Merry Christmas, dear readers! I hope you all have had a smooth, relaxing and calm holiday season and you have been granted with some precious time with your families and loved ones. Now, “between the years” as we say here in Germany, some of you may work a bit, some may have a well-deserved week off. Boat professionals and people affiliated with the boating industry – at least here in Europe – find themselves traditionally in the busiest time of the year: Duesseldorf is calling!
There are so many boat shows per year, with Cannes Yachting Festival certainly the most glamorous and nicest in terms of weather and location, Genoa, La Rochelle and even Paris (after three years off, the French capital saw its first boat show revived a few weeks ago again) will follow suit. But Duesseldorf still remains the largest and most important show of the year. Showcasing not only what the whole watersports industry is capable of, but also setting the tone for the upcoming sales season.
So, is it worth to travel to Germany? What will be shown in terms of sailing yachts and sailboats this year? Traditionally, I select a fleet of interesting sailboats which will be presented and set up a “to see”-list which I will work through – and later in February till March present to you, dearest readers, in detailed walkthroughs. Although I am sure I will certainly set up a nice collection of at least 8 to 10 such articles for the upcoming edition of Boot Duesseldorf as well, the outlook is a bit … meager, to be honest. 2026 will definitely not be a grandiose fireworks of world premieres, that´s for sure.
Not all too many new boats
A good indicator is a look onto the “interactive hallplan” on Boot´s website. For sailors seeking to look at them sailboats, hall 16 and partially hall 15 are the most interesting locations to zoom into. Secondly, social media and online communications by the different brands is also a good indicator of what´s going to happen. Having crawled through the hall-plans and looked at the partition of the exhibition into the different booths, I can clearly observe a few things. First of all I am very happy that the two major German shipyards/brands are back on display: Hanse Yachts and Bavaria will show at least four boats each and that is a good thing after their absence did not really send a good message into the market. I can also see that most of the major big and major small brands are exhibiting, although many (still) didn´t return to the show. Oyster Yachts for example will be missed dearly again.
A bit disappointing is hall 15 which usually contained the very small brands. Not all too many this year though, and many familiar brands missing. Instead, I see a stand for the German military. Well. That´s the new reality, I suppose. There are also huge displays of the different sailing classes (which is good for the clubs and future sailors). Why the boat show organizers “punished” Bavaria to be in this hall and not in the 16 after their return to the show is a strange thing, it happened to Hanse as well a year ago. Anyway, which boats have I identified worth taking a closer look onto?
Saffier SE 28 Leopard
Let´s start small. The Dutch boatbuilder Saffier Yachts seems to be re-inventing themselves. The extremely futuristic SE-line draws a lot of (deserved) attention. Last year, or shall I say “this” year because it was the Boot edition of January 2025, I´ve looked at their new flagship, the Saffier SL 46, the “sailing living room from the future”, as I dubbed it, and it presented a very interesting mix of how these guys would interpret cruising and recreational sailing. In 2026, the shipyard has the other end of the product palette, the small 28 footer: A true world premiere.
Judging by the pictures, the SE 28 Leopard stays true to the sharp, aggressive and futuristic lines of the bigger sister. “A bold daysailer”, as they call it. I can see many borrowings from their “Elegance”-line, with the smallest Saffier 24 Lite being the most similar in terms of hull design, showing a “wave piercer”-style negative bow and sleek lines. So, that´s really one interesting small boat I´d like to see. Speaking of small boats, it´s the Sunbeam 29.1 GT I have also on my list. The slightly smaller sister of the – really very, very bold! – Sunbeam 32.1 now comes in her GT-version with a fixed keel and lots of weight saving, which makes this boat worth a thorough look as well.
Beneteau First 60
I know, I know, I am biased as an ex-dealer for Beneteau yachts, but the guys from the Vendée really have one of the very few real world premieres this time. The new flagship of their performance line “First” will be shown at the Rhine, and I am excited. There aren´t any drawings nor rendering as of today, which may be because of the fact that the boat has been developed and build “on the fly” with great efforts. As you may have heard and read, Beneteau´s reaction to the stalling boat market was to speed up new boat insertions into the market, cashing in on the inability or paralysis of other brands. Anyway, the First 60 will be absolutely worth to look at. Why?
