2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show: Motor yachts

We’re still counting down the days to the start of the 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show and already boat brands are lining up to try and steal the show.

This year’s event is already almost fully booked out by exhibitors that include some of the nation’s, and the world’s, biggest and best brands.

Some of the boats to go on show will be from brands that have not yet been seen in Australia.

As always, there is likely to be a host of new electronics and a few innovations that also make the show stands.

We’ll keep adding to this story as we learn more about what surprises are around the corner.

In the meantime, here are the motor yachts we know will be there.

Leigh-Smith Yachts and Yachtsmen International both will be back for the show, aiming to attract visitors with some of the biggest, brightest and most expensive motor yachts on the water.

Last year’s display from Yachtsman featured more than 20 boats ranging from 6.7 metres up to 35 metres. Leigh-Smith, meanwhile, has teased it will have a range of motor yachts at this year’s event stretching from 313.4 metres up to more than 36 metres.

Luxury motor yacht maker Horizon had more than $150 million of its boats on display at last year’s show, and taking pride of place at this year’s event will be the 24.6-metre Horizon FD80.

This high-volume member of Horizon’s Fast Displacement line, dubbed a pocket superyacht given the amount of interior space its plumb-bow design delivers, is one of the brand’s most popular models. 

Powering it is a pair of MTU 10V 2000 engines, each producing 1600hp.

The $14.5 million boat, built for an Australian customer, comes with a four-stateroom layout with an on-deck master suite and a split-use skylounge, and has an interior penned by Dutch architects Cor D. Rover.

Not yet confirmed, but pegged as highly likely for Sanctuary Cove is the Horizon FD90, a five-stateroom motor yacht with a full-beam master suite in the bow, a full-beam bridge and a Portuguese-style bridge deck forward.

TMG Yachts will use Sanctuary Cove to host the Asia Pacific launch of the Prestige M-Line of luxury powered catamarans, kicking off the occasion with a display featuring the Prestige M48.

Boats with more than one hull tend to be more stable than monohulled counterparts, and the wider beam allows Prestige to endow the M48 with a sense of light and space.

The 14.8-metre M48 is a very open boat, encouraging owners to move outdoors and enjoy a number of zones set up around it, including a big bow lounge, open flybridge and a large, entertainment-focussed aft cockpit.

Powering it is a pair of 320hp Volvo Penta inboard engines turning the screws via a V-drive. That's powerful enough to give the Presige M48 a 15.8-knot cruising speed.

The 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show runs from May 23-26.

Tickets are only available online, and if you buy them before May 8 they will cost $30, with children aged less than 16 admitted free with a paying adult.