6 new luxury superyachts redefining life on the water

From jet-propelled speedsters to 5,000-mile steel explorers, discover six groundbreaking luxury yacht launches redefining life on the water

The high-end motor yacht landscape is evolving faster than ever, driven by a growing appetite for expanded beach clubs, seamless indoor-outdoor living, and genuine long-range autonomy.

Modern owners are no longer forced to choose between sleek Italian styling and rugged ocean-crossing capability. Today, shipyards are delivering tailored solutions across the entire spectrum, combining megayacht-level volumes with clever, owner-centric layouts.

In this round-up of the latest luxury launches, we highlight six standout designs setting new benchmarks for life at sea. From Princess’s space-maximising super-flybridge and Pershing’s jet-propelled performance monster to Azimut’s fresh, modern redesign of the classic displacement yacht, these models represent the absolute pinnacle of contemporary naval architecture.

Princess X90

Princess has sold an impressive number of both the X95 and X80 super flybridges so it’s no surprise it is doubling down on that success with this all-new X90 model.

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We managed to gate crash the delivery trip of hull number one from a customer event on the Thames in London to Southampton, where it was being loaded onto a ship for its show debut in Cannes – and we can confirm, it’s everything you’d expect of an X-Class model and more.

The biggest innovation is at the stern, where the adoption of folding terraces on both sides of a much longer cockpit with more sociable face-to-face seating and either a glass transom or optional spa pool overlooking the sea makes for a more open, beach club vibe than the other X-class models.

To make the most of the views this offers, the usual flat sliding patio doors leading into the saloon have been replaced with a semi-circle of curved ones surrounding a free-standing circular dining table so that it feels like you’re eating al-fresco, even when the doors are closed.

There’s also a really clever galley amidships with a drop down electric bulkhead so it can be opened to create a bar for guests to sit at when owner-operated or closed for extra privacy when fully crewed.

But the big USP is the full-beam main deck owner’s cabin with an electric gullwing door leading out to the small foredeck terrace. Not only is this very big, bright and quiet for a yacht of this size but it frees up the lower deck for either three or four more ensuite guest cabins.

Two external and one internal staircase between the main and upper decks, combined with multiple side doors and generous crew quarters in the bow, ensure a very natural flow of guests and crew around the boat.

Princess X90 specifications

LOA: 88ft11in (27.11m)
BEAM: 21ft 8in (6.62m)
ENGINES: 2 x 1,900-2,200hp MAN V12
TOP SPEED: 27 knots
CONTACT: princessyachts.com

Pershing GTX90

Launched earlier this summer, Cannes was the first chance for show visitors to see the latest addition to Pershing’s GTX range of sports utility yachts. Slotting in between the GTX80 and the flagship GTX116, it features design elements from both as well as a few new ideas of its own.

Foremost among these is a fresh take on the famous GTX beach club. Instead of the usual two-tier design with a compact raised cockpit leading down to a large lower aft deck with folding terraces and a transformer platform, the GTX90 has a much bigger cockpit with the folding terraces at the same height and a smaller stern platform.

This enables guests to sit, eat and sunbathe all on the same level, while enjoying better views. It also means there’s room under the sunbed for a large enough garage to keep a tender, jet ski and two Seabobs tucked out of sight rather than cluttering up the stern platform.

Like the smaller GTX models, the 90 is a semi-wide body design, meaning the saloon covers almost the entire width of the hull, leaving only the skinniest of side decks for crew to shuffle along. Combined with a beam that’s over a metre wider than the GTX80, it makes for a really spacious interior with a big galley, dining table and optional day heads aft, and a lounge and helm area forward. Doors on both sides of this allow access to the foredeck.

The sportsbridge is also a big step up on the GTX80’s. Totalling 33m², it has room for a bigger lounge area, as well as a three-person helm and optional hard top. On the lower deck, there’s a big midships master, an unusual offset forward VIP, another good double and a twin – all ensuite. There’s also a generous crew area with two ensuite bunk cabins and a mess.

A pair of 2,200hp MAN V12s on waterjets should give the GTX90 the pace as well as the visual drama, which the smaller IPS-powered GTX model lack.

