There's only one superyacht award judged purely by people who've owned one.
Nominations for the 2027 World Superyacht Awards are now open, closing on 31 December 2026, and for the first time in three years the ceremony is leaving Venice, Italy, for Rome in May 2027. Run by BOAT International, the awards have always leaned on that one point of difference: a judging panel made up entirely of current and former superyacht owners, rather than journalists, brokers or naval architects.
Venice hosted the black-tie ceremony for three straight years, most recently on 1 and 2 May 2026 at the Arsenale di Venezia, a naval shipyard dating to 1104 that once turned out a warship a day for the Venetian republic. According to yacht marketplace YachtBuyer, the awards have also previously been staged in London, Amsterdam and Istanbul, making Rome the latest stop on a well-travelled circuit rather than a first-ever departure from routine.
The 2026 field gives some sense of what the judging panel is weighing up when nominations open. Motor Yacht of the Year went to Feadship's 118.8-metre Breakthrough, the first superyacht built around cryogenic hydrogen fuel cells, storing liquid hydrogen at minus 253 degrees Celsius and running it through 16 fuel cells for a combined 3.2 megawatts of electricity. Sailing Yacht of the Year went to Royal Huisman's 65-metre ketch Aquarius, capable of 16 knots under sail on a rig with a 67.5-metre mainmast. A rare posthumous Legacy Award went to Singaporean industrialist Goh Cheng Liang, who died in August 2025 aged 98 and spent decades championing multihull superyacht design.
Entry is open to any motor or sailing yacht over 30 metres delivered or substantially refitted in the qualifying year, judged by a panel that has, by design, actually written the cheques themselves at some point. Whatever wins in Rome in 2027 will be judged on that same basis, not by outsiders looking in.
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