Since its launch in 2024, the Innovation Route has established itself as an iconic feature of the Cannes Yachting Festival, showcasing the most daring initiatives in technology and ecological transition in the nautical industry. In 2025, the show took a new step forward with the creation of the Innovation Route Awards, a unique distinction that recognizes the most promising projects among the 40 innovations selected this year.
Through these awards, the Cannes Yachting Festival aims to recognize those who are reinventing recreational boating by offering concrete solutions for more responsible, smarter, and more inspiring navigation. After a rigorous selection process by a jury of experts, four winners stand out in key categories, embodying the momentum of a sector undergoing rapid transformation.
– Improved navigation experience: WATCHKEEPER – PAN345
This intelligent system combines thermal imaging, machine vision, and artificial intelligence to detect floating objects and prevent collisions automatically. A major advance for safer, more predictable, and more secure navigation.
– Sustainable and responsible technologies: MODX 70 – SAIL035
The first 100% electric 70-foot catamaran, it combines Aeroforce inflatable wings, electric propulsion, hydrogeneration, and 70 m² of solar panels for unlimited zero-emission navigation. A technological feat that benefits the environment.
– Propulsion systems or alternative energies: M.10 – POWER073
This autonomous electro-solar catamaran produces up to 35 kWh per day, ensuring smooth, silent, and emission-free sailing, day and night. An innovative solution for carbon-free boating.
– Processes or products with low environmental impact: VAAN R5 – SAIL083
A 49-foot sailboat designed using recycled aluminum and circular materials, 95% recyclable, it embodies the Dutch shipyard’s “Sail the Planet” philosophy, combining performance and responsibility.
– Special Jury Prize: B.YOND 37M (Benetti Yachts)
This 37-meter superyacht, equipped with a hybrid propulsion system developed with Siemens Energy and an SCR system, reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 24% and NOₓ emissions by up to 85%. Its four navigation modes, including a zero-emission mode, allow access to marine protected areas while ensuring quiet comfort at anchor.
« Innovation in yachting is no longer a promise, it is a concrete reality. The winners of the first Innovation Route Awards embody this ongoing revolution: artificial intelligence, hybrid propulsion systems, recycled or circular materials are becoming the norm for safer, cleaner and ever more inspiring sailing. I would like to warmly thank the members of the jury for their expertise and commitment to this demanding selection process: Guillaume Arnaud des Lyons, Thierry Berest, Jean-Christophe Guillaumin, Geoffroy Langlade, Elena Patriarca, and Craig Ritchie. Their keen eye has helped to highlight the most visionary and promising projects for the future of boating. » — Sylvie Ernoult, Director of the Cannes Yachting Festival.
