Cannes Boat Show always has some cool new launches, including this beauty from Oxygene

I’m a great fan of the Southampton Boat Show (see 5 Must See Powerboats at the Southampton Boat Show). It offers a huge variety of products, plus lots of UK and World launches. It’s also set in a city with an unimpeachable maritime heritage and a vast choice of evening entertainments. But if ever there was an event that would justify giving it a miss, the Cannes Boat Show (better known as the Festival de la Plaisance) is it.

Running from 10 to 15 September 2013, the Cannes show will see 450 exhibitors from 34 countries display more than 580 boats and hold more than 150 premieres. It will also attract the glittering elite of the powerboating world, not just from the big French names but also from Italy’s most exalted marques. Azimut, Pershing, Riva and Mochi will be there, as will a few high-end British builders, like Fairline, Hunton and Pearl. However, one of the most interesting new releases looks likely to come from ultra-modern Canadian builder, Oxygene Yachts…

As implied by the company name, their core idea is to create a powerboat that blends inconspicuously with the marine environment, provides its passengers with ample space and goes about its business with as modest a footprint as possible. The result of that ethos is the AIR 77, a broad-beamed catamaran with a radically uninhibited 280 square metres of internal space. Designed to be ‘modern, refined and peaceful’, you can walk from stem to stern in a straight line, passing through a 65 square metre saloon with an uninterrupted 360-degree view, courtesy of the carbon and Plexiglas superstructure.

More remarkable still, the AIR 77 also appears to favour understatement over ostentation, with simple lines, unobtrusive colours and a pair of extremely modest 260hp engines. While this deliberately limits the top speed to 20 knots, the designers claim that a 12-knot cruise will enable fuel economy of just 42 litres per hour – and with weight-saving construction, hydrojet drives, a shallow draft and a 4,000-litre fuel tank, that promises to generate a massive cruising range.

Now plainly, this whole thing comes across as rather yoga-friendly and vegetarian but in a world of spiralling fuel costs and ecological responsibility, it might just be a taste of things to come. If you decide to eschew Southampton in favour of Cannes, you should definitely check it out…