Three. Out of roughly 120 yachts at Port Hercule this year, three are 90 metres and up — the entire confirmed gigayacht fleet for Monaco 2026. Four more will most likely be at anchor just off the show: two confirmed, two we wouldn't be surprised to see.
Monaco Yacht Show has always been the best place to understand yacht design up close, and running into a legendary designer on the docks has never been rare. But the facilities built around that conversation have grown more sophisticated over the years, reflecting a simple fact: a yacht is born in a design studio long before it's born at a shipyard. This year MYS launched the Designer Gallery, consolidating what used to be a scattered set of exhibition zones into one continuous platform along the port. Among this year's confirmed names: Espen Øino International and Lateral Naval Architects — both directly responsible for boats in this piece — along with Dixon Yacht Design, Frers, Philippe Briand and Hoek.
On the Docks
Leviathan 111 m, Oceanco
The largest yacht at the show
Communal spaces the whole crew shares, not just the guests — materials chosen so crew time goes toward running the ship instead of endless upkeep. A dive centre, a lab and a hospital support the Inkfish ocean-science program, alongside a tri-fold beach club that's as much working deck as leisure space. Naval architecture is by Lateral Naval Architects.
Nixie 102 m, Lürssen
Held the size record for weeks — and delivered as part of Lürssen's biggest year ever
RWD's layout wraps expansive social space in soft, convex lines that make the superstructure feel like it's dissolving into itself. A semi-suspended glass pool and one of the largest beach clubs ever built on a Lürssen — 270 square metres of it. One of six superyachts, 655 metres of custom construction, the yard delivered in 2026 alone. She'll be berthed at Quai Rainier Ier, the point MYS itself uses to mark the top end of this year's fleet.
Draak 93 m, Oceanco
A fresh rebuild running expedition support for the show's biggest yacht
Formerly Equanimity, then Tranquility, rebuilt by Oceanco's Life Cycle Support team specifically to run alongside Leviathan under the same owner: diving facilities, a serious tender fleet, heavy-duty lifting gear. Together, the pair's combined gross tonnage edges past Golden Odyssey's 7,690 GT — the previous record for largest yacht ever displayed at Monaco by volume.
The Anchor Fleet
There's always a second list — gigayachts at anchor, one tender ride away from the docks. For a visitor, which ones actually show up feels like a surprise. For the brokers who spent months working the phones to get them there, it's the opposite.
Christina O 99.13 m, Canadian Vickers
Built in 1943, and people still photograph her to this day
Bought at scrap value by Aristotle Onassis and rebuilt into the yacht that basically invented the modern floating palace. Churchill, JFK, Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy all cruised aboard. For sale now at €52 million through Fraser, who confirm she'll be at anchor for the show. No living designer to meet here — she predates the concept of a named yacht designer by decades.
Whisper 95.2 m, Lürssen
Formerly Kismet, and her exterior designer will be at the Designer Gallery
Delivered 2014, renamed after changing hands in 2023. Espen Øino drew the exterior, wrapping a double-height saloon with a 350-kilogram chandelier and a 12-metre sun deck pool. He's confirmed for this year's Designer Gallery.
Pelorus 114.5 m, Lürssen
2003's flagship, still for sale, possibly still afloat off Monaco during the show
One of the largest yachts in the world has an exterior by Tim Heywood, and interiors by Terence Disdale. Four pools on board, including the original fold-down gym-to-beach-club platform that looked novel in 2003 and still works now. Listed with Edmiston at €160 million, currently in Montenegro. We're not confirming she's coming. But we wouldn't be surprised if she does.
Luna 90.13 m, Oceanco
An Oceanco build, just barely a gigayacht by length
Formerly Dar, delivered in 2018. Luiz de Basto drew a shark-inspired exterior, dark glass against white balconies; Nuvolari Lenard did the interiors — the same studio behind Mengi Yay's upcoming NL50 Plus in our superyacht piece. Unusually, she's both for sale at €208 million and still actively chartering, refitted as recently as 2024. Like Pelorus, we're not confirming she'll be at anchor for the show. She'd fit right in if she were.
Who's Actually There
Two names worth circling if you're walking the show: Lateral Naval Architects, who did the engineering behind Leviathan, and Espen Øino International, who drew Whisper's exterior and, further down our size classes, both Pangea and QU2. Both firms are confirmed for the new Designer Gallery, set along the port rather than tucked into a side hall — meaning the people behind two of this year's seven gigayachts are reachable in person, not just credited in a press release. Dixon Yacht Design, Frers, Philippe Briand and Hoek are on the same list.
The rest of the fleet's design teams — RWD on Nixie, Oceanco's own studio on Draak, Heywood and Disdale on Pelorus — aren't listed as Designer Gallery participants this year. That doesn't mean they're absent, though. Their yachts are on the docks and at anchor either way, and their names are on the builder's stand even without a spot in the Gallery.
The Bottom Line
Three on the docks, four at anchor, and length isn't really what separates them. Christina O has been afloat for 83 years and has outlasted plenty of gigayachts built long after her. Lürssen didn't need this year's size record — they needed six deliveries in twelve months, and got them. Getting into this category takes size. Staying relevant in it takes something else entirely — and this year, for once, you can go ask the people who make that happen directly.
Text by: Nikita Gorchakov, Daniil Slugevich.
