Cannes Yachting Festival 2026: Multihull News, Rolling Feed
Last updated: Sat 12 September 2026
The 49th Cannes Yachting Festival runs from 8 to 13 September across the Vieux Port and Port Canto. Multihulls have the strongest presence the show has seen: a new Power Cat Village on the Pantiero dedicated to motor catamarans from 11 metres to over 28 metres, a Port Canto sailing fleet in which catamarans account for half the world premieres, and a first sailing catamaran from a builder that has made monohulls exclusively for five decades.
This page tracks the multihull news as it lands. Sail and power, world premieres and Cannes debuts, plus the awards and industry moves worth knowing about.
Show at a glance
- Dates: 8 to 13 September 2026, 49th edition
- Sites: Vieux Port (motor yachts, Power Cat Village) and Port Canto (sailing, brokerage, dayboats), linked by sea shuttle every 15 minutes
- Scale: around 700 boats from 5 to 50 metres, 680 exhibitors, roughly 150 world premieres, 56,000 expected visitors
- New for 2026: Power Cat Village on the Pantiero; Best of Boats Awards finalists announced at Port Canto on 9 September
Leopard 43 world premiere, diesel only
Status: Premiere. Price from €599,000 ex-tax.
The replacement for the Leopard 42, which served Moorings and Sunsail charter fleets as the 4200 and 424 and took Boat of the Year honours in 2022. Simonis Voogd designed it, Robertson & Caine build it in Cape Town, and what started as a styling update to align with the Leopard 46 and 52 turned into a full redesign.
The rig is the news here. The mast is three feet taller than the 42’s and upwind sail area is up 12 per cent, driving wave-piercing hulls with axe bows.
The saloon glass is another key feature. Wrap-around windows with the GRP structures beside the companionway removed give an uninterrupted 360-degree view. A sliding glass door folds away to merge the aft cockpit and saloon, with the raised side helm alongside. Forward cockpit seating and sunbed space have grown, and a side step has been added for dock access.
Layouts run to a three-cabin owner’s version with a full starboard hull master, desk and large heads, or four cabins and four heads for charter, going into the Moorings fleet as the 4300 and Sunsail as the 434. The new hull carries more volume forward, which fixes the smaller forward berths on the 42.
No hybrid option. Solar capacity is up significantly, but propulsion is twin 45hp or 57hp diesels only. Leopard’s view is that the hybrid technology is not there yet for this size of catamaran. Excess would disagree.
Key numbers: LOA 12.98m (42ft 7in) | LWL 12.49m | Beam 7m | Draught 1.5m | Air draught 21.61m | Displacement 14.73 t | Mainsail 72.8 or 76.6 m² | Genoa 53 m² | 2 x 45hp or 57hp | Fuel 600 L, water 660 L | Design: Simonis Voogd | Build: Robertson & Caine, Cape Town
Outremer announces the X-Series
Status: range announcement.
Outremer has used the show to announce a new X-Series. The sub-brand has a history: the 4X and 5X sat above the standard 45 and 51 as higher-specification, performance-biased versions, and a 7X design was developed although it never reached production. Reviving the X badge signals a tier above the core range rather than a single new model.
It lands in the middle of the busiest product cycle the yard has run. The Outremer 48 had its world premiere at La Grande-Motte in April and is on the Port Canto pontoon alongside the 52. The 57 and 64, both VPLP designs with Patrick le Quément exteriors and Franck Darnet interiors, went into build in January 2026 for world premieres at Cannes 2027. Hybrid propulsion, previously limited to the 45 and 52, has been extended across the whole range this year, with Outremer declining to name its technical partners so it can keep switching suppliers.
Outremer 48 for reference: LOA 14.63m | Beam 7.56m | Draught 1.25m board up, 2.1m down | Displacement 10.5 t | Mainsail 82 m², genoa 50 m² | Ten interior configurations | From €1,416,000
Heysea shows a new 70-foot power catamaran
Status: new model.
