There are moments in yacht design when restraint speaks louder than spectacle, when a single hull entering the water carries the weight of decades of tradition and the promise of something entirely new. On 10 July 2026, in the quiet Italian coastal town of Ameglia, one such moment arrived. Sanlorenzo launched SHE, the first unit of its new Sanlorenzo Heritage model, into the water, beginning a chapter the Italian shipyard has been deliberately writing for some time.
SHE will make her world première at the Cannes Yachting Festival, running from 8 to 13 September 2026, and her arrival on the international stage is already generating considerable anticipation. The first five units have been secured by future owners ahead of the yacht’s global launch, a signal of confidence in a concept that has not yet been formally unveiled to the world. In the rarefied world of luxury yachting, where decisions of this magnitude are rarely made lightly, that fact alone says everything.
A Return To Enduring Principles
To understand what SHE is, it helps to understand what Sanlorenzo has always stood for. Founded in 1958, the Italian shipyard has spent more than six decades crafting custom-made motoryachts and superyachts that unite refined design, advanced engineering and a deep commitment to Italian craftsmanship. Today, as the world’s leading mono-brand builder of yachts over 24 metres, Sanlorenzo holds a position in the market that few rivals can challenge, not through volume, but through an unwavering sense of identity.
SHE emerges from that identity with both confidence and clarity. The name itself, an acronym for Sanlorenzo Heritage, carries intention. This is not a yacht conceived as a trend exercise or a response to market fashion. It is a considered reinterpretation of the classic Italian navetta form, the elegant displacement hull silhouette that characterised the great pleasure craft of the 1960s. That era produced yachts of extraordinary proportion and balance, vessels that looked as though they belonged on the water rather than merely floating upon it. SHE sets out to recapture that spirit, filtered through the lens of contemporary design and engineering.
The exteriors have been entrusted to Zuccon International Project, a long-standing Sanlorenzo collaborator responsible for the exterior design of the shipyard’s entire range. The interiors are the work of Piero Lissoni and Lissoni & Partners, whose involvement with Sanlorenzo has consistently produced spaces that feel both architecturally rigorous and deeply liveable. Together, these two studios have approached SHE as a coherent statement of values: proportion, balance, simplicity and an unbroken dialogue between inside and outside.
Design Philosophy: Where Heritage Meets Contemporary Living
What distinguishes SHE from other recent launches in the luxury yacht sector is not any single feature, but a governing sensibility. The yacht is designed for owners who value substance over spectacle, a disposition that increasingly resonates in a market where appetite for quiet, confident luxury is growing.
The continuous connections between interior and exterior spaces are central to the onboard experience. Considered volumes and a deliberate emphasis on life aboard rather than architectural showmanship create an environment that feels both deeply familiar and unmistakably of its time. There is a warmth to this approach, a sense that the yacht has been designed around human experience rather than around the photograph. Experienced yachtspeople recognise that distinction immediately.
The reference point of the 1960s navetta is not merely aesthetic. Those vessels were built to a scale and proportion that prioritised seakeeping, comfort and longevity over sheer performance figures. SHE inherits that philosophy. Its design lines convey a quiet authority, the kind that does not need to announce itself, because it is immediately apparent to anyone who knows what to look for.
Sanlorenzo describes this approach as its “Tomorrow’s Timeless” philosophy, a phrase that neatly captures the productive tension at the heart of SHE’s conception. The yacht looks back in order to move forward, drawing on enduring design principles while embracing the very latest in propulsion and engineering technology. This same tension between heritage and the contemporary defines much of the most compelling luxury design today — much as Bugatti’s W16 Mistral Blanc Éternel demonstrates in the automotive world, where classical craft traditions meet cutting-edge engineering.
Innovation Below The Waterline: Volvo Penta IPS Hybrid
One of the most significant technical developments associated with SHE is the introduction of Volvo Penta’s IPS Hybrid propulsion system. The integration of hybrid technology into a vessel that draws so consciously on classical aesthetics is not a contradiction. It is entirely consistent with Sanlorenzo’s broader trajectory.
The shipyard has been among the most committed voices in the superyacht industry on the subject of sustainable propulsion. Its “Road to 2030” strategy encompasses pioneering work in low-impact technologies, from green methanol fuel cells to hydrogen-powered vessels developed in partnership with major engineering groups. The Volvo Penta IPS Hybrid system aboard SHE is the latest expression of this commitment, bringing hybrid efficiency to a model range that spans 24 to 74 metres and demonstrating that heritage and innovation are natural allies, not opposing forces.
