Cannes Yachting Festival 2026: our guide, and where to find us

The Cannes Yachting Festival opens on Tuesday 8 September and runs to Sunday 13 September. The 49th edition puts around 700 boats between 5 and 50 metres across two harbours, with more than 680 exhibitors and over 150 world premieres. A show on that scale is not something you look at. It is something you navigate, and the people who leave with something useful are the ones who worked out where they were going before they arrived.

We will be there all week. We are not exhibiting and we have no stand, which we think is the more useful side of the fence to be on: we will be walking both harbours, calling in on the yards we work with, and looking at boats the way we look at them for a client rather than the way you look at them from behind a counter. If you are coming, tell us. A straight opinion on a boat is much easier to give standing in front of her than across a desk.

Two harbours, and they are not interchangeable

The show is split between two ports at either end of the Croisette, and arriving at the wrong one costs you an hour. The Vieux Port, beside the Palais des Festivals, is the motor side: the season's launches, most of the shipyard stands, the Luxury Gallery, and the Super Yacht Extension where the largest boats lie. Port Canto, fifteen minutes east on foot, is sail and second hand: around 120 sailing yachts from 10 to 33 metres, the multihulls, the tenders and toys, and the brokerage pontoons where pre-owned boats are shown.

Free sea shuttles link the two from 10 am, roughly every quarter of an hour, and the crossing is quicker and a good deal more pleasant than the walk. Work out which port your shortlist actually lives in before you set off, and cross once rather than four times.

Hours, and the one hour that is genuinely quiet

• Tuesday 8 to Thursday 10 September: 10 am to 7 pm
• Friday 11 September: 10 am to 10 pm, the only late night
• Saturday 12 September: 10 am to 7 pm
• Sunday 13 September: 10 am to 6 pm

The first hour after the gates open is the only quiet one of the day. By midday the pontoons are full, crews are handling three groups at once, and the unhurried look round you had in mind becomes a queue at the passerelle. If there is one boat you seriously need to see, be there at ten. And if you can only manage a single evening, make it Friday: the port after dark, lit and finally slower, is the best hour of the week.

Tickets are sold online only and there is no box office at the gate, so buy before you travel. General admission starts at EUR 25. The VIP tiers run from a single day up to a six day Platinum pass at EUR 1,560 for two people, which buys priority entrances, the lounges at both ports and a dedicated water shuttle between them.

What is actually new this year

Motor boats dominate the 2026 edition. Around 535 new power models between 3 and 50 metres are expected, with close to 120 world premieres among them, and the theme running through the launches is range rather than horsepower: longer legs, better autonomy at anchor, and interiors that can be reconfigured instead of fixed at the order stage.

• Custom Line Navetta 35 and Ferretti Yachts 720, both from the Ferretti Group
• Azimut Grande 44M, Magellano 27M, Fly 70 and Seadeck 9
• Mangusta Oceano 39
• Sirena 118, a 36 metre flagship
• Princess X90, the newest of the X Class
• Fountaine Pajot FP48, FP55 and FPY 70S
• Axopar 38 Cross Top

Several of those come from yards we already deal with. Our own listings run Benetti, Ferretti Yachts, Mochi Craft and Tecnomar, so the Ferretti and Azimut pontoons in the Vieux Port are where most of our week will go.

Sea trials are booked in advance, not on the day

The Vieux Port has a dedicated sea trial area and a fair number of exhibitors run trials through the week, but every slot is arranged directly with the exhibitor, in advance, on that yard's own terms. Nobody is handing them out at the pontoon on the morning. If getting on the water is part of why you are coming, ask now rather than on arrival. The same goes for a proper viewing of any boat you are serious about: an hour booked ahead beats an afternoon of queueing.

Where to find us

We are on the docks for the week, in both harbours, moving between stands rather than sitting on one. Send us the day you are coming and what you want to look at and we will meet you: at the yard's stand, on the pontoon, or over a coffee off the Croisette if it is a longer conversation.

Anything we do the rest of the year we can do standing on a dock in Cannes. A second opinion on a boat you have been circling. What a new build contract is actually committing you to, and which of its milestones matter. Whether you need yacht management or an owner's representative on a project this size, and what that costs. What boats like the one in front of you have genuinely been selling for, as opposed to what they are being asked for.

Our brokerage partner Divo Yacht is exhibiting for all six days at stand PALAIS 040, in the Palais des Festivals area of the Vieux Port. We work with them on most of our transactions, and in a week where everything else is moving their stand is a fixed point worth knowing about.

After Cannes: Monaco, 23 to 26 September

Two weeks later the fleet moves a few miles east to Port Hercule for the Monaco Yacht Show, 23 to 26 September 2026, with around 120 superyachts in the harbour. The two shows are not substitutes. Cannes is wider and faster and is the better week for seeing a great many boats in a short time. Monaco is narrower, larger at the top end and slower, and is the better week for a small number of serious conversations. If Cannes does not suit your diary, we can pick this up there instead.

To fix a time, write to [email protected] or message us on WhatsApp, saying which day you are attending and what you would like to see. See you on the docks.

Coverage: Cannes Yachting Festival, official site, Boat International show guide, Divo Yacht visitor guide