Catamarans Gain Ground at MYBA Charter Show, Luxury Fleet Expands

Catamarans were not a side note in Sanremo. They were lined up on a quay that was almost entirely theirs, with more than fifteen sailing and power multihulls gathered at the 36th MYBA Charter Show, a setup that made the shift impossible to miss.

That mattered because MYBA is the season-opening event brokers use to frame summer bookings across the Mediterranean. At Portosole Marina from 27 to 30 April 2026, the show drew more than 2,000 industry professionals and put 87 yachts on display, but the multihull presence stood out for its scale and for the kind of boats on hand. This was no longer a handful of niche cats tucked into the margins. It was a meaningful slice of the charter conversation.

The lineup showed how broad the segment has become. Alongside the JFA 80 were Lagoon models including the Seventy 7 and the brand-new Eighty 2, several Sunreef 80 and 70 units, a Power 80 by Fountaine Pajot, a Bali 58, and multiple custom builds. That spread matters. It means the charter cat market is no longer locked into one look, one size band, or one kind of client. Family groups can still gravitate to the familiar Lagoon charter formula, while brokers can also sell the high-profile, ultra-large end of the market without changing categories.

The attention magnets were This Is It and Seawolf X, two exceptional multihulls that pushed the conversation well beyond standard charter cats. At more than 43 meters in length, they are helping reset what a charter multihull can be, not just in comfort but in ambition. That is the part builders and brokers cannot ignore. When a catamaran gets that large and that luxurious, it stops being a specialist option and starts looking like a serious answer to the same premium clients who would once have defaulted to a monohull superyacht.

The underlying reasons are familiar to anyone selling or chartering in the Mediterranean: more space, more stability, more comfort. But the market is proving those advantages at the top end, not just in the mid-size family charter bracket. MYBA, founded in 1984 by a group of yacht brokers, has spent more than 30 years turning the show into one of the most important fixtures on the yachting calendar, and the multihull turn at this year’s edition showed where demand is heading.

The broader fleet reinforced the point. The largest yacht mentioned in show coverage was the 85-meter Gigia, yet the multihulls still commanded attention because they were arriving in force and in variety. With Sanremo now secured through 2028 under MYBA’s agreement with PortoSole, the charter season opener is becoming an even clearer marker of where the market is headed: multihulls are moving from alternative choice to mainstream charter priority.