Monaco rolls out the red carpet for the most glamorous yachts

Not every yacht is created equal. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the famous Port Hercule, the Monaco harbour and home to the Monaco Yacht Show. It is the yachting world’s equivalent of the Formula 1 GP with the world’s elite mixing with celebrities, yacht brokers and the most glamorous and opulent of yachts.

It’s also an event with its fair share of debuts, concepts and ideas for the future. Sustainability was top of the agenda, or at least as much sustainability as you can expect in the super yacht. From materials to propulsion, it was at the centre of many conversations taking place. More on that another day, instead, let’s get into the stars of the show.

The stars

One star definitely shone above all others. It towered above them in fact. We’ve talked about the Lurssen built Kismet before, but now there’s a new Kismet. The owner sold the first one in 2023 and we were extremely fortunate to be among the first to be allowed a tour aboard the one. If you think you’ve seen five star or even six-star luxury, as the saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Kismet measures 122m, is believed to have cost over $350m and if you feel like spending a week aboard, you can chart it for $3m a week. The yacht has a Hall of Versailles Room, complete with a classical painting on the ceiling, a bar lounge containing a bespoke grand piano inspired by the design of modern Ferraris and a vast state dining room complete with video walls that span two decks and an enormous chandelier.

The bedrooms are inspired by famous fashion houses and the spa room is complete with a log fireplace. There’s a hair salon, garage with three tenders and six jet skis, a helipad and accommodation on board for over 40 crew and 12 guests. It is jaw-droppingly opulent in traditional style inspired by the owner’s home nations of Pakistan and Japan. In case you’re wondering who they are, he owns both Fulham FC and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the US, hence the jaguar mascot proudly adorning the bow.

Kismet definitely fits into the megayacht box, dwarfing everything else at Monaco, even the Special One which measures just over 52m. It’s not often that the Royal Huisman shipyard of the Netherlands brings something new to the show, it’s actually been ten years, but it did indeed have something special.

The owner loves fishing and yachting and so decided to combine his two loves in the largest and most luxurious sportfishing yacht ever made. It is remarkably tall and features an ingenious lift that take passengers to all floors. It’s full of modern materials and design touches, but the talking points are the fishing gear. There are rod rooms, a luxurious chair on the bow that looks like it should be for controlling some sort of military guns and there are two live bait aquariums. It deserves the sport name for its speed too, able to reach its top speed of 30 knots in just 46 seconds.

The concepts

Then there are the concepts, which always attract a great deal of excitement even if you can’t see the real thing. From models to virtual reality displays, these concepts often show the extremes of what can be built while also showing innovative elements that could find their way into new yachts yet to be commissioned.

Dutch shipyard, Feadship is renowned for its annual concept yacht reveal at Monaco. The yard celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024, hence the concept having the name C for carbon, the raw material that creates diamonds. The inspiration is purity and transparency, interpreted in the yacht through glass and precision surfaces. The wow factor can be found in the central elevator which is able to emerge through two glass doors into the open air above the yacht to form a crow’s nest. If that sounds very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory then there’s some Harry Potter too because the stairs surrounding the elevator can all move in order to add to the theatre of the lift and also provide a new way to interact with different rooms and levels. We aren't entirely sure how it would work in reality, but Feadship’s head of design, Tanno Weeda, told us that they approached it from an engineering point of view rather than just design and it will work. We just need someone to commission it now so we can see it become reality.

You might recall some of the concepts from Sinot in recent years. The design house works with a number of shipyards but also likes to showcase its own ideas. The latest is Inspire, measuring 138m and six decks all designed to inspire ideas and creativity on board. There’s accommodation for 22 guests including eight guest staterooms, two VIP suites and the owner’s suite which spans the an entire deck. As well as Sinot’s signature use of nature in many of the living areas, there is a brilliant Nemo room. This is a meeting room that descends from the hull of the yacht where guests can be inspired by the ocean life around them.

There was an intriguing car-based concept that grabbed my attention. Falcon Tenders has only been going a few years but has already created tenders for some well-known yachts. Now it has teamed up with GreenJoy Design to come up with something different, a car-carrying tender. They prefer to call it the Shuttle, one that can reflect the design of the car it is carrying. In the case of the concept, that means a Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, but the shuttle’s exterior design can be bespoke to each client’s request. Unlike yacht owners’ reliance on cranes to load cars into their yacht’s garage, the Shuttle has a hydraulic platform and ramp so you simply drive your car on and off. If your yacht is large enough, you can dock the whole Shuttle with the car onboard. Falcon is already working on some tenders that feature designs similar to a client’s Bugatti and others, so perhaps we will see Shuttle become reality.

The debuts

There were lots of debuts at the show too. We took a tour onboard the new Majesty 120 from Dubai-based Gulf Craft. It’s a name many haven’t heard of but it’s been going for 42 years and has sold over 11,000 boats, mostly within the GCC and Asia. Majesty is so busy that it is completing a superyacht every seven weeks, although fresh orders will take up to 18 months. Each yacht is totally custom built, with many of the components and interior furnishings made in-house by the company, something that is rare in the yacht building world. What is also rare is a discussion around value for money, but the new Majesty 100 which has also just debuted, measures 30m and costs $9.5m. It’s not short on luxury and has more space than may yachts costing much more, something the company is very proud of.

Other debuts included the new SanLorenzo 50Steel, which has already won some significant awards. GX Yachts made its debut at the show, not as a yacht, but as a completely new brand and there were new vessels from AB Yachts, Azmiut, Ferretti and many more.

The toys

There were also lots of new toys, too many to mention in fact. We got our first look at the new Maserati Tridente electric boat and the Fauscher x Porsche tender, but not surprisingly, we were distracted by the Iguana. This tender features caterpillar tracks that extend from the hull so you can drive up on to the land. It’s very James Bond. If you prefer to drive into the water, we spotted a luxury 4x4 casually “driving” through the marina. It was definitely a new take on the traditional Amphicar.

There were one-person submarines, jet skis and of course helicopters, but one of the coolest things had to be the new Lind surfboards. We say surfboards, after all they look like surfboards with great designs and classic looks, but they happen to be jetboards. Electric motors provide the power so you can surf even on water where there is no surf. Purists might not approve, but look past the $24,000 price tag and they still look very cool indeed.