Palm Beach 2026: The Yachts That Mattered
The 2026 Palm Beach International Boat Show ran 25–29 March and brought upwards of 100 superyachts above 24 metres to the South Florida waterfront, with more than 30 exceeding 46 metres. Taken together they represented something over a billion dollars in asking inventory. That number alone makes the show the most concentrated brokerage event on the American calendar — and also the one most susceptible to noise.
Not every yacht at Palm Beach rewards serious attention. Many are competent, well-maintained vessels that tell you nothing new about where the market is going. A smaller number say something worth hearing about construction philosophy, layout thinking, or what owners are actually asking of their vessels in 2026. The following is ADY’s read on that smaller number.
Rocinante — 78.4m Lürssen, 2008 / 2024 refit
Rocinante arrived as the show’s largest exhibit and, more usefully, as one of the cleaner examples of what a serious refit can do to a Lürssen of this vintage. Delivered in 2008 to an Espen Oeino exterior design with Alberto Pinto interiors, she returned to the German yard for a ten-month programme completed in 2024 that addressed the bridge, the full exterior paint, and significant works across mechanical and guest systems.
What the refit did not attempt was cosmetic reinvention. The Alberto Pinto interior was preserved rather than replaced — a decision that reflects both the quality of the original fit-out and a mature understanding of what dated quickly versus what has not. The result is a vessel that presents convincingly as current without the slightly anonymous quality that can come from a wholesale redesign.
Operationally, the standouts are the onboard hospital — a facility that goes considerably beyond the standard first-aid provision on yachts this size — a certified helideck, and a diving centre organised for regular expedition use rather than occasional guest activity. The lengthy sundeck carries both a jetstream pool and a jacuzzi; the lower deck wellness suite runs to a hammam, massage room, and beauty salon. At 78.4 metres with a 2024 systems refit behind her, the asking price of €88.5 million positions her well below the cost of a comparable new build.
Boardwalk — 76.5m Feadship, 2021 / 2025 refit
Boardwalk is the show’s second-largest yacht and arguably its most interesting in terms of what it says about entertainment-focused brief. The Tilman Fertitta commission, delivered by Feadship in 2021 to De Voogt naval architecture and Amy Halffman interiors, is making its first boat show appearance despite four years of service — an unusual gap that reflects an owner with little interest in the market until now.
The entertainment infrastructure is demonstrably serious: six bars distributed across the vessel, a 120-bottle wine cellar, and a sundeck pool finished in six-metre mosaic tile alongside an adjoining hot tub. The Halffman interior uses lighter tones and tactile textured surfaces throughout — an approach that reads as residential rather than showpiece, and which photographs less dramatically than it lives. The 2025 refit was light — systems updates and upholstery work — which suggests the underlying build quality left little heavy lifting to do.
Range is listed at 5,000 nautical miles; the steel hull and aluminium superstructure are standard Feadship construction for this size. The asking figure of €149 million at first boat show appearance reflects both the condition and the build provenance.
Kensho — 74.85m Admiral, 2022
Kensho is the show’s most technically coherent argument for diesel-electric propulsion in the 70-metre-plus range. Built by Admiral (The Italian Sea Group) and delivered in 2022, she carries a 2,850kW propulsion system based on five variable-speed generators totalling 3.5MW and a pair of Veth azimuth drives connected to permanent-magnet Danfoss motors. The system switches between generator configurations based on real-time load demand, covering hotel services and propulsion from the same energy pool without the fixed overhead of a conventional twin-shaft arrangement.
The practical consequence is a cruising range of 4,500 nautical miles at 13.6 knots with noticeably reduced mechanical noise — particularly relevant at anchor, where generator management on a vessel accommodating 16 guests across eight cabins is a daily operational consideration.
Azure Yacht Design produced the exterior; Jouin Manku the interiors. The custom metallic blue-green hull colour is striking in the flesh and has the quality of a considered decision rather than a distinguishing affectation. Kensho won Motor Yacht of the Year at the 2023 World Superyacht Awards. The asking price is €124.5 million.
Amor à Vida — 67.55m CRN, 2025
CRN’s newest delivery is making its global debut at Palm Beach. Designed by Nuvolari Lenard — who handled both exterior and interior layout — and built on a full custom steel-and-aluminium displacement hull, Amor à Vida is notable primarily for being the first CRN hull to carry a hybrid propulsion system.
The Siemens Energy hybrid package integrates PTI and PTO functions on the main engines alongside a 400kWh battery bank. In practice this provides up to three hours of silent manoeuvring or dynamic positioning without running generators, and up to twelve hours of hotel load on battery alone. For a 67-metre vessel with 12 guests accommodated across seven suites, the latter figure is significant: it changes the noise and vibration picture at anchor, and reduces fuel burn on short coastal passages where main engine efficiency is lowest.
Six-deck layout with a defined beach club and crow’s nest cinema. The informal interior language — Nuvolari Lenard’s brief emphasised “quieter living” — translates to a vessel that reads more like a well-considered private home than a platform for guest rotation. At 1,450 GT it sits just inside the commercial operator threshold that changes operational and certification requirements for charter use.
Zenji — 56m Perini Navi, 2004 / 2025 refit
Zenji is the show’s largest sailing exhibit, and the one that makes the clearest case for what a properly maintained ketch of this size can still offer. Built by Perini Navi to Ron Holland naval architecture, she has been in continuous use for over two decades and arrived at Palm Beach following a 2025 refit. The Holland design prioritised sailing performance without the compromises in guest accommodation that typically accompany that priority: beam and interior volume are closer to a motor yacht of comparable LOA than to the lean profile of a racing-influenced hull.
For charterers or buyers operating in sailing-capable itineraries — the Aegean, the Caribbean, the eastern Atlantic — Zenji represents a configuration that is genuinely rare at this size: a vessel that will sail in 15 knots of breeze without drama and accommodate 12 guests in conditions that do not require apology. Under power, range is 4,000 nautical miles. The 2025 refit addressed cosmetics and systems without attempting to alter the fundamental character of the hull, which would have been the wrong call.
What the Show Read as Trends
A few things were consistent across the yachts that merited attention at Palm Beach this year.
Hybrid and diesel-electric propulsion appeared on multiple new deliveries, not as a marketing posture but as a resolved engineering choice. Kensho and Amor à Vida both carry systems from established suppliers — Veth, Siemens Energy — rather than experimental packages, which matters for maintenance planning and parts availability in ports where specialist service is limited.
Refit quality, rather than refit novelty, separated the interesting brokerage stock from the undifferentiated. Rocinante is the clearest example: the 2024 programme added operational capability without attempting to disguise the vessel’s age. Rock.It, the 60.4m Feadship delivered in 2014 with Sinot Exclusive Yacht Design interiors in flame mahogany and backlit white onyx, was similarly notable for a refit that refreshed systems and finishes without touching the interior character that made the boat distinctive in the first place.
The volume of inventory with 5,000-nautical-mile range capacity was striking. At the 60-to-78-metre scale, extended-range figures are appearing in specifications with a frequency that reflects genuine owner demand — the ability to transit the Atlantic without a fuel stop, or to run an extended Pacific or Indian Ocean programme, is being specified at build rather than added in refit. That shift, if it continues, has implications for the charter market in destinations that have historically required more logistically complex fleet positioning.
Palm Beach closes on Sunday. The next major concentration of brokerage inventory is Monaco in September.
