What are the exact dates and the schedule?

The show runs Wednesday 23 September through Saturday 26 September 2026. Wednesday is reserved for invitation-only and Sapphire Experience passholders; general access tickets are valid from Thursday onwards. Daily hours are 10:00 to 18:30, except Saturday closing at 18:00.

Where do you stay for the show?

Hermitage and Hôtel de Paris are the traditional industry hotels and book out 14 months in advance. Realistic alternatives are Métropole Monte-Carlo (a five-minute walk to the Quai Antoine 1er gate), Fairmont Monte Carlo (slightly farther, fewer industry collisions in the lobby), and the more recent Maybourne Riviera on the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin headland for the helicopter-in commute.

How do you actually get on board the boats?

There is no general boarding for visitors. Boats are open by appointment only, arranged through the broker representing the boat. Practically, that means you contact Edmiston, Y.CO, Camper & Nicholsons, Burgess, Fraser, or the boat's listing broker at least four to six weeks in advance and request a slot. The Sapphire Experience pass facilitates these introductions but does not guarantee any specific boarding.

What is the dress code on the docks?

Smart business casual during the day; jacket required on most boats from the late afternoon onward. The dock surface is reflective and rough on heels — flat or block-heel shoes are sensible for the morning walks.

If I only have one day at the show, what do I do?

Thursday or Friday morning, 10:00 to 14:00, walking the T-quay and Quai Antoine 1er for the larger boats, then the upper basin for the 30-to-50-metre boats. Lunch on a boat is the highest-leverage two-hour window of the show. Skip the Saturday — it is the public day and the docks are uncomfortably crowded.

Monaco Yacht Show 2026: What to Watch on Port Hercule, 23–26 September

The Monaco Yacht Show has, over the last decade, reshaped itself from a trade event with public access into something closer to a four-day industry summit with a public open day at the end. The 2026 edition, running 23 to 26 September in Port Hercule for the show’s 34th year, continues that trajectory. The exhibitor count is approximately 560 across the docks and the tents, the boat count is targeted at 120-plus superyachts and 60 tenders, and the structural emphasis is — more than at any prior edition — on appointments, scheduled boardings, and quiet conversations rather than walk-up boat tours.

I have been going to the show since 2014. Below is what I am watching for in 2026, who the boats are, where they will berth, and the operational advice I give to clients and friends who are trying to use the four days well.

The boats that matter

The headline question every year is which yachts in the seventy-to-one-hundred-twenty-metre range have either delivered in the prior twelve months and are making their first major show appearance, or are arriving as central display pieces in a brokerage campaign. Below is the working list as of early June, three and a half months out, with appropriate caveats — the boat list is not finalised until late August, and any of the entries below can change.

Lürssen Jassi

I covered Jassi separately. She is the 102.4-metre RWD-designed Lürssen launched at Rendsburg on 6 February in heavy snow, with delivery guided to Q3 2026 — a window that places her right at the edge of Monaco availability. The owner attribution (industry consensus is Patrick Dovigi, the Canadian environmental-services billionaire who also took delivery of Bombardier’s first Global 8000 in December 2025) suggests a client comfortable with a measure of public visibility, and the boat’s pedigree makes Monaco the natural debut venue. The T-quay is essentially the only berth in Port Hercule that can take a 102-metre vessel. If she appears, that is where she will be.

Whether she does appear is the open question. Lürssen has not, as of the first week of June, confirmed Jassi for Monaco on the record. The yard’s culture is to announce these decisions late and to leave room for sea-trial findings to dictate the final answer. My working assumption is yes, on T-quay, but I will not be surprised if she stays in northern Europe through the autumn and debuts at FLIBS instead.

Feadship Faith (80m, hybrid)

The 79.95-metre Feadship Faith — a hybrid-propulsion build that I have seen at anchor in Monaco previously but which has not yet had a formal show debut — is reportedly returning to Port Hercule in September after a Mediterranean cruising programme through August. She is among the most technically interesting recent Feadships in terms of her battery-and-diesel-generator hybrid arrangement, and her presence at Monaco gives clients an opportunity to walk her with the captain and engineering team and understand the practical implications of running a hybrid 80-metre boat in current Mediterranean operating conditions. If you are weighing a hybrid order at any size above 60 metres, Faith is the boat to be on.

