The highly anticipated Cannes Yachting Festival will be held a bit earlier, from 7th to 12th of September, with wealthy locals and tourists alike descending on Port Hercules to see and, perhaps, buy the most upscale and posh yachts launched in the past year. Imagine taking a stroll on the promenade overlooking hundreds of yachts, basking in gentle sun rays or being coloured by a saturated sunset resembling a bloody mary cocktail – a sight worth dying for.
Cannes Yachting Festival
After being canceled because of COVID-19 in 2020, the Cannes Yachting Festival will be returning this fall from 7th to 12th of September 2021. Not many know that the festival, in fact, boasts quite an extensive and successful history. Founded in 1977, an obscure boat show quickly turned into one of the most prestigious yacht exhibitions – perhaps, because of Cannes sumptuous allure of the provincial, yet highly admired French city. Today, taking place in two of the city’s ports, the Vieux Port and Port Pierre Canto, it features 600 boats, including motor yachts, superyachts, catamarans, tenders and sailing yachts.
The drastic layout change came in 2019 – all the sailing yachts will now be displayed in Port Canto at the other end of the Croisette, leaving motor boats to fill the space vacated at the original Vieux Port location. Visitors now can catch a free sea or bus shuttle between the exhibitions for convenience. This layout change comes handy in our present healthcare situation, since the new layout helped create 1,000 linear metres of extra berthing representing a 7% increase on 2018 according to organisers.
This year’s programme behind the festival will have truly outstanding features. One of them is a full “Green” route for visitors – an environmental route highlighting exhibitors developing or presenting an environmentally-friendly concept. This is quite a huge step up in the “green” game for yachting. Another great opportunity to see unique yachts is presented by Concours d’Élégance. An event within an event Concours d’Élégance will be held on Saturday, 11th of September, and will showcase a carefully curated selection of vintage and modern cabinless day motorboats of less than 12 metres in length.
The yachts to watch out for at the festival:
WHY200
After being revealed in January 2021, WHY200, designed by the founder of Wally, Luca Bassani, in collaboration with Ferretti Group's in-house engineering department, will be hitting the waters at Cannes this year. The spacious yacht provides a ground-breaking owner’s suite in the bow and delivers up to 50% more living space than traditional yachts of its length without sacrificing its speed and agility. Besides, the yacht has a wrap-around main deck in glass, which allows for an unprecedented view of marine vasts, taking on board experience to a whole new level. Last but not least, WHY200 has fold out wings that expand the beach club area with access to the sea on three sides.
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