M8: Prestige Yachts launches a landmark cat with space to spare

Translating that ethos into a slender 19.8-metre envelope that sleeps eight to 10 is no easy feat, says Lionel Huetz of Marc Lombard Yacht Design Group, the French studio – experienced in multihulls – that co-designed the boat after the idea was first proposed in 2018. Technical challenges aren’t surprising, considering how ambitious the yard has been with the M8. Overhead heights are all between 198 and 200 centimetres, including in the 35-square-metre owner’s cabin forward.

The M8 sits high above the water – at just over two metres between the main deck and the waterline – and the beam is 8.8 metres, but it doesn’t look boxy. “The proportions are balanced; we played a lot with the design of the side windows and the hull windows,” Garroni says, pointing to the flare of glass carving out the lower deck and the low line of glazing that runs along the deck above.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s clear that the M8 is a non-boater’s boat. For one, there’s no obvious helm station on the main deck. Instead, a sprawling lounge greets you as you walk in past a central wet bar by a sliding window. Light cascades in from all-encompassing glass and a mix of temporary fixtures, such as loose furniture from Pininfarina, and permanent ones, like a central storage unit, create a flow.

The flybridge is impressive in its own right, with dining for eight, a small sofa, L-shaped seating and a sunpad. But for my money, the standout al fresco spot is the foredeck sofa arrangement. “We were concerned it would be quite windy,” says Rosalie Le Gall, product manager at Prestige Yachts, but happily, it turns out their worries were unfounded. On a calm day in Trieste, as the M8 glides over the water, sitting in the front enclave feels serene.

At the back of the boat is an Opacmare transformer swim platform. Typically, it sits at the same level as the main deck, with stainless-steel rods and rope acting as a bulwark. At the touch of the button, it can be lowered to water level to create a swim platform, or sent even lower to collect tenders and toys. Flattened cradles can pop out of the teak to support a tender of up to 500kg.

The name M8 is a bit of a manifesto, reflecting the conviction that a yacht’s size should be judged by volume rather than length. Prestige says the 19.82-metre offers the space of a 26-metre monohull. The M, therefore, stands for multihull, and the 8 refers to the 80-foot-plus category it aspires to.

The M8 is the second model, after the 2022-launched M48, in a new series of multihulls built by Prestige Yachts at its Monfalcone facility in eastern Italy. A soon-to-be-revealed smaller iteration will be built at a facility in South West France, home of Groupe Beneteau.

The Franco-Italian crossover is a source of pride for Prestige Yachts. Garroni says he’s “Italian but with quite a French mind”. Vice president Erwin Bamps describes the blend as “integrating the savoir faire of industrial yacht building in France and the heritage of building large yachts in Italy”.

Case in point: it takes between 82 and 84 days to build one M8 unit at the Italian site, with 50 people working on the line and an efficient production that sees each unit spend 21 days at each station. The finished result is impressively versatile, with options to customise the accommodation layout or have the galley down below.

The standard configuration is four cabins in the hulls including a VIP, with the master on the main deck forward and two single crew berths even further forward in the hulls. But on the first hull, the fourth guest cabin has been scrapped, with the owner opting for a swish cinema suite instead. Evidently, the M8 has space in spades, and still some to spare.

First published in the June 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.