Benetti B.Loft 65M

The B.Loft 65M is Benetti’s new 65-metre series, introduced as a four-metre-ceiling concept aimed at clients who want loft-style interior volumes rather than the lower, more traditional ceiling heights of conventional 60-to-70-metre yachts. The first hull is expected to be on display at Monaco. The four-metre ceiling height is achieved by reducing the number of accommodation decks from the conventional three to a more open two-and-a-half-deck arrangement, which has knock-on implications for owner-and-guest privacy that are worth examining in person. I am sceptical that the concept is right for every owner; I am genuinely curious to see how Benetti has solved the privacy problem.

Sanlorenzo SX120

The 36.6-metre Sanlorenzo SX120 — the largest boat in the brand’s crossover line — debuts at the Cannes Yachting Festival from 9 to 14 September, two weeks before Monaco, and is expected to make a follow-up appearance at Monaco. The boat is notable as the world’s first installation of the Volvo Penta IPS Professional Platform on a yacht of this size, which has propulsion-redundancy and manoeuvring implications worth understanding for anyone considering a boat in the 30-to-40-metre range. Sanlorenzo’s stand on Quai des États-Unis is the boat’s natural Monaco location.

Other watch list

Heesen has at least two new builds in the 50-to-70-metre range expected at Monaco, though the boat list was not finalised at this writing. Amels is expected to display a 60-metre Limited Editions build. Admiral is bringing at least one 70-plus-metre custom. The Asian and Turkish yards (Sirena, Numarine, Bilgin) are all bringing their respective flagship 30-to-50-metre presentations to the upper basin. The full list will firm up in late August, and Boat International and Yacht Charter Fleet typically publish complete attendance manifests in the first week of September.

The structural changes to watch

Two structural shifts in the 2026 edition deserve attention beyond the boat list.

The first is the format compression. The 2026 show runs four days (Wednesday through Saturday) rather than the five-day format of earlier editions. The compression has the practical effect of concentrating the dealer-and-broker meetings into Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday and Saturday functioning more as public-facing presentation days. For anyone in the industry, the implication is that Wednesday — which is invitation-only and Sapphire Experience pass — has become the most important single day of the show, not Thursday. The boats are open, the brokers are available, the press is not yet present in full force, and the conversations are markedly more substantive.

The second is the change in admission pricing and packaging. The Sapphire Experience pass, introduced in 2022 and refined each year since, has effectively become the entry-level industry pass for anyone serious about the show. The pricing for 2026 is published at EUR 4,800 per day (Sapphire Discovery), with the multi-day Sapphire and Sapphire Ultimate at correspondingly higher tiers. The Sapphire packages provide concierge introductions to brokerages, on-boat refreshment access, and a hosted lunch programme that has become, in practice, one of the most efficient ways to compress a week of meetings into two days on the ground. For a client without a pre-existing broker relationship, the Sapphire pass is a meaningful access mechanism. For a client with one, it is a redundant expense.

Where to stay and how to navigate

The hotel question is the operational pinch point of the show every year. The Hermitage and Hôtel de Paris — the two traditional industry hotels, both owned by the Société des Bains de Mer — sell out their show-week inventory approximately fourteen months in advance, and the pricing during show week runs at roughly 3.5 to 4 times the rate of an equivalent Tuesday in early September. If you do not already have a booking, you do not have a booking, and the secondary hotels become the operative question.

My standing recommendations:

The Métropole Monte-Carlo, on Avenue de la Madone, is a five-minute walk to the Quai Antoine 1er gate and has historically held a small block of late-release inventory for industry guests. The hotel’s Joël Robuchon restaurant is the most efficient industry-dinner venue in Monaco during show week, and the bar is the operational meeting point for the brokerage community after 22:00.

The Fairmont Monte Carlo, on Avenue des Spélugues, is slightly farther from the docks (twelve-minute walk) but consistently has more inventory available, and the lobby is less of an industry-collision zone, which can be either a feature or a bug depending on what you are trying to accomplish. The rooftop pool is a useful between-meetings retreat.

The Maybourne Riviera, on the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin headland fifteen kilometres east of Monaco, is the alternative for the client who wants distance from the show buzz and is willing to commute in by helicopter or car. Helicopter shuttle from Maybourne’s helipad to Monaco Heliport takes approximately five minutes; car transfer, depending on traffic, runs twenty-five to forty minutes. The hotel’s restaurant Ceto, an Yves Henrion–led seafood programme, is a useful dinner venue away from the industry crowd.

The Métropole is what I do.

The dock geography

Port Hercule’s layout drives the entire show experience. The largest boats — anything above ninety metres — berth on the T-quay, which projects into the centre of the harbour and is approached from Quai Antoine 1er at the western end of the show. The next tier, in the seventy-to-ninety-metre range, lines Quai Antoine 1er itself. The thirty-to-seventy-metre boats sit along Quai des États-Unis on the eastern side. The smaller chase boats, tenders, and brokerage display boats are in the inner basin and along the southern walkway.

