Text by: Damiano Iovino
Photos and videos by: Ann Casarin
Translation by: Steve Piccolo
This year the 27th edition of the Monaco Yacht Show brought together an exceptional concentration of superyachts, DRY explored this exhibition of outstanding marvels of the sea with Anita, our model and interviewer, who brought beauty and fashion on board.

Judging by the crowds at the Monaco Yacht Show, the big crisis is over, registering 36,400 visitors at the end of September. 8% more visitors attended the most luxurious Mediterranean yachtfest, compared to last year: Russians, Americans, Chinese, gorgeous youth and over-80s, old money and new, all standing in line on the crowded quai of Port Hercule to admire 125 yachts, the best of the floating best, along with the glamorous world gathered around them.

We’ve stepped insiede on the sophisticated new Nautor’s Swan 95 s and had a chat with Enrico Chieffi about the group’s glorious past and the next 50 years of the shipyard. You can watch the interview with Enrico Chieffi here.
We saw the new beautiful Wally Togo and we spoke with Luca Bassani Antivari about the relationship between luxury and yachting; we have a video interview for that too, here.

We were invited to climb onto Glider HS 18, a very special boat that seems borne of a pencil of some Spectre’s designer, capable of reaching the incredible speed of 96knots.

We spent some time chilling on the Azimut Grande 30 and get some thrills, feeling like Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in James Cameron’s movie “The Abyss” slipping into the “Super Yacht sub 3”, the most compact private submarine made by U-Boat Worx.


The protagonists of the 2017 edition of MYS were toys, a.k.a. all those accessories that make life on board more enjoyable for the millionaires who spend plenty of time on their megayachts. The average length of the boats at the marina was 49 meters, big enough to contain the new toys of these courageous captains. People gaped at a helicopter on the stern deck of a yacht- just one of the many toys onboard. An assortment of items to satisfy all tastes, including the above-mentioned bathyscaph, a seaplane with folding wings, a hovercraft, an underwater scooter, a vintage sailboat, a catamaran in carbon fiber and a little 4-meter dinghy with a 30,000 euro price tag (a pittance for those who spend at least 10% of the value of their boats for yearly upkeep).




A yacht representing 50 million euros of investment costs at least 5 million per year for berthing, crew and maintenance; no big deal for the High Net Worth Individuals, about 10 million lucky souls who can spend from 5 to 10 million on consumption per year, and a drop in the bucket for the top 1%, the Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, who spend from 30 million dollars up. North America, Asia and Europe are the big guns in this very exclusive club, which undoubtedly sent its envoys to examine the displays of the 450 exhibitors. We spoke about the new tendency in the world of motor superyacht to store a lot more toys than before with Aldo Manna, creator of the concept SUY (Sport Utility Yacht), the designer Fulvio De Simoni and the French shipyard Ocea. You can read about it here.
The Toys area was such a success that it will be expanded next year.



The Car Deck will also probably grow, a space for superluxury cars, where we acknowledged that the owners of those megayachts are usually “victims of the passion for beauty,” as Jean-Luc de Krahe, the marketing manager of Gentleman Car sprl, pointed out regarding one of the two Cobras that the Belgian company brought to the show. You can see our video interview here. At the Monaco Yacht show, the world of cars was well represented by 16 splendid automobiles, from classic Mercedes cabriolets reconstructed by Hemmels to the latest creation of Hoffman&Novague, the HN R200, and from Lamborghinis to Aston Martins.

Our visit to the Monaco Yacht Show couldn’t end without a ride on a boat. Thanks to Evo Yacht we could have a privileged view over Monaco’s port and the moored super boats. We also had the chance to chat with Corrado del Fanti, marketing director of Evo Yachts, about the evolution of the tender on the nautical market.

We were also lucky enough to briefly meet Lia Riva, daughter of the unforgettable creator of legendary wooden motor yachts Carlo Riva, now CEO of Monaco Boat Service, base of the famous Sarnico shipyard on the French Riviera. Here you can watch our quick encounter.



This Vanity Fair couldn’t happen, of course, without the world’s most beautiful timepieces, considering its main sponsor, Ulysse Nardin. For the occasion, the group unveiled the Marine Chronometer Annual Calendar Monaco Yacht Show (MYS), a limited edition of 100 specimens. Monte Carlo was also the first of ten stops of a round-the-world tour presenting 50 masterpieces of the collection. The samples are all one-offs produced by the sector’s leading independent operators and groups for Only Watch, a benefit auction to raise funds for research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The fundraising event will take place in Geneva on November 11th.