Heysea has added a 70-footer to its power catamaran line-up. The Chinese builder, founded in 2004 and operating out of Jiangmen in Guangdong, has delivered more than 100 composite, steel and aluminium yachts over 24 metres, and moved into catamarans with two parallel ranges: Vista for power and Seaview for sail.
The existing Vista range runs 50, 60, 70 and 80.
Excess developing a new bluewater flagship
Status: in development.
Excess is working on a larger bluewater catamaran, expected to carry the Excess 16 name and sit at the top of the range above the 11, 13 and 14. Dealers are already briefing clients on it as the brand’s new flagship, positioned for long-range cruising and liveaboard use while keeping the twin-helm layout and sporty handling the range is built around.
The timing fits the pattern. The Excess 11 took Best Innovative Boat at the Innovation Route Awards on Tuesday for its hybrid drivetrain, and E-Lektra Marine gives the Beneteau and Fountaine Pajot brands a shared electrification platform covering boats from 9 to 24 metres.
Excess has not published dimensions, design credits or a launch date.
Friday
Oyster unveils the C60, its first catamaran
Status: world premiere, concept stage. Wednesday 9 September.
A big story of the show. After more than 50 years building monohulls only, Oyster Yachts has revealed the Oyster C60, developed with Berret-Racoupeau. The yard says the decision followed over a year of research among current owners, former owners who had moved to other yacht types, and prospective buyers.
The brief was to use the space of two hulls without losing the bluewater behaviour Oyster owners expect. Up to one metre of bridgedeck clearance, high freeboard and a low-profile superstructure define the offshore architecture. Tankage is sized for distance: 1,200 litres of fuel with an optional 600 litres more, and 1,000 litres of fresh water.
Accommodation runs to an owner’s suite separated from three en-suite guest cabins and dedicated crew quarters, with Oyster’s triple Seascape windows carrying light through the saloon. Aft, twin fold-down bathing platforms and a central tender lift form a stern terrace, with wide-opening doors connecting the aft deck to the saloon and a bar serving both. A recessed foredeck lounge and a flybridge add further zones.
Key numbers: LOA 19.42m (63ft 9in) | Beam 9.35m (30ft 8in) | Upwind sail area 234 m² (mainsail 122 m², genoa 112 m²) | Twin 110hp | 110 m² of connected living space | Design: Berret-Racoupeau
Excess 11 takes Best Innovative Boat at the Innovation Route Awards
Status: awarded. Tuesday 8 September, opening night.
The Cannes Yachting Festival announced five Innovation Route Award winners at the exhibitors’ cocktail reception, selected by a six-member jury from 47 entries drawn out of 120 submissions.
The Excess 11 won Best Innovative Boat. The 37-footer is an established model rather than a new one, with twin helm stations and a layout built around life aboard; the award recognises the hybrid version, which pairs a generator with two electric motors for silent manoeuvring and fully electric sailing.
The full list:
- Best Innovative Boat: Excess 11
- Best Navigation-Enhancing Equipment: BlueNav Smart Mooring, an app-controlled position-holding and berthing aid that works with BlueNav motors and the Precision+ GPS system
- Best Sustainable Product: Suzuki Edge Ecoat, an anodising treatment for outboard components that Suzuki says cuts curing-related CO2 by half
- Best CSR Initiative: D-Marin’s Biohuts programme with Ecocean, installing artificial juvenile fish habitats under marina pontoons
- Special Jury Award: Azimut Grande 44M
The MODX 70 won in the inaugural 2025 edition, so multihulls have now taken a boat category two years running.
Sunreef ULTIMA 88 makes its global debut
Status: world premiere.
Sunreef’s largest ULTIMA to date is on the water at Cannes, the first hull named Wasabi. It follows the ULTIMA 55 and 66 and moves the range into flagship territory.
The ULTIMA 88 is a deliberate break from Sunreef’s upright, volume-led cruising catamarans. The roofline sits low, the glazing is raked and the profile reads closer to a fast GT yacht than a conventional powercat, while retaining the shallow draught and stability of the platform. Propulsion is offered as conventional high-output diesel or an advanced hybrid configuration for quiet electric cruising, with ultra-light solar panels among the options.
