Yachting news, Wednesday, 4 November 2026

Maybach Ocean Club: more detail on the 155 m Beyond Horizons

BOAT International has published new details of the members' yacht that Lloyd Werft is due to deliver in 2029, with a maiden voyage that year. The membership circle would be limited to 300, with up to 72 members and guests aboard at a time. There are 30 identical suites of about 74 sq m, each with its own balcony, and six further guest cabins forward.

A 70 m support vessel will carry tenders, watercraft and logistics, along with a helicopter. Chenot is the health and wellbeing partner, and Alain Roux of The Waterside Inn will lead food and drink. The plan is to spend summers in the Mediterranean and winters in the Caribbean.

Ferretti splits its technical role into three

Matteo Cecada, Chief Technical & Operations Officer of the Ferretti Group, leaves on 1 December, and his job is being divided between three departments reporting straight to chief executive Stassi Anastassov. Marco Ricci becomes Chief Manufacturing Officer, covering yards, procurement and infrastructure. Danilo Giunchi takes research and development, and Massimiliano Amato becomes Chief Customer & Improvement Officer, responsible for quality, testing and delivery. Cecada holds no shares in the group and has signed a non-competition agreement.

Holld 76: a carbon catamaran for families with little crew

Dutch builder Holld Yachts, set up at Zwartsluis in 2024, is pitching its 23.32 m Holld 76 at families who want a fast, long-range cruiser without a large crew. Beam is 10.2 m and draught 1.45 m. She takes six to eight guests in three or four staterooms, or three plus a crew cabin, and rig and sail area are left to the owner. Construction is resin-infused carbon and epoxy. The price is €15 million, with delivery next year and Northrop & Johnson selling her.

Brokerage: Date Night and Sea Bear change hands

Italian Yacht Group has sold the 28 m Ferretti Yachts 920 Date Night, launched in 2018 and on the US market at $4.5 million. Unusually for the model she has five cabins on the lower deck, and she cruises at 26 knots on twin MTUs.

The 28.5 m Benetti Sea Bear, a 2013 Delfino 93 and the sixth of the series, has also sold. Mark Seaton of Yacht International acted for the seller and Pedro Millet of Viudes Yachts for the buyer. She sleeps nine in five cabins and cruises at about 11 knots.

Route du Rhum: Horeau breaks clear in the IMOCAs

Corentin Horeau on MACSF was the only IMOCA skipper through the trough on Tuesday, and he now leads by more than 130 miles, still making over 20 knots this morning when his nearest rivals were doing eight to ten. Boris Herrmann has climbed to second on Malizia 4, just ahead of Francesca Clapcich on 11th Hour Racing. Élodie Bonafous, third yesterday, has slipped to fifth after being caught in light airs. Armel Tripon has retired with rudder damage.

In Class40 the lead has changed again. Robin Follin on Solano is ahead on a route closer to the great circle, with Guillaume Pirouelle and Pierre Leboucher about ten miles back. Basile Bourgnon still heads the Ocean Fifties on Edenred, with three boats close behind him. Éric Péron took the Rhum Multi lead overnight from Damien Seguin, who has a broken spinnaker pole, though Péron has torn a gennaker. The Rhum Mono leaders, Tanguy Caradec, Kieran Le Borgne and Sidney Gavignet, are tightly bunched.

America's Cup: Kiwis call an early halt in a good sea breeze

Emirates Team New Zealand used day 32 of its 45-day allowance on Tuesday, sailing on the Hauraki Gulf from 09:30 to 13:14 on a flat sea, in a breeze that built from 5 to 8 knots to about 17. The programme had long speed runs and rolling prestarts, some on port tack. Recon observers called the early return a curious decision given the conditions, while suggesting the day's test script may simply have been done. A starboard foil wing had been modified over the weekend, yet no foil cameras or drone followed the boat. The allowance resets on 15 January.

44Cup opens its 20th-anniversary season in Antigua

The RC44 circuit will start 2027 with two events in Antigua, according to the island's yachting and marine association. The first runs from 27 to 31 January at Falmouth Harbour Marina, and the second from 3 to 7 March in English Harbour, with the fleet based at Nelson's Dockyard Marina. The association hopes for wider benefits to the island, and the gap of several weeks could encourage longer stays.

Golden Globe: the youngest skipper withdraws as storms hit

Louis Kerdelhué, 21, has left the Golden Globe Race on health grounds, with organisers citing significant weight loss. He had stopped at Recife on 24 October for repairs to IE Charge. Pat Lawless, who had been second, has also gone, with rig damage. Daniel Pinsky lost his wind vane in winds he put at nearly 60 knots and has been steering by hand for long periods. Damien Guillou leads, from Ertan Beskardes, and 13 of the 16 starters were still sailing. (Reported on 29 October.)