Pershing GTX90 specifications

LOA: 91ft 9in (27.97m)
BEAM: 22ft 7in (6.89m)
ENGINES: 2 x 2,200hp MAN V12
TOP SPEED: 35 knots
CONTACT: pershing-yacht.com

Azimut Magellano 27M

his third-generation Magellano motoryacht represents a remarkable departure from the models we’ve seen in the past. The Magellano line used to be about classical looking boats with a very deliberate element of vintage chic about them.

But with stellar Finnish designer, Jarkko Jämsén, responsible for the exteriors and AMDL CIRCLE & Michele De Lucchi on the interiors, the new 27M looks dramatically fresh and modern. In fact, as you look at this thing, the only element that realistically remains of the old models is the panel of horizontal wooden slats at the aft end of the superstructure and, for our money, it’s all the better for it.

The idea behind the new design is apparently to strip away all superfluous elements and allow the eye to settle on uninterrupted shape and you certainly see that in the external form. But the internal spaces also adopt that same approach.

The main deck, for instance, is conceived as a vast “loggia” over the sea – a covered exterior gallery that remains open to the air. In truth, that’s exactly what most aft cockpit designs are all about but in this case, it gets a much prettier name and a much more conscious attempt to foreground the chief elements of that, with lots of glazing, an easy flow of light, a natural interplay between inside and out, and plenty of clean, fresh wood and metal detailing.

Full-height windows in the main deck saloon are also matched to sliding side doors and very informal, low-level seating zones for an extraordinary sense of space, light and volume.

It’s all part of Azimut’s attempt to evoke a sense of Mediterranean pergolas and patios – and those huge saloon windows are mirrored by enormous windows on the lower deck. In addition to the main deck owner’s cabin, there are four cabins below, plus six bathrooms and space for three crew in two cabins.

The flybridge design looks clever too. By using a raised bow and long linear topsides, the relative height of the flybridge is reduced, making this boat look sleek and low-slung – even with the hardtop in place. And yet the flybridge itself is a really good size with lots of space for freestanding furniture aft, a wet bar and dining area in the centre and a helm with companion seating forward.

In short, this isn’t just a great looking boat. It’s also a delightfully distinctive one that will represent a very welcome upgrade over the slightly twee retro vibes of its predecessors.

Azimut Magellano 27M specifications

LOA: 85ft 11in (26.20m)
BEAM: 22ft 6in (6.85m)
ENGINES: Twin MAN 1,400-1650s
TOP SPEED: 21 knots
CONTACT: azimutyachts.com

Sirena 118

This new yacht from Turkish shipyard, Sirena Yachts, is making its world debut in Cannes as the flagship of the fleet and a frontrunner for the direction of the brand as it moves into a fresh area of the 100ft-plus superyacht segment.

At 118ft in length, one of the key elements of the design is to mix big gathering zones for large sociable parties with quieter, more intimate spaces that enable you to tuck yourself away from the throng. That’s what Sirena has done so well in the past and it’s very much echoed here.

But it aims to couple that with comfortable lines of sight and consistent headroom, wherever you happen to be on the boat.

To that end, every enclosed deck gets enormous windows, alongside artificial lighting that has been very creatively used. The aft deck also looks particularly appealing. This multi-level beach club uses an upper cockpit and a vast lower platform with a large central hydraulic platform for watersports and tender work, as well as its own dedicated fold-out terraces to expand the party zone.

At the other end of the boat, the bow space features a lovely asymmetrical seating and sunbathing area with optional Jacuzzi. There are two additional decks above that: an open flybridge with plenty of layout flexibility, and a middle deck with an open aft deck, an enclosed lounge with a dining table and bar, and a pilothouse ahead of that.

In terms of accommodation, there are six cabins in all. All the guest cabins are ensuite, but the owner gets the option of a two-level ‘loft’ suite with sea views on three sides, connecting the main deck cabin with a private lower-deck retreat that enjoys direct access to the water.

The crew’s quarters get rapid access to some far less entertaining zones, such as the engine room, mechanical spaces and service areas.

It’s designed to be a flexible platform, so in addition to the usual owner options, free-standing designer furniture and bespoke decor is also on offer.

With naval architecture by Germán Frers, the all-GRP fast-displacement hull should reach 16 knots on the standard twin MAN V12 engines.

