The 35th Monaco Yacht Show opened on Wednesday 23 September with 118 superyachts in Port Hercule. The organiser’s latest count adds 60 tenders and 560 exhibitors on 16,000 square metres of quay. The first day belonged to the Italians. Riva showed the largest boat in its history, ISA Yachts announced the sale of a 73-metre with a room below the waterline, and a German tuning house presented its first yacht, built in Italy. Here is what was said and shown on the quays, with the figures as the yards gave them.
Riva 54Metri: 54.83 metres, 499 tonnes, the biggest Riva ever
Riva’s release calls the 54Metri “the absolute star of the Monaco Yacht Show 2026”, and for once the press office is not exaggerating. The boat measures 54.83 metres overall with a beam of 9.18 metres. It is built entirely in aluminium at the Riva Superyacht Division in Ancona. It has been kept to 499 gross tonnes, the threshold below which a yacht escapes a whole tier of commercial regulation. Two MTU 12V2000-M96L engines drive it. Top speed is 18 knots. The lines are by Officina Italiana Design, the studio of Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta, working with Ferretti Group’s product strategy committee and engineering department. Fold-out bulwarks turn the side decks into terraces over the water. Inside: natural teak, Sahara Noir and Bianco Rhino marble, full-height glass. Nine days before the show the design won Best Exterior Design in the 50-to-82-metre class at the World Yachts Trophies. Alongside it Riva has moored the 130′ Bellissima, the 96′ Argo Super and Aquarama number 747, restored by Riva Classiche.
Ferretti Group’s first Monaco under its new chief executive
The 54Metri is one of three premieres Ferretti Group claims this week, with CRN’s 67.55-metre Amor à Vida, making its European debut after Palm Beach in March, and the Custom Line Navetta 35. Eight yachts from five brands are in the harbour: Riva, CRN, Pershing, Custom Line and Wally. It is the group’s first Monaco Yacht Show since Stassi Anastassov took over as global chief executive on 15 May, and his statement from Forlì on Wednesday morning set the tone.
“Monaco is where the very best of yachting comes together, and Ferretti Group comes here to lead, not simply to participate.”
The same morning the group announced that it will adopt Watchit Sense 360, a collision-avoidance system by Aqua Marina Tech that now adds radar detection to its tracking. No models or dates were given.
ISA Yachts sells a 73-metre with an underwater room
The hard news of the day came from Ancona. A contract, not a concept. ISA Yachts, part of Palumbo Superyachts, announced the sale of a new 73-metre custom yacht for delivery in 2030, with exterior and interior design by Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design, naval architecture by Azure and interiors built by LIST of Austria. It is the first time the Dutch studio has worked on an ISA hull. The feature the release leads with is what it calls the Nemo Room: “an exclusive underwater room integrated into the yacht”, with “expansive glazed surfaces” that give guests “a direct connection with the surrounding marine environment”. Giuseppe Palumbo, sole director of Palumbo Superyachts, said the yard was “particularly proud to welcome Sinot to an ISA Yachts project for the first time”. The tonnage and the broker were not disclosed. ISA’s current flagship, the 66.4-metre Sea Raider X, is at berth E12 on the Quai des Etats-Unis, and its next one, the 79.82-metre Belita, went into the water at Ancona on 15 September.
The first Brabus yacht, built by AB Yachts
The Brabus AB110 is the show’s automotive crossover. Brabus, the German tuner of Mercedes cars, has put its name on a boat for the first time, and the boat is Italian. It measures 33.7 metres and is built by AB Yachts of the Next Yacht Group, with up to three MTU 16V 2000 M96L engines of 2,600 horsepower each on waterjets, 7,800 horsepower in total. Top speed: 48 knots. Four cabins take ten guests. Constantin Buschmann, the chief executive and owner of Brabus, presented it as the first Brabus yacht ever built; Giorgio Mattei of Next Yacht Group described the range as “a genuine exchange between our teams”. It stays moored at berth S03 until Saturday. No price was given. Nobody expected one.
Swan Alloy 44: Sanlorenzo’s largest Swan
On the eve of the show Nautor Swan, owned by Sanlorenzo, revealed the full design of the Swan Alloy 44, a 44-metre aluminium sailing yacht that will be the largest in the brand’s 60-year history. Naval architecture and exterior are by Malcolm McKeon, interiors by Studio Liaigre; hull and deck are built by Gouwerok in the Netherlands and outfitting happens in Viareggio, with the first delivery due in summer 2028. Massimo Perotti, executive chairman of Sanlorenzo, called it “a defining expression of our ambition”, and Gianguido Girotti, chief executive of Nautor Swan, said the systems on board would work “quietly in the background, extending autonomy without compromising performance”. The project was first shown as renders at Monaco last year. Construction began in March.
Tankoa, Azimut, Baglietto, Benetti
Tankoa has two world premieres: Singolare, a 45-metre by Cassetta Yacht Designers with interiors by Debora Aguiar, an infinity beach pool and an open-air cinema, and Spirit, a 52-metre full-hybrid drawn by Philippe Briand’s Vitruvius studio with interiors by FM Architettura. Azimut’s Grande 44M, 43.6 metres by Alberto Mancini outside and m2atelier inside, arrives with seven units already sold and a 400-kilogram carbon Hull Vane foil under the stern; we looked at the design when it was first presented. Baglietto shows the first T60, a 60.6-metre by Francesco Paszkowski and the first of three sold, together with the Fast50, and signed its fifth sale of the year, a 53-metre by Enrico Gobbi for 2029, a week before the show. Benetti has the fourth B.Now 67, a hybrid, and a B.Now 50, and has opened a Benetti Lounge at the Yacht Club de Monaco designed by AMDL Circle and Michele De Lucchi.
Awards, giants and a new hand on the tiller
The Blue Wake Awards were handed out in the BOAT Lounge on opening day, from 60 validated projects. Two of the six winners are Italian: Termodinamica, for a marine air-conditioning system built around an inverter heat pump, and Amico & Co of Genoa, for a refit yard running on a one-megawatt solar array. The special prize for a yacht went to Simena, the 62-metre hybrid ketch by Ares Yachts at berth S05. “These awards celebrate the innovators who are proving that luxury and sustainability can go hand in hand,” said Toby Moore, chief executive of Informa Prestige. Moore is running his first edition. Gaëlle Tallarida left this year after 27 years with the show, 16 of them as managing director, and he told Monaco Hebdo that one does not rewrite such a legacy, one develops it. The scale is set, as ever, by the boats nobody can buy this week. Three of them. Oceanco’s 111-metre Leviathan sits at the Quai Rainier III; Lürssen’s 102-metre Nixie is the largest of the 2026 deliveries; and Draak, the 92.8-metre Oceanco, was rebuilt this year as a support vessel for Leviathan. The show runs to Saturday 26 September; passes and hours are in our access guide.
The Luxury.it perspective
Three announcements in one day, from three different Italian groups, describe the state of the industry better than any statistic. Each is a first. Riva has built a boat of nearly 55 metres and kept it under 500 tonnes, which is the hardest trick in the business and the one owners pay for. ISA has sold a 73-metre to a client who wants to sit below the waterline and look out, which tells you where the imagination of the market has gone. And a German car brand chose an Italian yard to build the first boat with its name on it, which tells you where the market goes when it wants speed built properly. The show’s own numbers say Italian builders account for 52 percent of global superyacht production. Walk from berth L06 to berth S03 on Thursday morning and that figure stops being abstract.
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The Italian superyachts at Monaco 2026 · Sanlorenzo at Cannes 2026 · Cannes Yachting Festival 2026 · Yacht charter in Italy
