Navan showed the C38 at the Cannes Yachting Festival this week, with the world premiere at Port Canto on the evening of 08.09.2026. The boat is 13.1 metres long, rated for 850 horsepower and sleeps four. It is the first model the brand has built above thirty feet. A second 38-footer, the S38, will be ready in early 2027, and Brunswick says its design and market positioning will be described "in the coming months."
Navan belongs to Brunswick Corporation. It launched at this same show in 2023 under the name Navan by Quicksilver, with two boats: the S30 open and the C30 cabin version. The T30 had its global debut at boot Düsseldorf in January 2026. Four boats in three years, all of them chasing the same Nordic adventure-boat buyer.
Thirteen metres and 850 horsepower on the transom
The name says 38 and the spec sheet says 42 ft 11.5 in. Both numbers are real. The model number is hull length. The other figure appears when the boat is measured with the swim-platform extension and the outboard brackets fitted. Underneath sits Navan's patented T-Step hull, a stepped bottom whose step is T-shaped seen from above. Brunswick says it cuts drag, knocks the spray down and sharpens the turn-in.
One performance number is in circulation, and it comes from the builder. Vittorio Bichucher, general manager of Navan Boats, told Marine Industry News at the show: "with twin 425s, we were hitting 49.6 knots with seven people aboard." That is a figure on the top engine option, quoted by the man who runs the brand. The spec sheet publishes no speed, no range and no cruise data at all. Bichucher also said the C38 "drives just like our 30ft does," which is the even more interesting claim of the two. Nobody has been able to verify it.
The helm sits on the centreline of an open console, walkways down both sides. Behind it the aft section comes apart and goes back together as a dive centre, an angler station, an entertainment station or plain seating; the dive centre is standard and the other three are factory options on the price list. The swim platform folds down to extend the back deck. Flexiteek supplies the decking, the first time Navan has worked with the company.
What Brunswick owns inside the boat
Brunswick owns most of what is "bolted" to this boat. The outboards are Mercury, the electronics are Simrad, the deck hardware runs to Attwood and Ancor. An Axopar or a Nimbus buys its engines and its screens from suppliers who sell to everyone else; Navan buys them from the parent company.
Production runs on two continents. Merritt Island in Florida, the plant that also builds larger Sea Rays, covers the Americas; Poland supplies Europe. Poland is where Axopar builds too. So Brunswick is competing from inside the same supply base as the Nordic independents, and it does so carrying a tariff bill: Brunswick put incremental 2026 tariffs at roughly 40 million dollars, weighted to the first half of the year.
Where the C38 lands against Axopar, Saxdor and Nimbus
By size it goes up against the Axopar 37 and the Saxdor 400 GTO, with Nimbus as the third comparison. At the brand's 2023 launch the trade press did name Axopar and Saxdor as the targets. Price will settle it, and Navan has not published one. For scale, Boating's tests put the T30 at 199,999 dollars with a single 300 and the S30 at 216,496 dollars with a 400.
Navan lists the C38 as coming in autumn 2026, with the North American debut planned for the Fort Lauderdale show. Cannes runs to 13.09, and the boat sits at Port Canto for the rest of the week with the other premieres of the festival.
Photo: NAVAN Boats / Brunswick Corporation. Source: Marine Industry News, Brunswick Corporation press release, Navan MY27 C38 spec sheet.
