Cannes Yachting Festival 2022: Favorite Boat
First things first. A message about the Cannes Yachting Festival…
If you’re an avid boat show attendee and you have not yet attended the Cannes Yachting Festival, put it on the calendar for next September. Unlike our shows in the United States, Cannes is tucked into a bustling hospitality district, fit with world-class shopping, dining and imbibing just steps from the show’s entrance. Although I was working feverishly, I didn’t mind returning a few times during the week to enjoy the show as a retail customer.
Alternatively, Fort Lauderdale and Miami (the two main shows of the US) have prioritized capacity and variety of its exhibitors. This leads to selecting larger spaces with more parking which doesn’t usually land in the prettiest of areas. As its surrounding environment would lead on, Cannes prioritizes display quality and lifestyle surroundings for an optimal overall experience. The show completely caters to the buyer experience, and if you’re in the market, its a small price to pay for the educational value you’ll walk away with.
Content Disclaimer: Photos and videos from my reviews are purposely left raw, providing my readers the truest version of the article’s focus.
Video Tour: Scroll to the bottom for a 3-min Flash Tour of the Bluegame BG72.
Cannes Yachting Festival Favorite
Bluegame BG72
I’m thinking about the BG72 daily. The craziest thing? I thought I would hate it.
Introduction
I eat my words. Surprise, surprise.
One of our clients sent this brand to me and I (privately) hated it the moment I saw it. I thought it was a poor use of space, and because of it, a silly price point for a 70+ foot day boat. Boy, was I wrong.
The sheer size of the boat is difficult to understand from the image above. The lower aft deck is in similar size to Sanlorenzo’s popular SX76 series, albeit slightly larger. In the cockpit after walking up the stairs, guests have a large, covered space with open air, a variety of seating options, and a well-finished bar with storage. The third and final outdoor seating area in the bow features a 270° lounge and table, with a separate sun pad forward, another feature seen in SL’s SX76.
Why do I keep mentioning Sanlorenzo? Bluegame is Sanlorenzo’s entry into the dayboat market, including the BG42, BG54, BG62 and BG72. Bluegame also has a BGX series with a larger main deck enclosure and larger bow seating area, with sizes BGX60 and BGX70.
The Deck
I’m going to guess the BG72 deck has about 30% more square footage than the SX76, which highlights the priorities of the Bluegame line: Toy storage. This is an adventurous vessel. What’s more, if you don’t need or prioritize a large tender, you can outfit the deck with tons of furniture and still load three jetski’s on the stern.
The Cabin Entry
The deck entry is Bluegame’s most unique feature and EASILY my favorite part of the boat. Why is it so unique? The entry door’s location has historically been for a tender garage or the location of the engine room. The large aft platform rearranges the boat’s components to allow for this changeup, granting owners a beautiful inside/outside feel while lounging in the main salon.
Bonus: This entryway can be outfitted into a Master Cabin for those with more private or family-based use cases.
The Bow
Some build a bench with a table and call it an “expansive bow area”. Not the BG72. Like the SX76, we’ve got a space fit for 6-8 people, with multiple adjustable backrests to convert the zone from dining to sunbathing while still retaining the 6-8 person capacity. The bimini shade poles store nicely in two floor hatches at the bow tip, and the sunshade has robust stitch details and leather edges that feel just as durable as they do luxury.
The Pilot House
I’m getting superyacht vibes from this cozy helm station. Your sight-lines are immaculate, control layout superb, and the airiness caused by the sliding glass entry doors grants an owner-operator the chance to still feel connected to his/her guests.
The superyacht vibes come from the space in the pilot house. Day boats usually allot a section of the top deck for a crowded helm; something nice but no nicer than the rest of the guest components. On the Bluegame BG72, the pilot house is a focus. Plenty of space allows for guests to commune, while a secondary entryway to the lower floor lies just to port of the powerful helm station. Additional storage and refrigeration shows buyers the pilot house is “socially-intended” a place where an adventurous owner-operator can teach their children to captain, or grant their guests a moment behind the controls.
While the controls themselves don’t have much different than the rest, the third helm screen for video surveillance is a nice touch. The luxury touch of matte carbon finishes around the helm station don’t call attention to themselves either. Its a subtle show of quality where others do too much to feature it.
The Key Social Spaces
After the large aft deck, you’re left with four key social spaces: main cockpit, pilot house, bow and sport flybridge. Pictures first is the main cockpit, an area with decent seating capacity, good seating variety, and easy access to the top deck bar. The bar is outfitted well with potential for fridges, ice makers, grills, sinks, etc. Coverage is my favorite feature here, with the majority of the guest seating covered yet open, while the bow or flybridge remain areas available for open sunning.
I’d consider the flybridge to be a bonus space; not something to feature, but still a nice area to have for a fun change of pace.
The Guest Cabins
The BG72 has two cabin layouts to choose from, each with three cabins. The deciding element of each layout is whether the Master is placed at the stern entryway or the bow. A stern Master allows for a full sized VIP cabin, while the bow master leaves two guest cabins with separate twin beds. The en suite bathroom of the third cabin doubles as the day head in both formats. I was surprised by the ample headroom in the guest hallway, feeling much more like a yacht than a day boat.
The Bluegame design DNA is earthy with dark woods and black/carbon accents, yielding a masculine feel fusing Dutch and Italian nodes. Although masculine (which people may like or dislike) I appreciated the profound disconnect between top deck and guest area. I feel the dark elements do well to separate the light and airy top deck with the cabins down below, which is something rarely felt in the day boat category.
Bow Master Layout (3 cabin)
Stern Master Layout (3 cabin)
The Master
The biggest choice you’ll have is your master cabin location: stern or bow. I wasn’t able to see the stern master version, but the bow master was still an impressively outfitted cabin.
Pricing
While the pricing is generally kept private by the brand, I can share the base price is about $4,100,000 with options ranging up to $1,000,000. A well-equipped US version runs about $4,900,000. This pricing references USD/EUR rates prior to the recent decline of the EUR.
3 Minute Flash Tour
Take a quick walkthrough of the Bluegame BG72 at the 2022 Cannes Yachting Festival with Reed Nicol.
Highlighted by an expansive aft deck, the Bluegame brand is Sanlorenzo's play in the day-boat market, headlined by its 72' sport yacht.
Video Chapters
(0:17) Main Salon Entry
(0:39) Pilothouse
(1:00) Bow
(1:33) Cabins/Lower Level
(2:33) Main Salon
What Do You Think?
The Bluegame brand is the day boat entry point of the Sanlorenzo. What do you think about its construction, design and styling? Are there competitors you prefer?
Leave a comment below or email Reed for purchase assistance: Reed.Nicol@WaveYachtSales.com
