Cannes Yachting Festival 2025. Key Takeaways and Industry Insights from the Martyn Fiddler Team.

The Martyn Fiddler team was proud to attend the 48th edition of the Cannes Yachting Festival, which once again affirmed its status as Europe’s premier in water boat show. With over 100 superyachts, 55,000 visitors, 700 yachts, 640 exhibitors and more than 5.5 km of pontoons, the festival remains the definitive launchpad for the European yacht show season.  A show you certainly need to be fit for to cover the seven day event, the bustling hub of Café Roma deal negotiations and evenings packed with a calendar of events.

In this article, Ian Petts dives into the Martyn Fiddler team’s experience at the 2025 festival, highlighting standout moments and industry takeaways.

Set against the glamour of the French Riviera and Cannes Red Carpet show time and luxury boutique strip of high end brands.  The event combined world premieres, strategic dialogue and high value commercial activity. Notably, Cannes is one of the few shows where owners can conduct live sea trials during peak season in the Mediterranean and experience the performance of the yachts in the Cote D’azur French Riviera in the Bay of Cannes. With over 665 journalists in attendance, it continues to serve as a vital economic barometer ahead of the forthcoming Monaco Yacht Show, Monaco Classic week and Voiles de Saint Tropez.

Transatlantic Influence and Market Dynamics

A key theme this year was the continued strength of the U.S. market. U.S. tax incentives, particularly bonus depreciation, have driven US acquisition activity, with American brokers such as Northrop & Johnson and Denison Yachting present in force. U.S. maritime law firms, including Robert Allen Law, were also on hand to guide clients through the complexities of purchasing . Martyn Fiddler’s own Director of Tax Adrian Parcell-Jones who sits on the NBAA Tax committee, attended the show to also support US owners in their acquisition. The presence of American and South American voices at the show was demonstration of a vibrant influx of buyers into the European market.

The recent One Water Marine Denison Yachting merger announced at the show underscored the consolidation trend of brands in yachting and the robust health of the U.S. sector.

Yet Cannes remains a truly global event. Highlights included:

• Gulf Craft and Majesty Yachts representing the large Middle East builders
• Sunreef Yachts of Poland dominating the sailing segment with cutting edge catamarans
• Numarine of Turkey showcasing innovative design and build quality
• French builders such as Beneteau, Dufour, CNB and Jeanneau, presenting strong domestic fleets
• Whilst France hosted, many saw Cannes as an ‘Italian Show’ with strong presence from the Italian manufacturers and groups: Ferretti group brands, Azimut and listed San Lorenzo.
• Post Brexit; Sunseeker and Princess Yachts staged important world premieres.

Design trends continue to favour larger windows, increased natural light and enhanced sea access, pushing naval architects to balance volume, aesthetics and efficiency and facilitate a close to nature but very safe on the water experience.

Key Tax and Legal Considerations

The Festival also brought critical tax and compliance issues to the forefront:

• VAT Paid Status: Clarifying when and how a yacht retains its VAT paid designation, is the yacht really ‘VAT Paid’ being a crucial element to consider.
• Opportunities for VAT mitigation through charter, import regimes or financing arrangements.
• U.S. Ownership in Europe: ownership solutions to leverage U.S. incentives while mitigating EU sales taxes.
• Temporary Admission & Trade Use: The Isle of Man’s YETS scheme, joining that of Cayman Islands and Marshall Islands has renewed focus on trade and charter use as a VAT strategy.
• Tariff Disparities: Unlike aviation, yachting has not benefitted from U.S.– EU tariff relief and carve outs.
• Financing: Leasing and financing are increasingly used for both liquidity and VAT deferral. With owners taking yachts out of Europe for the winter to mitigate VAT on Lease payments. But the VAT status at the end of the lease an important consideration.
• Explorer Yachts: The rise of long range vessels brings complex multi-jurisdictional tax and compliance challenges.
• Super Sailers Resurgence: With high profile orders (e.g., Tom Cruise with Nautor Swan), sailing yachts are back in vogue.  With the Americas cup yachts blurring the boundaries of aviation and yachting as they push performance boundaries blending aviation tech with yachting elegance the sailing sector of the show was booming with activity and dealmaking.
• Being a French show the French Manufacturers did not disappoint on their home territory showing off innovation, French chic and class and pushing the envelope of performance, elegance and innovation.

