A bold re-engineering
Palm Beach Motor Yachts had barely announced its custodianship of Wild Oats XI before pulling back the curtain on what the legendary 100-footer would become. The reveal took place during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, giving the public its first glimpse of what could well be the most sweeping reinvention in the Supermaxi's two-decade history.
For Mark Richards, the Palm Beach founder who has spent decades at Wild Oats XI's helm, this project carries both professional weight and personal meaning.
“Palm Beach XI is the ultimate team effort,” Richards says. “Every lesson we learn here flows directly into our motor-yacht range, ensuring our owners benefit from technology proven at the cutting edge of our sport.”
The refit draws on Richards' 40 years of yacht-building knowledge and pairs it with a formidable lineup of international specialists. Naval architect Juan Kouyoumdjian, known as JK, brings a portfolio shaped by America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race campaigns. McConaghy Boats contributes composite construction expertise refined across years of high-performance work. North Sails rounds out the partnership with a purpose-built sail wardrobe tailored to the yacht's new configuration.
At the heart of the redesign is a completely new appendage package, conceived to extract every last fraction of hydrodynamic performance. The keel fin and bulb have been reshaped to reduce drag and increase righting moment, while new advanced upwind daggerboards sharpen pointing ability and limit leeway when conditions become variable. C-foils have been added to the package as well, delivering lift, control, and greater stability during reaching and downwind legs at speed.
These changes position Palm Beach XI as a genuine front-runner for the upcoming 80th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The engineering serves a second purpose beyond the racecourse, too. Each component is conceived as a testing ground for Palm Beach's wider design ambitions, feeding directly into the development of the next generation of semi-foiling, fuel-efficient motor yachts.
From the racecourse to the design studio
Richards has long framed ocean racing as Palm Beach's equivalent of a Formula 1 programme, a place where concepts are stress-tested well beyond what any theoretical model can predict. The lessons gathered through Palm Beach XI's performance and maintenance are already flowing back into the brand's V-Warp® hull technology, its construction methods, and its ongoing work on weight reduction.
“This project embodies everything Palm Beach Motor Yachts stands for,” says Richards. “Innovation, discipline, and precision are the foundation of our DNA.”
That philosophy is now visible in physical form. The re-engineered Supermaxi represents Palm Beach's clearest step yet in bringing luxury boatbuilding and high-speed ocean racing into alignment.
A campaign on the world stage
When Palm Beach XI crosses the start line off Sydney Heads this December, the moment will mean more than the beginning of another Sydney Hobart Race. It will mark the opening of a two-year international campaign designed to demonstrate Palm Beach's technological capabilities and innovative spirit to audiences around the world.
The programme encompasses appearances at major regattas alongside brand activations that will connect Palm Beach owners and enthusiasts directly with the racing team. Clients will be invited into exclusive experiences built around key races, drawing a meaningful line between luxury ownership and elite competition. The approach shares a similar spirit with the updated rules governing America's Cup boats.
The initiative reflects a deliberate strategic goal: to raise Palm Beach's global profile while remaining true to the racing heritage on which the company's reputation was built.
Full circle for a skipper and brand
For Richards, there is a certain symmetry to all of this. Having guided Wild Oats XI to nine line-honours victories across two decades, he now steers the very same yacht into a new chapter, one that mirrors Palm Beach's own evolution from a boutique Australian builder into an internationally recognised innovator.
By marrying one of offshore sailing's most celebrated hulls with next-generation engineering, Palm Beach XI becomes simultaneously a competitive Supermaxi and a tangible expression of where the brand is headed.
“It’s a project that brings everything together – performance, precision, and purpose,” Richards says. “Palm Beach XI isn’t just reborn; she’s reinvented for what comes next.”
Looking ahead to December 2025
With the launch scheduled for December 2025, Palm Beach XI will take its place on the start line of the 80th Sydney Hobart as both a serious contender and a statement of intent. Whatever the result, the story is already compelling: a twenty-year-old legend reborn through design, collaboration, and the pursuit of innovation that sits at the core of Palm Beach Motor Yachts.