For prospective owners, the practical benefits are significant. IPS Hybrid propulsion reduces fuel consumption and emissions while delivering a smoother, quieter onboard experience, qualities that fit perfectly with the unhurried, contemplative character SHE was built to have. The reduced acoustic footprint, the ability to operate in electric mode in sensitive coastal and marine environments: these are not marginal improvements. They represent a meaningful shift in what day-to-day ownership of a yacht like SHE can feel like.
Massimo Perotti: The Vision Behind The Vessel
For Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo, SHE is a personal as well as a professional statement. Since taking ownership and leadership of the shipyard in 2005, Perotti has guided Sanlorenzo through a period of extraordinary growth, expanding its portfolio, its production capacity and its global prestige, and overseeing the company’s listing on the Euronext STAR Milan in 2019. Throughout that journey, a consistent philosophy has been at work: that true luxury is not defined by scale or spectacle, but by the quality of thought, craft and intention that goes into what is made.
“Innovation rooted in respect for tradition, SHE demonstrates how the most enduring ideas continue to inspire when reinterpreted with a clear and conscious intent,” Perotti said.
“Echoing the elegance and balance of the classic navetta through contemporary design and cutting-edge technologies, SHE embodies our belief that true luxury is not measured by trends, but by its ability to endure and remain relevant over time. This is the essence of Sanlorenzo.”
Those words carry a weight that goes beyond the launch of a single model. Perotti is reading something real in the market: the most discerning owners are increasingly drawn not to the newest or the largest, but to the most considered. Five units committed before the yacht has been publicly unveiled suggests he is reading it correctly.
Cannes 2026: A Stage Worthy Of The Début
The Cannes Yachting Festival has long been one of the most significant dates in the international boating calendar, and the choice of Cannes as the venue for SHE’s world première is entirely fitting. The French Riviera has its own relationship with the aesthetic of the Italian navetta. Those elegant hulls have graced these waters for decades, their profiles as much a part of the Mediterranean summer as the light itself.
Running from 8 to 13 September 2026, the festival will give Sanlorenzo the platform to introduce SHE to an international audience of owners, enthusiasts and industry figures. The yacht will be presented as part of a portfolio that now spans from 24 to 74 metres, across both composite and metal construction, across six specialist shipyards in Italy. It is a range of extraordinary breadth, and SHE adds a dimension to it that has not existed before: a model that speaks directly and unapologetically to the heritage at the heart of what Sanlorenzo is.
The Broader Sanlorenzo Universe
SHE does not arrive in isolation. It is part of a sustained period of creative and commercial momentum at Sanlorenzo that has produced a series of defining milestones: the delivery of the first 50Steel superyacht equipped with an onboard fuel cell system, the launch of hydrogen-powered Bluegame tenders for the 2024 America’s Cup, the acquisition of Nautor Swan, one of sailing’s most storied names, and the launch of the 74Steel flagship, the largest yacht ever built by the yard.
The Group’s cultural ambitions are equally notable. Through Fondazione Sanlorenzo and Sanlorenzo Arts, the shipyard has deepened its engagement with art, design and craftsmanship as expressions of the same values that inform its yacht building. The opening of Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice was a particularly resonant moment: a permanent platform for culture and dialogue in one of the world’s great cities of art and craft. In 2026, Casa Sanlorenzo hosts a full-year cultural programme that reinforces this commitment and positions the brand as something richer than a manufacturer — a genuine participant in the broader conversation about beauty, endurance and the things worth making well, a conversation also being had in spaces such as RH London The Gallery in Mayfair, where design and craft are equally elevated to the level of art.
A Yacht For Those Who Know
There is a particular type of luxury that does not announce itself. It is present in the weight of a well-made object, in the proportion of a room, in the silence of a well-tuned engine at low speed on open water. SHE is designed for owners who recognise that quality, who have moved beyond the need for external validation and arrived at the quieter, more demanding territory of personal conviction.
Sanlorenzo has always built yachts for that kind of owner. With SHE, the shipyard makes that intention more explicit than ever before, giving it a name, a form and a philosophy that are entirely its own. The first unit is in the water. Five owners have already committed. The world will see her in Cannes in September.
Some yachts are built to impress. SHE is built to endure.
SHE will make its world première at the Cannes Yachting Festival, 8 to 13 September 2026.