Build is at Sunreef’s new yard in Ras Al Khaimah. The model was previewed to invited guests at the Singapore Yachting Festival before Cannes, and Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz has commissioned one as his first yacht.
Key numbers: LOA 26.8m (87ft 11in) | Beam approx. 9.1m | Up to 5 cabins, 10 guests | 2 x 800hp or hybrid | Build: Ras Al Khaimah
Sunreef is also showing the Sunreef 60, 70 and 80 at Port Canto (stand SAIL162) and the 80 and 100 Sunreef Power at Vieux Port (PAN089).
Fountaine Pajot launches the FP48 and FP55 together
Status: two world premieres.
Fountaine Pajot has put three new models in the water at once in Cannes, two of them sailing catamarans. It is an unusually heavy launch for a single show.
FP48. The successor to the Tanna 47, first revealed on 16 July and now public for the first time. Life aboard is split into four zones: aft cockpit, saloon, forward cockpit and Lounge Deck. A three-metre sliding glass door merges the saloon and aft cockpit into one space, and the galley sits centrally in the interior. Two layouts are offered, Maestro for private owners and Quatuor for higher cabin counts. Integrated solar and the ODSea+ hybrid system are available, though the yard has not published installed photovoltaic capacity, which is the figure that determines real autonomy at anchor.
FP55. The first flybridge model in the new-generation sailing range. Two owner’s suites in the Maestro configuration, or up to six identical double cabins, with living space running from the aft cockpit to a panoramic flybridge. Fountaine Pajot quotes up to 6,300 W of integrated solar, enough to run air conditioning and systems at anchor without the generator, alongside the ODSea+ hybrid drivetrain and hydrogeneration.
Key numbers: FP48 LOA 14.43m | FP55 LOA 16.98m, beam 8.8m
The FP48 continues to Grand Pavois, Genoa, Barcelona and Annapolis after Cannes. Also on the Fountaine Pajot stand: the FPY70S, the first model in the new Fountaine Pajot Yachts range, plus the FP41, FP44, FP51 and Thíra 80.
Lagoon 47 world premiere
Status: world premiere. Deliveries from early 2027.
The replacement for the Lagoon 46, which sold around 700 hulls in seven years and is the best-selling catamaran of its size ever built. Lagoon says the 47 incorporates more than 200 owner and dealer comments.
The change that carries the most weight is the forward cockpit. A 12 m² foredeck space with a fixed table and bench seating is accessed directly through a door at the front of the saloon, on the same level. Until now that arrangement was reserved for Lagoon Signature models of 60 feet and above. The flybridge helm has moved to the side to improve visibility and communication with the cockpit, the 16 m² aft cockpit gains wraparound seating, and a modular Smart Room can be specified as a cabin, workspace or utility space.
Naval architecture and exterior lines are by VPLP with exterior design by Patrick le Quément, interiors by Nauta Design.
Key numbers: LOA 14.96m (49ft 1in), hull length 13.96m | Beam 7.96m | Draught 1.25m | Light displacement approx. 18 t | Upwind sail area 128 m² | Twin Yanmar 57hp | Fuel 860 L, water 700 L | 6 to 13 berths depending on layout | Three layouts: 3-cabin, 5-cabin, Smart Room
Lagoon EIGHTY 3 in the water at the Vieux Port
Status: Cannes Premiere. Unveiled at Lagoon Exclusive Days, Bordeaux, March 2026.
Lagoon’s new motor yacht flagship sits on the same hull platform as the Eighty 2 sailing catamaran, with a solid foredeck and a larger flybridge that can be specified with solar panels. Range is the selling point: 8,500 litres of fuel for a quoted 3,500 nautical miles.
Four, five or six guest cabins are available in the hulls alongside crew accommodation. The owner’s suite carries a king berth with sea views and a drop-down private terrace. Build is at Construction Navale Bordeaux, which handles all Lagoon models above 50 feet.