You may have read my various articles dealing with my sailing experiences with the Oceanis Yacht 60. This cruiser is an absolutely stunning yacht, both from a luxury-standpoint and as a sailboat. That said, rewind a few years when Beneteau launched the then-new First 53. Remember? It turned out that they took the First´s hull, put on a completely new cruising-optimized deck and a more cruiser-like interior: Voila, the Oceanis Yacht 54 was born. Same way round today: They took the very potent hull of the Oceanis Yacht 60 and designed a performance-optimized deck (and possibly also a special interior). Here we go: First 60! I am really looking forward to check out this one. One thing is for sure, she will sail like hell. For the rest … let´s wait for January.
CNB 62
Let´s stay big for a while. I am very happy to see that luxury brand CNB is returning with a real yacht to the show! After Solaris took over the brand and transferred production from Bordeaux to Monfalcone, utilizing the old production facilities of Monte Carlo Yachts, the story of this traditional luxury brands appeared a bit weird to me: Why would Solaris, a luxury brand themselves, invest in a semi-custom high-class brand like CNB with so few units built per year? Also, after transfer, nothing really exciting happened: As it seems, types and models of boats built didn´t change at all. At least I cannot see any differences.
Now the “new” CNB 62 will be on display in Duesseldorf and I am really excited to get aboard. I have done a detailed walkthrough of the CNB 66 in 2018 which looks like a slightly bigger version of the 62 we will be seeing in a few weeks. This yacht is a new design by Briand and Piaton. She looks like the old, familiar CNBs I love so much and it will be very interesting to see what, if it did, changed when the “B” in CNB changed from Bordeaux in France to Monfalcone in Italy.
Dufour 48
This may come as a surprise, right? Why Dufour? Well, there´s a little backstory to this, let´s say “revived” interest in this brand of La Rochelle. I finished a job for one of the big used boat online platforms a few weeks ago. My task was to write summary-articles characterizing each boat of the current fleets of the major series production companies. In this respect, Dufour Yachts must not be missed of course. Personally I have lost most of my interest in these boats after acknowledging that the shipyard more and more changed from comparatively agile and performant sailing yachts to bulky, voluptuous charter-market optimized cruisers.
But honestly, after doing my research and really diving deep into the past 10 years of Dufour´s product history, which is mostly the work of Umberto Felci, a designer I appreciate personally very much, I had to change my mind. Partially at least. As the transition of the boat´s designs absolutely made sense, making me understand that strategy better, another factor became interesting: The work of interior designer Luca Ardizio. Step by step his interiors for each new Dufour he worked on became more and more interesting. New approaches, new forms, new solutions. I know Luca from his work in the then-new Oceanis 40.1, but it seems that his true talent and potential was set free only when he left the shipyard, founded his own design-studio and worked with Umberto on the new Dufours. So, I´m really looking forward to explore – maybe together with him? – this fantastic work in the Dufour 48. You may also look forward to this article as it will show a fresh and at times bold new approach to series production interiors.
Hanse 360
Albeit not a brand new boat, this smallest of the Hanse-lineup is really an interesting boat for me. In May I was hired by the shipyard to write the copytext and headlines for the brochure surrounding the inception of the performance-version spin-off of this boat, the Hanse 360 ST. For this job I had to thoroughly work myself into this boat in order to know what I am talking about, and it seems as if Hanse came up with a pretty neat, agile sailing mid-size cruising yacht.
You maybe remember me being puzzled and excited, maybe also a bit in a state of shock, when Hanse unveiled their then-brand new 460 during Cannes Yachting Festival 2022. I called it the “Paukenschlag-Boat” as it indeed came as a total surprise: No more dusty Judel/Vrolijk-designs, but fresh and bold lines by Berret-Racoupeau! A “French”-style sailing yacht that at the same time respected the “German” qualities and heritage of the brand. Also the interior, which was modern and – for a series mass-produced boat – very nicely done. So: How can Hanse transfer these things onto one of their smallest models? 36 feet is a sweet spot for newbies, but also for Baltic Sea and coastal cruising-skippers as well as for people sailing on a budget.
