The Art of Living the Sea
A Woman’s View of the Multihull World at Cannes 2026

At the Cannes Yachting Festival 2026, Monaco Woman went multihull hunting, looking for the perfect balance of elegance, emotion, freedom and just enough adrenaline.

Last week, from 8 to 13 September, Cannes once again lived to the rhythm of its Yachting Festival — and nature seemed to have decided to join the show..

After an exceptionally hot summer, a welcome breath of fresh Mediterranean air has arrived on the Côte d’Azur, bringing with it an extraordinary clarity of light. Under an intensely blue September sky, whites seem whiter, hulls sharper, sails brighter and the colours of the yachting world almost impossibly vivid.

Add sunshine, beautiful yachts, serious business discreetly conducted behind sunglasses… and enough champagne to make even naval architecture feel slightly more glamorous.

It is against this particularly brilliant Cannes backdrop that Monaco Woman decided to look at the increasingly fascinating multihull world from a different perspective. Forget, for a moment, polar diagrams, displacement figures and technical specifications. Which catamaran best understands what women actually want to experience at sea?

Perhaps the answer begins with design and with women themselves.

Meeting Isabelle Racoupeau of Berret-Racoupeau Design aboard Fountaine Pajot in Cannes was a delightful reminder that good design should never impose itself on those who live with it. Her approach could perhaps be described as tonic yet graceful: fresh, confident and elegant, but above all capable of adapting to the style, personality and character of each client.

Because a yacht should not tell its owner how to live. It should understand her.

Yacht femininity takes on another fascinating dimension through the creative vision of Marijana Radovic of m2atelier. Her interiors combine effortless elegance, cosy comfort and a natural harmony between exterior and interior spaces — the result of original ideas, rigorous research and material selection, together with the creative energy and enthusiasm that distinguish her work.

Her collaboration with Malcolm McKeon Yacht Design on the BlackCat multihull concepts translates this philosophy into generous spaces, abundant natural light and a fluid relationship with the sea — another compelling interpretation of how contemporary design can shape the multihull experience.

And then… there was temptation.

At Port Canto, Gunboat presented its new ONE HUNDRED PLUS programme of custom luxury performance super-catamarans beyond 100 feet.

Here our feminine investigation took a decidedly more mischievous turn.

Carbon beneath your feet. Sails loaded. The acceleration. The sound of water rushing past two hulls and the apparent wind beginning as a whisper before becoming something altogether more exciting.

Who ever decided yacht-ladies only wanted cushions and champagne?

Perhaps the woman at the helm would rather have both.

And perhaps this was Cannes 2026’s most fascinating message: the extraordinary diversity of yachting offers as many ways of experiencing the sea as there are people dreaming of it — with elegance and freedom, serenity or adventure, intimacy or exhilarating performance.

For us in Monaco, this has a deeper resonance. Yachting is not simply about luxury, but about maritime culture, tradition and respect for the sea — values embodied by the Yacht Club de Monaco and its Art de Vivre la Mer.

And perhaps this is the real attraction for yacht-ladies: not a predefined idea of what women should desire, but the freedom to choose the yacht that reflects their own personality, lifestyle and emotions.

So one week after Cannes, our question remains deliciously open:

Which multihull would she choose?

Perhaps the one that best understands how she wants to live the sea.

Because true luxury is not simply having more space.

It is having more ways to feel alive.

 

Enjoy even more @Cannes Yachting Festival

Edit by @Antonio Costamante

Editor @Monaco Woman