Key numbers: LOA 24.4m (80ft 1in) | Beam 11m | Twin John Deere N13 580hp | Range 3,500 nm | Fuel 8,500 L | Around 300 m² of exterior living space | CE certification A:14, B:18, C:24, D:40 | Design: VPLP, Patrick le Quément, Nauta Design
YOT 53: Catana Group moves into inboard powercats
Status: world premiere. Stand PAN 061.
The most commercially interesting powercat launch of the show. YOT Power Catamarans, launched by Catana Group in 2023, has built its first two models around outboards. The YOT 53 is its first inboard boat and a clear move up into the cruising powercat segment occupied by the mid-50s motor yacht market.
Design is by J&J Design. The dominant feature is a full-beam forward owner’s cabin with direct access to a private bow terrace, an arrangement usually found on much larger yachts. Side platforms fold down to take the beam from 7.25m to 9.95m, opening the aft cockpit into a waterside deck, and a tilt-up saloon door borrowed from Catana Group’s sailing catamarans opens the saloon to the cockpit. Layouts run to three or four cabins with an optional skipper cabin.
Key numbers: LOA 16.20m | Beam 7.25m, 9.95m with platforms open | Twin Yanmar 440hp or 550hp | Cruising speed 15 to 18 knots | 3 or 4 cabins plus optional skipper cabin | Build: Catana Group, Aveiro, Portugal
The YOT 41 is alongside it: 12.57m, folding side platforms taking beam to 5.82m, two cabins, twin Mercury V8 300hp as standard rising to twin V10 400hp.
Pioneer PY60 arrives from Stralsund
Status: world premiere.
Pioneer One, the first hull of the PY60, reached Cannes after entering the water in Stralsund in July and running a summer of sea trials. Pioneer Yachts was founded two years ago by engineer Mike Frank and built the PY60 around solar-electric operation from first sketches rather than converting an existing powerboat platform.
That decision shows in the hull shape, weight distribution and superstructure dimensions, all sized to cut energy demand. Solar generation, battery storage, electric propulsion and diesel generators are managed as one integrated energy architecture rather than bolted together. Trials this summer moved from commissioning individual systems to running complete operating days and measuring how the system behaves under real load. Naval architecture and exterior are by Cossutti & Ganz, interiors by Micheletti + Partners.
Key numbers: LOA 18m (60ft) | Top speed 11 knots | Cruising speed 7.5 knots | Build: Stralsund, Germany
The first hull doubles as the yard’s long-term development platform, which means the operating data gathered over the next few seasons will shape the production boats.
MODX 58 joins the range
Status: new model, presented at the show.
MODX has added a smaller sister to the MODX 70, a trimaran and is presenting it at Cannes, where the yard is once again showing the only MODX 70 in existence. An e-brochure for the 58 went live in August.
The parent boat sets the template. The MODX 70 runs twin Aeroforce inflatable wingsails of 125 m² each on rotating telescopic masts, fully automated and retractable at the push of a button, feeding a 250 kWh battery bank alongside 70 m² of solar (15 kWp peak) and variable-pitch hydrogeneration. It took Multihull of the Year 2025 at La Grande Motte and an Innovation Route Award at Cannes in 2025.
A 58-foot version brings the wingsail architecture into a size bracket where far more owners can reach it. Whether the energy balance scales down as cleanly is the question to put to the yard in Cannes.
Aquila launches the 45 Sail and 35 Sport
Status: two world debuts plus one European debut.
Aquila has seven boats on the docks, split between Port Canto (SAIL 150) and Vieux Port (PAN 069).