A good sign? Three catamarans!
I am a monohull-guy, and you know it. Nevertheless I frequently feature the boats on two and also on three hulls as well. As it seems, there is good news for cat-aficionados in 2026. No less than three cats will apparently be on display, which is a good sign. Excess will be showing the big 13, Lagoon has their new 38 on display and as it seems, Bali shows a Catsmart. It´s not the boats which excite me, it´s the message behind them.
See, Boot Duesseldorf is one of the most expensive events for the boating industry. Not only are the prices for the booths very high, the whole logistics around this how is a nightmare: Boats for Cannes, La Rochelle or Genoa can easily be brought there by simply sailing them over. Duesseldorf is located in the middle of Germany. Which is essentially the center of Europe. Bringing yachts here require heavy road trucks or steaming the boats upriver the Rhine from Amsterdam. Either way, most if not all exhibitors tell me that Boot is by far the biggest expenditure in their marketing budgets. Now imagine bringing a catamaran here: No overland transport possible! So these things have to go by ship to Amsterdam and the either on a barge or my their own engines to Duesseldorf. The fact alone that three shipyards decided to take on all of this strain is a good sign! Both for the importance and relevance of this boat show and for the current state of the market itself.
“Like a plucked chicken …”
Which brings us to the last chapter of this article: How is the boating industry performing? How is the market developing? Are we still in a crisis or is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Well … cosi, cosi, as my Sicilian fiancé would say. I feel like there are a lot of positive signs all over the market which indicate that something positive is happening. The crazy increase rate of boat prices has stopped, which is the most important I would say. Also, many boatbuilders have brought up new models and indeed also smaller boats are among them. For example, Allures Yachting announced that they resumed the building of their 40.9. Up to now it made no sense to build those.
Beneteau showed with their brand new Oceanis 47 and 52 that they can not only launch new models, but also step up significantly in (interior) building quality and at the same time effectively lowering at least the base prices for these boats! So that´s a good thing, I would say. Talking to people within the business, as well as with boat owners, it seems that at least people are increasingly start to talk about projects, their dreams and boats to buy. Has this new positivity arrived in sales yet? No.
Sales are still low, as I understand. There is quite some movement in the market, because you will always find people who buy yachts – in times of crisis this is more bigger and luxurious boats. So these people keep companies up and running. Also, a number of “crazy” people are still investing in medium and smaller-sized boats, which is a good thing. But overall, turnovers are down 50 percent on average, as people tell me. And I assume the shipyards are adjusting to that. Shrinking both production capacities and workforce, maybe also the lineup of products they offer. It´s still a long, long way to go to reach pre-Covid thresholds. If this is even possible. By looking at the “interactive hallplan” you can easily see it: Still so many free spots, wider walkways, “strange exhibitors” to fill gaps … but at least the plan doesn´t look all too much like a plucked chicken.
Focus on boat equipment
I am pretty confident that the 2026 edition of Boot Duesseldorf will be a good show. If you cannot come and attend yourself you can surely look forward to find a number of interesting articles here on NO FRILLS SAILING after the show: Sailing yachts for sure, but this year I will also add another new category to my reports. Boat equipment. As you may know, my own new boat will be finally finished in the shed and as such I need a lot of stuff to being fitted. I´ve already started to report on the high-class clamps, the no-mix toilet or the custom made Diesel-tank. But the list of things to acquire is still very long.
The whole question of secondary energy production isn´t solved: Fuel cell or solar? Whilst the standard upwind sails are set, I haven´t made a decision for the light wind-setup, where Oxley is a product I want to thoroughly check. Boot Duesseldorf is a Mecca for acquiring boat equipment: From A, like antifouling to Z, like … well, I don´t know. But you know what I mean, right?
So, if you happen to be in Duesseldorf from January 17th till 25th, please drop by the Beneteau sailboat stand in hall 16 to say hello. I will be working there. If you do not make it to the Rhine, be sure to sign onto the newsletter and not to miss any more articles. See you in a few weeks, folks!
You may also like to check out these related articles:
All Duesseldorf boat shows dating back to 2017
About the boat market, interview with J.F. Lair in 2024
How it all began: Covid and the boating industry
