Twelve boats, two brackets, one show. Line them up by our own gross tonnage taxonomy rather than the length column most previews lead with, and the story stops being about individual yachts and starts being about scarcity, geography and where the money's actually going.
These boats are rarer than the headline numbers suggest. BOAT International's Global Order Book 2026 shows that the number of new orders has been shrinking for a second consecutive year, even as the average length and tonnage of hulls under construction have reached record highs. Build slots at the leading yards are already booked through 2028–2029.
Hybrid propulsion is no longer a differentiator, it's baseline. QU2, Kinda II, N2H and Simena all run hybrid diesel-electric or full electric systems as standard. The show's own Blue Wake framework, run with the Water Revolution Foundation, expanded this year to cover brokerage and yacht management firms too — proof this isn't a design trend anymore, it's becoming how the whole industry operates.
Italy still builds most of the yachts that show up here. Sanlorenzo, Azimut-Benetti and the Ferretti Group brands form the backbone of this fleet, and the numbers bear it out: Italian yards account for 52 percent of global superyacht production by unit.
Semi-custom platforms, meanwhile, have become one of the main production models. The Amels 60 already has nine hulls behind her. Baglietto sold the third unit of the brand-new T60 before the first one had even touched the water.
Superyachts: 100 to 999 GT
Riva 54 Metri 54.84 m, Riva
The largest Riva ever delivered — for now
Full-aluminium construction keeps her fast (18 knots on twin MTUs) without giving up the mahogany-and-chrome transom the brand won't compromise on. A 70-metre Riva is already under construction, due 2028, but until then this is the flagship. Exactly 499 GT, engineered right up to the line and no further.
Gray Wolf 52.4 m, Mengi Yay
Six decades of Turkish shipbuilding, still writing its own rules
Styled by VYD Studio, dramatic vertical bow, RINA Ice Class rated for owners who'll actually use it. The largest yacht Mengi Yay has built since 1964, with six more hulls under construction, including the yard's first Nuvolari Lenard collaboration. Also 499 GT.
Simena 62 m, Ares Yachts
A clipper bow and a wooden ketch's DNA, wrapped in a modern hybrid drivetrain
The one sailing yacht in this bracket. Teak, mahogany and superyacht-grade joinery — all of it built by a young yard that grew out of boat building. When the wind won't cooperate, she manoeuvres on electric motors — silently. This one is also 499 GT, yet nearly ten metres longer than the previous two.
QU2 60 m, Amels
Hull nine of one of the best-selling platforms in superyacht history
The Amels 60 replaced the Amels 180 — a Tim Heywood design that sold 25 units — when Amels retired it in 2019. Espen Øino's sharper lines and trademark geometric windows took over. Nine hulls in, still instantly recognizable. 853 GT, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion.
Aura 1 49.9 m, Overmarine
Three generations in and still the fastest fibreglass yacht in her class
This Mangusta 165 REV runs quad waterjets past 33 knots on under 2 metres of draft — Bahamas access without giving up the length. Nearly two decades of the same nameplate, still setting its own bar.
Ipharra II 29.37 m, Sunreef Yachts
The world's newest eco sailing catamaran
First hull of the Sunreef 100 Eco line, sold at Fort Lauderdale back in 2022 for a repeat Sunreef owner chasing the cruising experience without the diesel dependence. Built in Gdańsk, launched this year — this is her world debut. Sunreef's 100 Power is also at the show, making the yard's case on both sides: sail and power, same size class.
Megayachts: 1,000 GT and Up
Angelique 87.7 m, Turquoise Yachts
Turquoise's biggest build ever — and she's not even the only one this year
A multi-tiered aft beach club, drop-down side terraces, and a glass-bottom pool that throws daylight into the lounge below. Turquoise hasn't launched anything this size in years; this year they're launching two.
N2H 76.3 m, Turquoise Yachts
Turquoise's first hybrid megayacht, launched three months after her sister
Thermal-insulating structural glass keeps the floor-to-ceiling sightlines without the HVAC bill. Turquoise remains under the Barwani family's MB Group. They bought the yard a long time ago, but after selling Oceanco to Gabe Newell in 2025 they now look set to take its development far more seriously.
Pangea 80 m, Amels
Proof that yesterday's flagship is today's routine build
The 83-metre Here Comes the Sun was Amels's one and only flagship for years. Now 80-metre hulls like Pangea come off the line as a regular series, while the flagship title has moved on to the 120-metre Project Tanzanite. Pangea's own trick: a forward tender garage that frees the whole aft deck for guests and converts into a certified helipad.
Silver Fox 73.4 m, Sanlorenzo
The next chapter in a beach-club idea Sanlorenzo's been rewriting since 2010
Back in 2010, the 46-metre Lammouche put a gym right at the waterline — nobody expected it to work. Attila scaled the idea up in 2019. Silver Fox is the next step: a full wellness complex on the lower deck and an extraordinary level of comfort across the rest of the guest areas.
Sea Raider X 66.4 m, ISA Yachts
Finishing an argument ISA's Okto started twelve years ago
Automotive-inspired lines, a rakish hull, lively performance and a memorable stern — the new ISA builds on everything the yard once achieved with Okto and takes that formula to a new level. One thing hasn't changed: ISA remains a yard with a reputation for building large, fast yachts.
Kinda II 60.6 m, Baglietto
The yard's largest build in 172 years — and already a proven platform
First hull of the new T60 series, with a third already sold before this one hit the water. That demand is part of why Baglietto has emerged as a serious bidder for the neighbouring La Spezia shipyard. Parallel hybrid propulsion lets her lie silently at anchor and run on electric power at up to 9 knots.
The Bigger Picture
Step back and none of this reads as coincidence. The order book is shrinking in unit count while the yachts themselves keep growing. Against that backdrop, 2026's deliveries become an especially rare proposition on the market.
Hybrid propulsion now appears in three different segments at once — a sailing yacht, a 60-metre semi-custom platform and Baglietto's new flagship. It looks like it has finally stopped being a marketing checkbox: brokers and management companies now run sustainability programmes of their own, and interest in greener solutions is no longer limited to new builds.
Nine Amels 60 hulls plus a T60 sold before delivery show that semi-custom is no longer seen as a compromise. That is exactly how this part of the market scales.
Want to meet the people behind these designs in person? Espen Øino International — responsible for Pangea and QU2 in this piece, and Whisper in our gigayacht coverage — and Van Oossanen Naval Architects, who worked on Gray Wolf, have confirmed their participation in the show's new Designer Gallery.
The gigayachts get their own piece. There are only three of them this year — and that's a story worth telling on its own.
Text by: Nikita Gorchakov.