Why Martyn Fiddler?

At Cannes, Martyn Fiddler reaffirmed its position as the trusted advisor for tax, ownership solutions and customs across both aviation and yachting. Our aviation grade precision is increasingly sought after in the yachting world, where owner clients often require integrated solutions across both asset classes. The firms hallmark of rigour and thoroughness in aviation transactions are increasingly in demand within the yachting world. With over 40 professionals each passionate and exclusively working on aviation and yacht assets, Martyn Fiddler’s focus has lead the company to report gains in market share in the last couple of years by delivering clarity, compliance and confidence.

Our team were at the show and engaged with yacht brokers, managers, yacht financiers, yacht lawyers and aviation professionals who increasingly attend the show reinforcing our cross sector expertise.

This year’s Festival highlighted several key tensions:

• Economics: Demand vs Supply: Yachting demand remains strong, driven by post-COVID wealth, U.S. market gains and lifestyle shifts. Yet supply is constrained by rising interest rates, talent shortages, tariffs, berth limitations and changing demographics. Fewer in the next generation have maritime ties and while global wealth grows, fewer billionaires choose yacht ownership. This doesn’t signal disinterest, it highlights the need for accessible entry points. That’s where this show matters: with its low entrance fee and welcoming atmosphere, it plays a vital role in engaging future yacht owners and making yachting feel more inclusive and attainable.
• Inflation Clauses: Rising costs globally and global supply chain are complicating newbuild contracts, requiring legal and accounting collaboration to manage stage payment cost adjustments.
• Sanctions & Compliance: Ongoing Russian sanctions are reshaping the top end of the market, with legal debates around ownership, definitions and control continuing. Post auction yacht status remains a grey area.
• Crew & Governance: Flag choice, payroll compliance and insurability are under scrutiny. Flags must meet Paris & Tokyo MOU and US Qualship standards while accommodating diverse crew needs and increasingly stringent technical and safety needs. Ultimately the yacht will transport the family office most important asset, its family! So safety at sea must be the over righting priority.
• Director experience. Yacht ownership is a challenge, managing a new build, commissioning, managing crew and the yacht, requires, experience, rigour and safety first discipline.  Only experienced directors can truly navigate the complexities and holistic management needed for ownership so the ultimate beneficiary owner has the time to enjoy their yacht.

At the innovation end, sustainable technologies were on display: foiling RIBs, solar catamarans and hybrid propulsion systems and hull designs and foiling inspired by aviation pointing to the future of yachting. Ultimately to optimise energy use manufacturers need to get the hull out of the water.

It’s clear that ultimately customers want access to the sea, light, performance and style. In aviation we call it ramp presence, in yachting it’s the Wow effect!

The industry is learning fast, 20 years ago the Cannes show targeted fast young wealth, but market research has shown the yacht to be a platform for an older generation to catalyse quality time with the family and therefore the market has changed. The typical owner will be buying a yacht to attract family members to spend time with him, often his children and the grand children to spend quality time together and designs are changing to facilitate the transition from inside the yacht to outside and into the water.

We also live in a unique time where a significant wealth transfer is happening moving wealth to the next generation of yacht buyers. But it’s also a challenge that new buyers want to do things differently from their parents’ generation, albeit with their parents money, they want to travel further, visit new places and that presents new challenges to builders through to tax advisors.

Yachting has been with us since the 1600’s, the design of yachts has changed since the Royal yachts first lead the trend of yachting, but the principles remain the same to catalyse best quality time on the water: as the British novelist Kenneth Grahame put it so elegantly in ‘The Wind in the Willows’. “Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

Conclusion

The Cannes Yachting Festival 2025 showcased an industry buoyed by global demand but navigating complex regulatory, economic and geopolitical waters. For owners, brokers and managers, the stakes have never been higher to structure ownership correctly, anticipate multi-jurisdictional tax and customs issues, plan financing carefully, assemble the deal team early in the acquisition and anticipate regulatory shifts.

Martyn Fiddler stand at the intersection of these challenges. Our deep expertise in tax, ownership solutions and customs, honed in aviation and now applied to yachting, we help clients navigate complexity with clarity and confidence. In a fast moving environment, our solutions offer stability and assurance.

If you’re looking to buy, sell, or own a high value asset, we’d love to start the conversation. Contact martin@martynfiddler.com and let’s explore how we can support your journey.