If you are walking the show, the natural circuit is to enter at the Quai Antoine 1er gate, walk the T-quay first (the largest boats are most easily seen in the cooler morning hours, before the sun is high), then work eastward along Quai Antoine 1er, cross the head of the basin at the Yacht Club de Monaco, and finish along Quai des États-Unis in the afternoon. The full circuit, walked at a reasonable pace without stopping for boardings, takes approximately ninety minutes. Walked with boardings, it can absorb a full day and not be finished.

The food question

Monaco during show week is not a place to eat well unless you plan carefully. The restaurants in the immediate show footprint (Le Pinocchio, La Note Bleue, the boats themselves) are either crushed or operating at full capacity for industry events. Reservation availability at the Hôtel de Paris’s Louis XV, Métropole’s Robuchon, and the Fairmont’s Nobu is essentially zero from approximately six weeks out.

My standing recommendations:

Lunch on a boat, by invitation from a broker or yard, is the highest-leverage two-hour window of the show. If you are offered such an invitation, accept it.

Dinner at Maya Bay, in the Fontvieille district, is the most reliable booking I have found that combines competent Thai-Japanese cooking with a quiet enough room to actually have a conversation. The restaurant is approximately a fifteen-minute walk from Port Hercule or a five-minute car.

For a single-night blowout, drive twenty minutes up the coast to La Vague d’Or in Saint-Tropez (closed Mondays, three Michelin stars, chef Arnaud Donckele) and have the kitchen lay on a longer menu. This is not a show-week dinner per se; it is the dinner you have on the Sunday night after the show closes, decompressing.

The takeaway

Monaco 2026 is, on the published evidence, a slightly larger show than 2025 was, with a heavier centre of gravity at ninety metres and above. The boats to watch are Jassi (if she appears), Faith (almost certainly), and the new Benetti B.Loft 65M (confirmed). The structural changes — four days, Wednesday invitation-only, more emphasis on Sapphire packages — favour serious industry attendees over casual visitors.

If you are coming as a client, my honest advice is: arrive Tuesday, walk the docks Wednesday morning with your broker, take Wednesday afternoon for boardings, spend Thursday on the boats you are most serious about, leave Friday morning for a quieter conversation venue (Hôtel de Paris bar, Bagatelle terrace, Yacht Club lunch), and avoid Saturday. If you are coming as an industry participant, the calculus is similar but the boat-time and the meeting-time tilt more heavily toward Wednesday. Either way, the value of the show is the conversations, not the boats themselves — the boats you can see at any number of subsequent events, but the people are concentrated in Monaco for four days and dispersed for the rest of the year.

I will be on the Métropole’s terrace from about 17:30 most days. If you are coming and want to compare notes, that is the place.

Verification

Filed against the following sources, last verified on June 2, 2026. The desk re-checks the source URLs on every dated modification of the piece.

Standing Questions

What are the exact dates and the schedule?: The show runs Wednesday 23 September through Saturday 26 September 2026. Wednesday is reserved for invitation-only and Sapphire Experience passholders; general access tickets are valid from Thursday onwards. Daily hours are 10:00 to 18:30, except Saturday closing at 18:00.
Where do you stay for the show?: Hermitage and Hôtel de Paris are the traditional industry hotels and book out 14 months in advance. Realistic alternatives are Métropole Monte-Carlo (a five-minute walk to the Quai Antoine 1er gate), Fairmont Monte Carlo (slightly farther, fewer industry collisions in the lobby), and the more recent Maybourne Riviera on the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin headland for the helicopter-in commute.
How do you actually get on board the boats?: There is no general boarding for visitors. Boats are open by appointment only, arranged through the broker representing the boat. Practically, that means you contact Edmiston, Y.CO, Camper & Nicholsons, Burgess, Fraser, or the boat's listing broker at least four to six weeks in advance and request a slot. The Sapphire Experience pass facilitates these introductions but does not guarantee any specific boarding.
What is the dress code on the docks?: Smart business casual during the day; jacket required on most boats from the late afternoon onward. The dock surface is reflective and rough on heels — flat or block-heel shoes are sensible for the morning walks.
If I only have one day at the show, what do I do?: Thursday or Friday morning, 10:00 to 14:00, walking the T-quay and Quai Antoine 1er for the larger boats, then the upper basin for the 30-to-50-metre boats. Lunch on a boat is the highest-leverage two-hour window of the show. Skip the Saturday — it is the public day and the docks are uncomfortably crowded.