Yacht Charter French Riviera Expands Fleet to 165 Vessels for 2026 Season

Yacht Charter French Riviera put 165 vessels into its Côte d'Azur booking system on March 31, opening the 2026 season six weeks before the 79th Cannes Film Festival locks out prime anchorage slots on May 12. The fleet spans 9 metres to 120 metres across five operating zones: Monaco, Saint-Tropez, Nice, Antibes, and Cannes.

For anyone targeting a catamaran charter during Film Festival week, that six-week window is essentially the entire useful booking runway. Once Film Festival berths are committed, well-positioned day-charter catamarans and weekend slots near Saint-Tropez and Antibes tend to disappear until late summer. The festival closes May 23, but the cascade of committed bookings typically extends well beyond it.

Company representative Oleksii Tymofeiev described private charter as the preferred way for many travelers to experience the French Riviera, and the 165-vessel portfolio supports that positioning across a wide range of use cases: one-day sunset sails, multi-day itineraries, corporate group charters, weddings, and bachelorette parties. The 9-to-120-metre range means a single platform is now handling vessel categories that rarely share an inventory, from a 9-metre catamaran on a Nice day sail to a 120-metre superyacht running a Monaco corporate event.

Bookings move through an online request-and-deposit system: submit a request, confirm via preferred contact channel, pay an initial deposit to secure the date. That deposit step is where availability windows get decided. On the Côte d'Azur in high season, the gap between checking availability and losing a specific boat can close in days, not weeks.

For catamaran owners with vessels listed in this expanded fleet, centralized inventory creates more efficient revenue management across peak weeks, but a 165-boat pool also raises the baseline standard for vessel presentation and guest experience. Boats that stand out on specification and photos get committed first.

The Cannes Film Festival closes May 23. After that, the next pressure point on the Riviera calendar is the full summer season.