Stars of the 2023 Cannes Yachting Festival

The Cannes show kicked off yesterday with another strong line-up of boat-makers keen to show their latest and greatest new products.

While a number of smaller boats made their global debuts, Canes is all about what is happening at the big end of town, with some spectacular new entries to the market from some of Europe’s biggest brands.

Quite a few caught our eye – some because they push the boundaries, and others because they reset the luxury benchmark for others to follow.

What are our pick of the highlights? Here is our list of the 2023 Cannes Yachting Festival debuts we couldn’t scroll past.

Ferretti has taken a sharp turn to build a range of boats that are just as much a work of art as they are long-range luxury cruisers.

Dubbed Infynito, the new range of motor yachts aims to bring the experience up to a whole new level. The first model in the line is the Infynito 90 featuring three levels of living and a private, semi-enclosed space in the bow.

Few details about the new model have been released, and we’re yet to see the interior with just a single image of the Ferretti Infynito 90 showing how the new line will take shape.

Sailing specialist Bavaria has expanded its C-Line cruising range with its all-new Bavaria C46.

The new model was teased in concept form at January’s Boot Dusseldorf in Germany, but at Cannes, we get to see how it looks in real life.

The new Bavaria C46 offers an electrically furling system for the mainsail and electric winches for the jibsheets for the first time, as well as the option to swap out a diesel saildrive for an all-electric lithium-ion battery system that can be recharged via removable solar panels that can be fitted to the bimini.

It’s a boat with a name as long as its waterline. Cantiere del Pardo’s new grand cruiser includes a large coachhouse window that provides a 270-degree view of the water around the boat, making it an ideal place to be while anchored.

This bluewater cruiser differs from the Grand Soleil 72 Performance in that the raised coach house allows the floor in the central section of the Grand Soleil 72 Long cruise to sit higher without losing standing headroom. 

This in turn allows the sailing yacht’s designers to relocate several of the boat’s electrical and mechanical systems to the space under the dinette floor.

Hybrid engine technology has come to Greenline’s trawler-style motor yacht range with the addition of the Greenline 58 Fly.

The new 18.2-metre model will be able to cruise under full electric power from its two 40kW electric motors at up to 6.0 knots – not fast – but switch across to the diesels and you’re looking at a top speed of around 26 knots with twin 715hp Cummins QSM11 diesels, or 29 knots with the twin 1000hp Volvo Penta D13s installed.

Below decks, owners will have the choice of two or three cabins that can accommodate up to six people, with the option of adding separate berths for skipper and crew.

The Greenline 58 Fly’s hardtop over the bridge deck and forward saloon will, of course, come covered in solar panels.

Here’s a motor yacht as unusual in looks as its name. Monaco-based motor yacht maker Wally has lifted the wraps on its new wallywhy150, a new 24.0-metre pocket superyacht with “unparalleled interior and exterior spaces”.

Angular, creased and looking a little bit like a floating prop from a sci-fi movie, includes a deck-level forward master stateroom, an almost fully open flybridge deck that seems to go on forever, and a high-roofed split saloon with an upstairs-downstairs layout that leads directly out onto the aft beach club.

The big feature of this boat, though, is the amount of glass it uses to connect those inside the wallywhy150 with the water.

Despite its looks, Wally claims the wallywhy150 will be fast – you can fit it with triple 1000hp Volvo Penta engines with IPS1350 pod drives for a top speed of around 28 knots – but also extremely seaworthy.

What better way to announce you’re going to do things a little differently from now than launching a whole new 35.3-metre superyacht that will become the inspiration for all those that follow it? For the Italian motor yacht brand Pershing, that model is the Pershing GTX116

The GTX116 is the second of the new GTX family that will include the GTX 80, forming a new range of boats that will boast “elegance, incredible eck space and signature Pershing thrill”.

That thrill will come from 31 knots of WOT performance from the base 1800hp MAN V12 1800 water jet drives up to 34 knots from the optional 2000hp MAN V12 2000 drives. Cruising speeds will be 26 knots and 29 knots respectively.

The new GTX flagship will have five staterooms on board as well as three separate cabins for crew.

Turkish powered cat specialist VisionF has hit Cannes with the VisionF 80 Firstline, a 23.9-metre flybridge-equipped catamaran made for large groups of people.

The highlight is a 58-square-metre saloon deck that features an aft lounge large enough to seat up to 12 people. Inside, a dinette will seat just as many, while in the bow, yet another large lounge space will accommodate the same number.

The show boat is finished in a colour called Cotton Candy – pink by any other measure – giving the new model a distinctive Barbie vibe. 

Fellow Turkish motor yacht maker Sirena has come to Cannes with its all-new Sirena 48, an entry-level flybridge model.

Featuring a plumb bow to maximise its volume, the 15.9-metre length overall motor yacht combines explorer-yacht looks with luxury liveaboard.

Features include an aft kitchen in the saloon deck, a forward VIP suite, a full-beam amidships master, separate bunks, and a large flybridge deck. There is also space for one crew built into the transom.

Performance comes from the choice of either twin 480hp Cummins QSB 6.7 emgines, or twin 550hp Volvo Penta D8s.

If you’re going to explore the extremes of the world’s oceans, you’re going to have to get a sailboat tough enough to tackle the challenge. That choice is a bit easier with the launch of the 15.1-metre Elan GT6 Explorer.

Features include a lower cockpit compared with other Elan models, an extra forestay to allow skippers to use a staysail, self-tacking jib for shorthanded sailing, and strengthened bulkheads fore and aft that are also now watertight.

The Elan GT6 X, as it is nicknamed, also includes a 500-litre fuel capacity, six 140Ah service batteries, close to 1.2kW of solar panel arrays, a 100L/h water maker and up to a 6.4kW genset.

For those keen to travel green, you can opt to replace the standard 57hp or optional 80hp Yanmar saildrive with a 15kW electric saildrive.

Gibraltar-based foiling sailboat maker Infiniti has diversified into the power segment, teasing it will soon start work on an all-new 18.3-metre foiling catamaran built entirely from lightweight but strong carbonfibre.

However, rather than rise up out of the water, the Infiniti 60 Powercat’s system will work to reduce the wetted surface of the hulls, improving speeds by about a third compared with if the hulls did not have the foils.

Skippers will have the choice of retracting the foils and instead relying on the trim of the twin 600hp Mercury V12 Verado outboard engines to smooth out the catamaran’s ride.

The 2023 Cannes Yachting Festival runs from September 12-15.