45 Sail. The second model in Aquila’s sailing range. A fixed bow lounge sits forward, an open flybridge complements the aft cockpit, and large glass areas link saloon and cockpit. Three and four cabin configurations are offered, each cabin with a private entrance and en-suite head, sleeping up to 12 in the four-cabin layout. LOA 47ft | Beam 7.75m (25ft 5in) | Upwind sail area over 125 m² (1,350 sq ft)
35 Sport. A compact centre console powercat carrying the styling of the 45 Sport. Three social zones, bow seating for four, a U-shaped convertible cockpit seating area, a wet bar and Corian galley block, a cabin below with a queen berth, and C-Zone digital switching. LOA 10.8m (35ft 6in) | Beam 4.5m (14ft 9in) | Twin Mercury Verado V8 300hp standard, V10 400hp optional | Top speed 39 to 45 knots, cruise 25 to 34 knots
45 Sport. European debut following its Miami world premiere earlier this year. Hydraulic drop-down hull-side terraces take the beam from 15ft to over 19ft, and twin Mercury Verado V12 600hp outboards deliver over 50 mph.
Vybe 43: a powercat that berths like a monohull
Status: world premiere. Stand PAN054.
Cantiere del Vybe enters the market with a compact powercat built around a specific constraint. At 3.97m the Vybe 43 keeps its beam close to a monohull of the same length, which means standard marina berths rather than the premium multihull rates and limited availability that put a lot of buyers off powercats.
Adam Younger’s design combines stepped hulls, reverse bows and carbon reinforcement. The interior by Abbasli Design runs to two cabins, each with its own heads.
Key numbers: LOA 12.67m | Beam 3.97m | Two cabins, two heads | Design: Adam Younger, interiors by Abbasli Design | Build: Italy
Also premiering at Port Canto
Leopard 43. The shortest of the sailing world premieres and the replacement for the 42. The new generation moves to inverted bows and a revised sail plan with more emphasis on performance, while keeping the large saloon windows, aft cockpit and coachroof lounge near the helm. Leopard has not released displacement or sail area, so performance claims cannot be assessed yet. LOA 12.97m
Windelo 55 Sport. A different brief from the volume-led boats around it. The Sport version carries extended carbon centreboards and a larger sail plan, improving upwind work and lifting to cut draught when needed. LOA 16.24m
Simbad 55. First shown at the International Multihull Show in La Grande Motte and now on the docks at Cannes. Pierre Delion naval architecture with styling by Franck Darnet, aimed at premium long-range cruising with a large flybridge and a protected forward cockpit.
Industry: E-Lektra Marine behind the hybrid boats on the docks
Several of the systems appearing across the show trace back to one announcement. Groupe Beneteau and Fountaine Pajot Group formed E-Lektra Marine on 22 April 2026, a 50/50 joint venture covering electric propulsion and onboard energy management for Beneteau, Jeanneau, Lagoon, Excess, Fountaine Pajot Sailing Catamarans, Fountaine Pajot Yachts and Dufour. Between them those brands hold around 60 per cent of the global sailing multihull market.
The platform covers full electric and both low and high voltage hybrid configurations for boats from 9 to 24 metres, plus a refit path for existing owners, real-time consumption monitoring and an approved service network. The stated target is to electrify 10 to 15 per cent of the global sailing market by 2030.
The venture is open to the wider industry, which is the commercial point of it. Shared battery architecture and energy management protocols across that volume would pull unit costs down and give service networks a single system to train on. The Excess 11 hybrid taking Best Innovative Boat and Fountaine Pajot’s ODSea+ boats on the FP48 and FP55 are the first visible output of that consolidation.
No separate E-Lektra product launch has been published for Cannes.
The read from the pontoons
Three things stand out in the 2026 multihull fleet.
The premium monohull builders have stopped watching the catamaran market and started entering it. Oyster is the clearest case, but the pattern is the same across the show.
Powercats have moved from a niche to a structural segment, confirmed by the Power Cat Village and by Catana Group committing to inboard cruising boats with the YOT 53.
Electrification has shifted from prototypes to production infrastructure. The MODX and PY60 remain the technical outliers, but the volume story is E-Lektra Marine and the drivetrains now shipping on mainstream 45 to 55 foot cruising catamarans.
This page is updated through the show.