- SCIBS 2026 is shaping up as the largest edition yet, with thousands of attendees and hundreds of vessels on display at Sanctuary Cove.
- Multi-million-dollar superyacht deals are often negotiated quietly through private networks rather than public listings.
- Custom builds now include everything from onboard gyms and hidden safes to Steinway pianos installed on open flybridges.
Behind the handshakes, the NDAs, and the bustling docks of Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, multi-million dollar deals for some of the most exquisite superyachts this side of the equator are quietly being closed. Well, what else would you expect from the biggest yacht event in the Southern Hemisphere?
Now in its 37th edition, SCIBS 2026 docks in Australia’s Gold Coast from May 21-24, 2026, and this year is expected to be the biggest yet. Not just for the larger-than-life vessels that line the marina, but for the calibre of buyers they attract. More than 800 boats, 300 exhibitors, around 45,000 attendees, some of whom will slip off their shoes, step aboard something extraordinary, and never look back.
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At this end of the market, the best boats rarely reach public listings. They move through covert networks of buyers, sellers, and manufacturers; through quiet conversations between people who already know each other.
“The most significant vessel I’ve been involved with is a 133-foot Baglietto, scheduled to
arrive in Australia later this year,” Brendan Roberts, Premium Brokerage Sales for GLI Yachts, told Boss Hunting.
Ownership and pricing are, understandably, confidential, but you can imagine a delivery from one of the oldest and most prestigious yards in the world would command north of €20 million to €30 million (AU$32.8 million to AU$49.2 million) at a minimum.
“You’re dealing with one of the most respected shipyards in the world,” Brendan continued. “The pedigree, the craftsmanship, the design language, and the execution are all at an elite level. Buyers in this space aren’t just purchasing a yacht, they’re buying into provenance, reputation, and a standard that has been built over generations.”
That provenance extends to the vessel itself… but also to what’s inside it. At Maritimo – an Australian titan with more than half a century of expertise within the yacht space – Phil Candler oversees the kind of custom requests that I imagine would raise a few eyebrows outside of this opulent setting.
According to Candler, Maritimo is no stranger to fulfilling bespoke client requests. Designed and handcrafted in Australia, the yacht specialist has built an enduring reputation for delivering “fully customisable yachts that reflect the unique lifestyles and passions of their owners.”
This includes a treadmill and resistance weights installed in a converted starboard cabin, as well as hidden compartments secretly built into the boat’s walls for valued items such as luxury timepieces, jewellery, and, on one occasion, a specially designed gun safe for added security. International waters and all.
Elsewhere, Candler has seen a custom mahjong table installed directly onto a superyacht’s flybridge. Crew quarters have been expanded with extra storage, fitted with additional freezers and watermakers for long-term travel, as well as custom storage solutions for onboard beer kegs. And then there’s the one that tends to stop people mid-sentence: a modified flybridge built to accommodate an upright Steinway piano.
To appreciate what that actually involved, consider what a Steinway upright is: 132cm tall, 152cm wide, and weighing close to 300kg. That’s nearly a third of a ton of solid birch, cast iron, and tensioned steel string. This is not an object designed to move. It is certainly meant to be played across the open sea.
So getting one onto a flybridge – the superyacht’s open, elevated deck already contending with wind, salt air, sun exposure, and the constant motion of open water – required Maritimo to re-engineer the space from the floor up.
“Every yacht we build is really an extension of its owner’s lifestyle,” Candler says. In this case, that lifestyle apparently includes a classical recital somewhere off the coast of Queensland.
Which brings us back to Sanctuary Cove, where, each year, thousands of potential buyers arrive to see firsthand what’s available in Australia.
The marina, nestled in the northern Gold Coast region of Queensland, Australia, about 20 minutes from Surfers Paradise, reflects a very specific slice of Australian lifestyle culture. One where waterfront living, leisure boating, and high-end marine commerce naturally overlap.
In this end of the market, decisiveness is a competitive advantage.
Brendan Roberts, Premium Brokerage Sales GLI Yachts
“Australian buyers are some of the most practical I’ve dealt with,” Brendan revealed. “They care less about status and more about whether the boat actually works, in our conditions, for how they want to use it. Whether it’s offshore fishing or family time on the Broadwater, the expectation is simple: it has to perform. If it doesn’t, the market will find it out very quickly.”
With each passing year, the International Boat Show swells with individuals who arrive better informed and more proactive. Buyers are no longer passive observers waiting for sales conversations to begin; many come having already researched vessel specifications, compared international offerings, perhaps missed out the year before, and narrowed their preferences before stepping onto the docks.
“The show simply gives them the opportunity to step on board, compare a few options side by side, and have that final moment of clarity,” he says. “It’s less about impulse, and more about recognising the right opportunity at the right time — and being prepared to move on it.”
The future of the superyacht, it turns out, looks a lot like the best version of a life well-lived – somewhere between the open ocean and a place you never want to leave.
It’s a fitting note to end on. Beneath the Steinway pianos and the confidential Bagliettos and confidentiality clauses, this is still a market governed by something straightforward: the right boat, at the right moment, for someone who already knows exactly what they’re looking for.
They just needed to come down to the water this May to find it.