J/24 Worlds: the boat that sank and came back

Among the 38 teams from ten countries due to start racing at Sandringham on Saturday is Warren Campbell's Gatsby. Gusts of over 35 knots capsized her during a race on Port Phillip, and she sank under tow, spending about a week underwater before being found and raised. After months of repairs and insurance work her mast went back up only in mid-October, leaving the crew a handful of training days.

Atlantic low: rain from Friday, and a bigger swell to follow

The outlook reported yesterday now has more detail, although it remains an uncertain forecast rather than a warning. Meteored, using the European model, expects a cold front to bring rain back on Friday, with the North and Centre first in line. Another front may reach much of the mainland from north to south on Sunday. By Monday the centre of the low could lie off western Iberia, north-west of Portugal, with some model runs showing about 988 hPa. Further fronts may follow up to 13 November, with breaks between them.

For anyone afloat, the key point is that wind and gusts could strengthen as the low approaches, and the swell on the Portuguese coast is expected to increase markedly. The reports give no wind speeds or wave heights, and nothing specific to the Algarve, so keep an eye on IPMA's forecasts and warnings before making plans for the weekend.

Portimão asks residents and businesses about tourism to 2035

Portimão council has opened two online surveys, running from today until 13 November, as the last consultation step for its tourism strategy to 2035, which is due to be finished in February. One is for residents. The other is for businesses, and maritime-tourism operators are specifically among those invited, so marina users with a stake in the town may want to respond. Both are in Portuguese and English, and answers are confidential. Residents: inqueritos.ipdt.pt/index.php/711292. Businesses: inqueritos.ipdt.pt/index.php/293835.

Petrol found floating in the Ria Formosa

The Polícia Marítima recovered 135 jerricans holding about 2,700 litres of petrol from the water near Torre de Aires, Tavira, on Tuesday morning after an alert. The Ministério Público will look into where it came from. The fuel may be connected with drug trafficking at sea, though no link has been confirmed, either to that or to Monday's seizure of about 4,900 litres at Albufeira. Together the two finds came to some 7,600 litres in under 24 hours.

Vilamoura's busy November, and an ocean conference at Faro

We found no new Algarve racing results in the last 48 hours, but the local calendar is filling up. Vilamoura Sailing lists the Skiff Junior European Championship (49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17) from 10 to 14 November, the first round of the Algarve Dragon Winter Cup from 20 to 22 November, and opening rounds of its youth and senior Portugal Grand Prix series after that.

Closer still, the Universidade do Algarve hosts the third national Ocean Literacy Conference at its Penha campus in Faro on 6 and 7 November, the first time the event has come to the south of the country. Subjects include the blue economy and public policy on the sea.

EU court: repairs may not count as “use” for customs purposes

A General Court judgment of 21 October, Case T-383/25, may interest owners of boats from outside the EU who come in for yard work. A Swiss-resident owner trailered a sailing boat into Germany for maintenance without properly presenting it to customs, and was charged duty and import VAT. The boat went back to Switzerland once the work was done. The court held that maintenance and repair may fall outside “use” under Article 124(1)(k) of the Union Customs Code, so that a customs debt can be extinguished. The German court must still decide whether the conditions are met. The account comes from an opinion piece by Prof. Dr Christoph Schließmann, whose wider argument is that a yacht's customs status depends on its procedural history, not merely on where it lies, its flag or its owner.

ARC+ sets off from Las Palmas on Sunday

The transatlantic season is about to begin. World Cruising Club lists the start of ARC+ for Sunday 8 November, with the fleet leaving Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for Mindelo in Cabo Verde, and Noonsite reports that the opening ceremony has taken place. The finish line closes in Grenada on 9 December. The main ARC follows on 22 November, bound for Saint Lucia. The start will be broadcast from 12:30 to 13:30 UTC.

Lorient La Base plans 40% more berthing space

A €12.8 million plan by Compagnie des Ports du Morbihan would add 3.22 hectares of harbour at the Brittany offshore-racing base, nearly 40% more than today, for racing yachts, commercial boats and heritage vessels. It includes 530 m of wave-attenuating pontoons. Public consultation runs from 16 November to 16 February, and building would follow from November 2027 to July 2029, subject to approvals.

More room for a new marina at Vibo Marina, Calabria

The port authority signed two supplementary concession agreements with developer CADI on 3 November, adding 384 sq m of sea area for manoeuvring, refuelling and mooring. The revised design has six floating pontoons and a building of about 379 sq m for marina services, with a service quay and fuel system on Fiume Quay.