology. What matters is understanding the compromises attached to each and being clear about which of them matter most to the buyer.

Start with a shortlist, not a shipyard

With more than 700 boats and yachts across the wider Cannes Yachting Festival, trying to see everything is not a serious buying strategy. A more useful approach is to start with the intended use of the yacht: number of guests, cruising area, time aboard, charter intentions if any, preferred crew model, range, speed, exterior lifestyle, water-sports requirements and realistic ownership budget.

From there, the objective should be to build a shortlist rather than a shopping list. Lomond Yachts has created a Cannes Yacht Selector featuring 174 yachts and new-build opportunities, allowing buyers to explore the selection by category and identify the yachts that genuinely interest them. Select the yachts you want to investigate and request the relevant brochures through Lomond Yachts.

[Explore the Cannes Yacht Selector →]

The objective is not to send you 30 brochures. It is to help reduce 30 possibilities to ten, ten to three, and ultimately establish whether one of them is actually the right yacht to own.

The right yacht. The right advice.