Inside the Cannes debut of Numarine’s new explorer yacht — where Turkish yachtmaking meets Italian design, silence and the freedom of the open sea
Cannes Yachting Festival 2026 | Vieux Port, Cannes
There is a particular moment at the Cannes Yachting Festival when the harbour changes character.
The morning belongs to business: appointments, inspections, specifications and serious conversations about engines, range and delivery dates.
By afternoon, the Vieux Port becomes something more seductive.
Champagne appears. Yacht owners and potential buyers step aboard. Designers and shipyard representatives move between decks. Conversations become less about numbers and more about how people actually want to live at sea.
It was in this atmosphere that Ömer Malaz, Founder and Chairman of Numarine, presented the new Numarine 27XP— an explorer yacht created for a generation of owners who increasingly see the sea not as a destination, but as a way of life.
And there was something particularly appropriate about meeting Malaz in Cannes.
His own story with boats began early. Born and raised in Istanbul, he says his first boat came when he was six, and that he has spent much of his life cruising the Aegean and Mediterranean. He founded Numarine in 2002, transforming a personal passion for performance boating into one of Turkey’s most distinctive yacht-building stories.
Today, the company is known for explorer yachts designed to travel further — but the philosophy began with a surprisingly simple question:
What is missing when you are actually living on board?
FROM SPEED TO FREEDOM
Numarine was not originally conceived as an explorer-yacht specialist.
The early years were driven by performance: fast, lightweight motorboats designed to deliver excitement on the water.
But Malaz began to notice something changing.
Owners were looking beyond top speed.
They wanted more volume. More comfort. More autonomy. More freedom to stay at sea.
The philosophy gradually evolved from how fast can we go? to how far can we go, and how comfortably can we stay there?
That evolution eventually created the XP series — a family of explorer yachts with a distinctive combination of long-range capability, substantial interior volume and contemporary design.
Numarine itself describes the transition as a move toward explorer yachts offering greater range, comfort and style, reflecting a growing desire for autonomous long-range cruising.
The 27XP is the latest expression of that idea.
THE 27XP ARRIVES IN CANNES
At nearly 27 metres, the Numarine 27XP occupies an intriguing position.
She has the presence of a much larger yacht, but remains within a size that makes the concept of owning and operating an explorer yacht feel surprisingly approachable.
The yacht measures 26.97 metres, with a 6.90-metre beam and a displacement hull. Depending on configuration, she accommodates eight or ten guests plus four crew, with four- or five-cabin layouts. At eight knots, her published maximum range is 2,200 nautical miles.
But numbers only tell half the story.
The other half is what happens when you step aboard.
DESIGNING A LIFE, NOT JUST A YACHT
The 27XP continues Numarine’s long-standing collaboration with two names closely associated with the shipyard’s design language: naval architect Umberto Tagliavini and designer Can Yalman.
Tagliavini developed the hull, while Yalman designed the yacht inside and out.
Together, they have created something that feels unmistakably XP.
But the design story is not only about the people drawing the lines. It is also about the people shaping the philosophy behind them.
Patrik von Sydow, CEO at Numarine Yachts, represents this wider vision — one in which a yacht is considered not simply as a product, but as an environment for living, travelling and spending time together.
That philosophy becomes particularly visible in the 27XP.
There is a sense of purpose in the exterior.
The profile is powerful without becoming aggressive. The architecture is contemporary, but the yacht’s proportions are driven by function: generous volumes, practical circulation and an ability to spend extended periods away from shore.
Then comes the flybridge. And this is where the 27XP changes mood.
The expansive upper deck transforms the explorer from a machine for travelling into a place for staying.
There is room for long lunches, afternoon sun, cocktails at anchor and evenings when the only entertainment required is the horizon.
The bow offers another deliberately social environment, with a generous sunbed and forward-facing lounge designed around the experience of being at sea rather than simply moving through it.
It is an important distinction. The yacht is not asking you to choose between exploration and indulgence. It assumes you want both.
And perhaps that is where Numarine’s contemporary interpretation of the explorer yacht becomes most compelling: the journey is only part of the experience. The real luxury is having the freedom to decide how you want to live once you arrive.
THE NEW LUXURY IS SILENCE
Perhaps the most interesting innovation aboard the 27XP is not something you immediately see.
It is something you hear.
Or, more accurately, do not hear.
The yacht can be equipped with Numarine’s Mk2 Super Silent Pack, developed around a 48-volt DC architecture. The system combines a 92.8 kWh LFP battery bank with 5.6 kW of solar panels, designed to reduce generator use and enable quieter, generator-free operation at anchor.
For modern yacht owners, this is more than an engineering upgrade.
It is a lifestyle feature. Imagine anchoring in a quiet Mediterranean bay. The engines stop. The generators remain silent. The water moves against the hull.
And suddenly the most sophisticated technology on board is the technology you cannot hear.
This may be one of the clearest signs of where luxury yachting is heading: not towards more visible technology, but towards less intrusion.
CANNES: WHERE THE YACHT BECOMES A SOCIAL WORLD
At the Vieux Port, the 27XP was part of a wider Numarine presentation that included the 30XP, 37XP and 40MXP, allowing visitors to experience the evolution of the explorer family side by side. Numarine hosted the four yachts at its Pantiero berths, PAN001 and PAN101, during the 8–13 September festival.
For yacht owners and prospective buyers, this is when a yacht show becomes much more than a showroom.
You walk through a yacht. You touch the materials. You stand at the helm. You look from the master suite towards the sea. You imagine your family here. Your friends. Your next summer.
Perhaps six months from now, the same conversation will be happening somewhere between Cannes and Corsica.
That is the extraordinary psychology of the yacht show.
A technical specification becomes an imagined life.
And Numarine understands that transformation.
ÖMER MALAZ: A PERSONAL VISION AT THE HELM
Malaz remains closely connected to the product that carries his name.
Numarine’s own profile describes him as not only its founder and chairman, but also its “most loyal customer” — a revealing detail for a shipyard whose philosophy is built around extended life at sea.
His original motivation was personal: he wanted a yacht that could take his family further, provide enough space and comfort for extended cruising, and remove the compromises he had encountered on other motor yachts.
The 27XP feels like the mature version of that original dream.
Not a yacht built simply to arrive somewhere faster.
A yacht built to make being there better.
THE EXPLORER, REIMAGINED
There is something wonderfully Mediterranean about the idea behind the 27XP.
Leave Cannes. Follow the coast. Cross to Corsica. Continue towards Greece. Stay a little longer. And if the weather is perfect, perhaps change the plan completely. That is the freedom an explorer yacht promises.
The 27XP combines that sense of possibility with the increasingly sophisticated expectations of today’s luxury owner: beautiful design, generous outdoor living, long-range capability, quiet technology and interiors designed around actual human experience.
At Cannes, surrounded by champagne, sunlight and the world’s most desirable yachts, the message was clear.
The future of exploration does not necessarily look rugged. It can be elegant. It can be comfortable. It can be almost silent.
And sometimes, the greatest luxury is simply having the freedom to decide where tomorrow begins.
NUMARINE 27XP
Length: 26.97 m | Beam: 6.90 m | Guests: 8 or 10 + 4 crew | Range: 2,200 nm at 8 knots | Exterior & interior design: Can Yalman | Naval architecture: Umberto Tagliavini | Mk2 Super Silent Pack available