Sirena 118 specifications

LOA: 118ft 0in (36.00m)
BEAM: 25ft 0in (7.90m)
ENGINES: Twin 1,550-1,900hp MAN V12s
TOP SPEED: 18 knots
CONTACT: sirenayachts.com

Bering 88

The Bering 88 is designed to be a comfy, highly practical long-range explorer in a relatively compact self-drive package. Built at the Bering facility in Antalya, Turkey, with a steel displacement hull and a lightweight aluminum superstructure, it adopts the same approach we’ve come to expect from Bering, with commercial-grade components, plenty of system redundancy, familiar layouts and the same core capabilities.

But as a sub-24m vessel, it brings all of that alongside simplified registration and compliance requirements, greater operational flexibility and the potential for self-drive capability.

Even so, with its extended 26.2m LOA, lofty hull sides and upright superstructure, it has the volume of a much larger yacht. In fact, 1,800ft2 of interior space, plus another 500 for crew and 500 for the technical areas provides plenty of room for 11 guests and five crew, with dedicated zones for downtime as well as work.

As you would expect, it comes with really strong ocean-crossing credentials too. With 40,000L of fuel capacity as standard and an 8.5-knot cruise burning about 60 litres per hour the theoretical cruising range (generator usage notwithstanding) is in the region of 5,000 nautical miles.

Dropping to 5 knots extends that to 15,000 miles and on long, slow passages, using one engine at a time can significantly extend that range again, while saving on maintenance, reducing engine hours and ensuring that the engine is properly loaded.

The more indulgent leisure elements are there too. In the absence of an outdoor helm, the flybridge has plenty of space for a dining station, wet bar and an aft deck covered in freestanding furniture.

Below that, the upper deck combines the bridge, skipper’s cabin and a sheltered internal sky lounge with a set of outside spaces, both forward and aft, that lend themselves very naturally to entertaining or the stowage of toys and tenders.

With its offset structure, there’s plenty of space on the main deck for a private forward owner’s cabin as well as a spacious saloon and a decent, if slightly simplistic, aft cockpit.

The main deck galley is also a good size, with usefully discrete crew routes and crew cabins tucked away in the bow with dedicated access from the forward end of the port side deck.

Bering 88 specifications

LOA: 78ft 7in (23.95m)
BEAM: 26ft 7in (8.10m)
ENGINES: Twin Cummins QSM11s
TOP SPEED: 11.4 knots
CONTACT: beringyachts.com

Sunseeker Manhattan 94

here has been a concerted effort at the Sunseeker yard to finish the new Manhattan 94 in time for the Cannes show and the latest indications are that it will be there. That’s good news because the current 95 has been a consistently strong seller for some years, and this new 94 should take it to the next level.

It does this by adopting many of the same styling cues and features as the larger 100 Yacht but in a more compact and less expensive package. The key to that is a new deck and superstructure moulding that flows down from the forward raked radar arch to the bow in a single fluid line.

As well as looking much cleaner and sleeker than the tiered levels of the 95, it means guests can walk all the way from the aft end of the flybridge to the secluded bow lounge without having to duck back inside.

Outside entertaining space features prominently throughout the design with a beach club stern incorporating a large tender garage and Sunseeker’s clever X-TEND seating, as well as a vast open flybridge and an equally big raised foredeck lounge with convivial face- to-face seating that also converts to a sunbed.

The other big benefit is that it allows for a full-beam main deck owner’s suite with the bathroom on the same level as the bedroom rather than the 95’s quirky duplex layout. That leaves space for four double or twin guest suites below deck as well as a decent crew area.

It lacks the enclosed skylounge option of the Ocean models but with a raised pilothouse freeing up the main deck and a louvred hard top providing shade to the flybridge as well as the second outdoor helm station, it ticks a lot of boxes as a Med or Caribbean-based cruiser while retaining the sleek lines that Sunseeker is famous for.

The only mystery is why they’ve decided to call it a Manhattan rather than a Yacht, in common with the smaller Manhattan 56 and 68 rather than the 76 and 88 Yachts.

Sunseeker Manhattan 94 specifications

LOA: 93ft 10in (28.6m)
BEAM: 21ft 6in (6.56m)
ENGINES: 2 x 2,000hp MTU
TOP SPEED: 26 knots
CONTACT: sunseeker.com

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